It is often reflected that with economic growth, the problems associated with population and development will be overcome. This implies that people would have a higher standard of living and more economic opportunities and therefore population stabilisation is not a priority. However, what is ignored is the fact that high economic growth has rarely continued in the long term yet, population is a long term investment in the 15-20 years it takes to raise a child. Once this child has reached adulthood will economic growth still be high enough for society to provide jobs, food, healthcare and other necessities? Economic growth must accelerate at a high rate over those 20 years to exceed increases in population. In many developing countries economic growth can even be a negative factor, therefore having high population growth will directly affect the countries' ability to move out of poverty and increase living standards for its current and future population.