Influence of Gender, Age and Location on Students Perceived Link of Population Growth and Climate Change

Abstract

Increase in population contributes and it is also affected by climate change, hence it deserves consideration in any climate change policy development strategies. Based on the importance of population growth on climate change, this study was embarked on to ascertain the perception of students to the influence of population growth on the consequences of climate change. The population of the study consisted of undergraduate students in a Federal University in Southern part of Nigeria. A sample size of 362 respondents were selected using systematic sampling to select every one and other halls of residence (3 halls of residence selected out of 6) and simple random sampling of balloting by replacement to select 14% each from the three halls of residence. The questionnaires administered were analyzed using SPSS version 20 and the descriptive and inferential statistical tools were employed to analyze the data gotten. The study revealed that there was a significant difference on the respondents perception based on their gender, age group and home of residence(Urban or rural). Based on these findings, it was recommended among other things that population control measures should be effectively implemented in the country. And any policy on climate change, gender, age group and location should be considered because a gender, age group and location bias policy will increase the severity of the problem.