The Second Yemeni Economic Conference
Sana'a  18 - 20 April, 1998

Abstract 16

Population Indicators in the ROY and the Relation with the Economic Reform Program

Dr. Ahmed Mohamed Shojaedeen
Faculty of Arts
Sana’a University

Population growth in Yemen has great influence on the path of social and economic development. The high annual population growth rate has undoubtedly contributed to low per capita income, impoverished population, and high dependency ratio. Such situation exerts strong pressures which need to be seriously considered by the Government when implementing economic, financial, and administrative reforms.

By understanding population indicators and its effect on the various aspects of life, enables development planners and decision makers in Yemen to be fair in distributing social and economic investments and in providing basic services to different rural and urban regions. It also helps the Government in drawing a clear policy for the various aspects of human needs.

This study provides answers to the following questions: what is the relation between population growth and economic and social development?, what is the nature of the population problems in Yemen?, how the Government’s perspective is to resolve these problems in relation to the economic, financial, and administrative reform?, and finally, what are the main pillars of the National Population Strategy that aims at solving population problems?

The study looks at the current population growth in Yemen, and at the resulting problems in the various fields and in providing basic services. The main bottlenecks were specified in three main areas:

Age distribution: where the percentage of population in the unproductive age groups is high (53%) putting pressure on those in the productive age groups. Also, the larger the family is, the higher the consumption and spending, thus affecting development potential as well as Government’s perspective towards reform.

Fertility: which is one of the major problems in Yemen reaching 5.9. This figure reflects one of the highest in the whole world. As a result, the annual population growth rate has reached a high 3.7%. This requires great efforts on the part of the Government as well as on the society in order to ensure a balance between population growth and economic growth.

Quality of life: the economic situation is considered vital and important for the quality of life. The study shows that per capita income in Yemen is very low, compared to even other developing countries. For that reason, the population problem has become a growing challenge for the Economic Reform Program and an obstacle confronting any attempt to improve per capita income.

For the above reasons, the Government has adopted a National Population Strategy, which specifies clear goals. The strategy will improve effectiveness of programs and mitigate population growth problem on various social, economic, educational, and health development. The strategy specifies several important dimensions on which to embark for instantaneous tasks. These dimensions are: population and economic development, the environment, water resources, urbanization, housing, and immigration. Concentrating on these dimensions provides basic information to various government agencies, to development planners, and to decision makers.

The study concludes with the following:

There is a strong basic and clear relation between economic, social, and health indicators on one side and population indicators on the other. Thus, the Government should give more attention to demographic changes in both rural and urban regions.

Economic, financial, and administrative reforms being adopted by the Government will support the major dimensions on which the National Population Strategy has embarked.

Low agricultural investments, and in particular in basic goods production, coupled with continuous high population growth will inevitably increase the number of impoverished families in rural and urban regions.