The rate of population growth is identified by Agenda 21 as one of the crucial elements affecting long-term sustainability. This issue can impact the land degradation process in different ways.
Rapid population growth can place a strain on a country's capacity for handling a wide range of issues of economic, social, and environmental significance, particularly when rapid population growth occurs in conjunction with poverty and lack of access to resources, or unsustainable patterns of production and consumption, or in ecologically vulnerable zones. However depopulation, especially in the Mediterranean basin, can also negatively impact and accelerate the land degradation process, when it leads a decrease of land protection.
The relationships between population growth and desertification must therefore be analyzed carefully in relation to other factors affecting sustainability, and for each individual area.The Relationship Between Economic Growth and Population Growth. If population growth and per capita GDP growth are completely independent, higher population growth rates would clearly lead to higher economic growth rates.