Overpopulation is one of the issues that man has faced ever since humans learned to populate, and with it comes a number of other issues that need to be addressed.

But a group of population and development experts stressed that it is not simply the number of people that counts, but more so the population's distribution in different elements; age, education, health status, and location. The experts said that these are the factors that are most relevant to local and global sustainability.

Twenty experts in the field of population, development and environment from around the world have gathered in the International Institute for Applied System Analysis, an organization that conducts policy-oriented research in problems too big and complex to be solved by a single body.

During their meeting, the experts sought to define critical elements of the interactions between human population and sustainable development.

The experts pointed out that in order to achieve sustainable development, focus must be given to the different impacts that people may have to the environment.

According to the expert panel during the meeting, education plays a significant role because it contributes to technological and social innovation that will thus lead to rapid transition to a green economy.

"This applies to both low- and high-income countries. Hence the enhancement of human capital from early childhood to old age through formal and informal education and life-long learning is now known to be a decisive policy priority," said the panel.

The experts also said that rather than seeing the increasing population as a problem, they believe that through right policies and investments in people, population will be seen as a resource, not a problem.

However, experts that see overpopulation as a problem say that its effects could be devastating. These effects range from food and water shortage, limited space, to health problems and environmental degradation.