in contrast the population of the developed regions is expected to increase slightly from billion to billion united nations department of economics and social affairs population division the continued rapid increase in the population of developing countries highlights the importance of having appropriate policies designed to promote the sustained economic growth and structural transformation of their economies so as to ensure durable poverty reduction although the incomebased per capita conventional poverty measure is sensitive to population growth careful analysis does not provide any support for the malthusian claim that poverty can be attributed to population growth in excess of output growth especially food production