Tag Archives: population growth

Doubling Time

We learned about doubling time in an exponential growth process on Monday. I find this concept extremely fun. Here is a list made by the United Nations that shows countries’ population growth rate .

Screen Shot 2015-02-12 at 11.10.21 PM

According to the list, the country with the fastest growing population should be relatively good at allocating their resources. However, after going through the list, I learned that counties with fast growing population rate are mostly third world countries, like Liberia and Burundi, whereas the United States is ranked number 131 on the list. Let’s take Liberia, a country with a 4.5% population growth rate for example.

The time it takes Liberia to double their population can be calculated with the doubling time formula:

0.7 / 0.045 = 15 years.

Now if you think about it, if it only takes Liberia 15 years to double their total population, they need to have the ability to double their resources in 15 years as well, otherwise there won’t be enough resources for the next generation, let alone making the resources sustainable.