Ethnic Groups in Nepal - Population Growth

Population Growth

A significantly high universal marriage rate, particularly among reformed Hindus drives Nepal's annual population growth rate in excess of two percent. The result of this is that the marriage rate has caused the population to double about every 30 years. This severely strains the country's underdeveloped economy and finite natural resources. Deforestation is exceedingly widespread. A large amount of marginal land is cleared for agriculture, trees are cut down for firewood and leaves are harvested for fodder. Deforestation causes erosion in the hills, in turn causing alluvial buildup down on the Gangetic Plain that interferes with flood control structures.

Population in the hills greatly exceeds agricultural productivity. Thus, chronic food deficits drive resettlement into the Inner Terai to the detriment of indigenous Tharu people and eastward into Sikkim and Bhutan, where traditional practices of delayed marriage and diversion of significant population into monasteries and nunneries otherwise checked population growth. Seeing the demographic writing on the wall after a population census in 1988, Bhutan expelled some 100,000 ethnic Nepalese who became Bhutanese refugees in camps in southeastern Nepal. Overpopulation also drives export of manpower to India, the Middle East, Europe, Australia and North America in search of employment, the so-called Nepalese Diaspora.

Refugees comprise 107,803 people from Bhutan and 20,153 Tibetan people.

Most refugees live in seven camps established by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Presence and activity of Tibetan refugees in Nepal also raise sporadic diplomatic conflicts with the People's Republic of China.