Demography of Yemen - Essay Example

It is to be noticed that this huge economic gap between the Arab countries is a recent phenomenon. In 1960s this gap was quite narrow with the exception of Kuwait and Libya. In 1968 the per capita GNP in Sudan was $130, $190 in Egypt, $290 in Syria and $500 in Saudi Arabia. But five following factors dramatically widen the gap since 1970s. (Winckler, 2005) The important factor of the poor socioeconomic condition in Yemen is political instability which hampers the socioeconomic development plans.

Thus, despite the extensive natural resources of oil Yemen remains the poorest countries of the world. Encarta defines demography as "the study of human populations, including their size, growth, density, and distribution, and statistics regarding birth, marriage, disease, and death" The term demography hoists many images. Some people take it as set of numbers and tables to others it is a target group of commercial organizations trying to sell their products. All these views support the static entity of population.

But to demographer it has dynamic aspect for the population is changing in many facets. (Winckler, 2005). The changing factors are fertility, mortality and migration. "Other dynamic aspects are the spatial distribution and various socioeconomic characteristics of the population that affect each of the demographic parameters of any given society." (Hameuchad, 1995)The population growth rate remained close to 3. 5% and it makes Yemen the fastest growing country in the region. "Yemen's estimated population of 20m is projected to grow to 70m by 2050.

" (Oxford Business Group, 2008)Yemen: Economic and Demographic Indicators. 2006-11PopulationPopulation Growth %GDPAt current pricesGDPPer capita (at PPP)Average household sizeLabor forceUnemploymentRate %200621,622,0003.0819,1068847107,287,21226.2200722,290,0003.0921,6649727107,578,59327.7200822,978,0003.0925,8631,1267107,881,88529.9200923,678,0003.0931,5771,3337108,197,25327.3201024,398,0003.0034,2611,4047108,349,00027.1201125130,0003.0035,5111,45371010,612,03627.1Source :(Oxford Business Group, 2008)Indicators20081995200520152025Population Midyear population (in thousands) 23,01314,86420,74529,19339,696Growth rate (percent) 3.53.03.53.32.

8FertilityTotal fertility rate (births per woman) 6.47.46.75.84.7Crude birth rate (per 1,000 population)