Uneconomic growth, in welfare economics, human development theory and some forms of ecological economics, is economic growth which reflects or creates a decline in human well-being. The concept is variously attributed to Herman Daly (formerly the senior economist in the environmental department of the World Bank) and Marilyn Waring, though other theorists are also often credited.

For instance, in Daly's 1999 Feasta Lecture, "Uneconomic Growth in Theory and in Fact", he cites John Ruskin, then William Nordhaus and James Tobin as having identified the issue. His own colleagues John Cobb and Clifford Cobb developed, with Daly, a formal analysis that emphasized "the cost of GNP growth - in other words, the social and environmental sacrifices made necessary by that growing encroachment on the eco-system."

Scientific American uses the definition "Uneconomic growth occurs when increases in production come at an expense in resources and well-being that is worth more than the items made", which comes from Daly.