Why do negative population growth cause problems for countries?

Answer 1

This is a somewhat vague question as there are possibly many ways negative population growth can affect the people, if considered in a closed system such as a continent, race, or globally negative population growth will ultimately lead to no people :D

If i don't stretch your question i'll assume by "the people" you mean the people in the population. I make this distinction because there are many populations of people apart from each other, for example the population of one city compared to the population of another. A state population, country population, continent, or global population. Perhaps even a race population.

But with my prior assumption that "the people" refers to the people in a specific population, i would think that a negative population growth rate would effect it's people in a number of ways, ranging from efforts made to identify the cause of negative population growth to efforts in attending to these causes as to prevent the population from reaching too few in number to sustain itself.

I realize this answer is vague, but i think your question needs some reworking if you are looking for a specific answer.

Negative population growth in a region that is considered "overpopulated" might positively effect the people, and vice versa in the case where a population is already dwindling to a number that would be considered threatening to the continued existence of a population.

If we look at the global population, throughout our history there are examples and obstacles that have lead to the growth of population, and cities and countries are somewhat measured in greatness by their population so in those terms a growing population would be considered healthy or prosperous whereas a negative population growth would be indicative of a country or society that is doing poorly.

I think its important to emphasize the population growth rate is a measure of population growth divided by a time period. This is different from an overall population. That being said the effects of a negative population growth rate are somewhat dependent on the overall population at a specific time.