Does population density always follow economic growth and does this inhibit progress?

To what extent does our fecundity as a species affect our true well being- in other words, the more people there are the worse our quality of life becomes, no matter the subsequent advances that supposedly lessened our labor load? The more technology that I see, the more people that I encounter, that push me off of a road or compete in an ever growing market place and diminishing supply of our favorite things?