POPULATION

1
POPULATION

• Study of population important because more people
  live now than ever before-6.5 billion
• Population increasing faster rate 2nd ½ of 20th
  century than ever before in history
• All global pop growth concentrated in LDC

• Demography is scientific study of pop
  characteristics demographers study this data
• Population problems ask where and why
• Overpopulation problem looks at the relationship
  between of people and availability of resources

2
Where is the Worlds Population Distributed?

• Population Concentrations-2/3 live in East Asia,
  South Asia, SE Asia, western Europe
• Clustering is shown on cartograms see figure 2-1
• 4 regions have similarities

• people live near ocean or river
• generally low-lying area with fertile soil
  temperate climate
• all located in Northern Hemisphere (10-55 degrees
  north latitude) except for SE Asia

3
East Asia

• 1/5 worlds people live in East Asia
• 5/6 of people in this concentration live in
  Peoples Republic of China
• worlds most populous country 3rd largest land
  area-near Pacific coast fertile river
  valleys-Huang Yangtze

• 26 urban areas with more than 2 million people,
  but 2/3 of people live in rural areas-farmers
• Japan South Korea pop not distributed evenly
• 1/3 people live in 3 metropolitan areas-Tokyo,
  Osaka, Seoul
• ¾ Japanese and Koreans live urban
  areas-industrial or service jobs rather than
  farmers unlike China

4
South Asia Southeast Asia

• 1/5 worlds people live in South Asia-India,
  Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka (island)
• most people in India live along plains of Indus
  and Ganges rivers also concentrated near 2
  coastlines-Arabian Sea-west Bay of Bengal-east
• most people live rural areas farmers

• 4th largest pop cluster ½ billion people live on
  series of islands between Indian Pacific Oceans
  (includes Java, Sumatra, Borneo, Papua New
  Guinea, Philippines
• Java-100 million people
• Indonesia (which includes Java) 4th most populous
  country
• most people-rural areas-farmers

5
Europe Other Pop Clusters

• 1/9 of worlds people from Europe (including
  European portion of Russia)
• ¾ inhabitants live in cities less than 20
  farmers
• Dense network of road and rail links people
• Region has temperate climate
• Have to import food resources

• largest concentration in Western Hemisphere in
  northeastern U.S.
• urban areas-less than 5 farmers
• 2 of worlds population in West Africa Nigeria
  most populous country
• people work in agriculture

6
Sparsely Populated Regions

• Ecumene refers to the portion of Earths surface
  occupied by permanent human settlement
• ¾ of worlds population live on only 5 of
  Earths surface

7
Dry Lands

• 20 of Earths land surface is too dry for
  farming
• Northern Hemisphere-Sahara, Arabian, Thar, Takla
  Makan, Gobi
• Southern Hemisphere-most of Australia
• lack sufficient water to feed a population

• people are able to live and raise animals in
  desert (nomads)
• Some desert areas contain natural resources i.e.
  oil reserves which leads to settlement in these
  areas

8
Wet Lands

• Land that receives too much rainfall makes human
  occupation difficult (areas around equator)
• Combination of rain heat rapidly depletes
  nutrients from soil (leaching)

• Certain areas that do receive extra rainfall i.e.
  Southeast Asia are able to produce enough food to
  support their population (rice)

9
Cold Lands High Lands

• land near North and South Poles is constantly
  covered with ice or ground is permanently frozen
  (permafrost)
• area unsuitable for planting crops

• few people can live at high elevations-sparsely
  populated
• Exceptions are higher elevations in Latin America
  and Africa where people have settled
• Mexico City-7,360

10
Population Density

• Arithmetic Density-total people divided by
  total land area (aka population density)
• U.S.-78 per sq. mile, Bangladesh-2,640 per square
  mile, Canada-7 per square mile, India-840 per
  square mile

• Physiological Density-number of people supported
  by unit area of arable (farmable) land
• Large difference in physiological density
  demonstrates how much more some countries arable
  land must yield to support their population

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Agricultural Density

• Term refers to the ratio of the number of farmers
  to the amount of arable land
• For example, U.S. has a low agricultural density
  at 4 farmers per square km of arable land

• Egypt on the other hand has a higher agricultural
  density at 1,401 farmers per square km
• Typically MDC have lower agricultural density
  because of technology and finances

12
Where Has the Worlds Population Increased?

• Geographers measure population change in a
  country of the world thru 3 measures
• Crude Birth Rate (CBR)-total of live births in
  a year for every 1,000 people
• Crude Death Rate (CDR)-total of deaths in a
  year for every 1,000 people alive in that society
• Natural Increase Rate (NIR)- by which a
  population grows in a year. Subtract CBR from
  CDR (see page 53)

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Natural Increase