Population Density and Distribution

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Population Density and Distribution
What do we mean by and what are the factors
affecting, population distribution and density?
Describe and explain the density and distribution
of populations
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Population Density and Distribution
The Worlds population is now over 6 billion
people One in six people in the world live in
China 50 of people live on 5 of the land 80
of the world live in LEDCs
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Population Density and Distribution

• A large number of people crammed into a small
  area is said to be densely populated. These tend
  to be urban areas
• A small number of people spread out over a wide
  area is said to be sparsely populated. These tend
  to be rural areas
• Population density is calculated using the
  following

Number of people Area
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Population Density and Distribution
For people to live somewhere , their needs have
to be met. These could be as simple as a food
supply
There may be special economic reasons for people
living in a place. Why, for example would people
bother with extreme desert temperatures in Kuwait
if there not huge reserves of oil there?
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Population Density and Distribution
In the UK, London, the capital city is situated
in the south east of the country. Being the
capital, it attracts a large number of people
because it is a commercial and administrative
centre with a large concentration of goods and
services.
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Population Density and Distribution
However, its location means that people are
hemmed into a small area and it is thus very
densely populated
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Population Density and Distribution
Environmental concerns are by far the largest
reasons for populations being where they are. The
primary reasons for this is the need to grow food
to live on. 45 of the worlds working population
are farmers.
Food is only grown on 11 of the planets land
area. Therefore areas of fertile land such as
river deltas and flood plans will always be
densely populated especially in LEDCS such as
Bangladesh
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Population Density and Distribution
Too hot (over 30?C) Too dry lt200mm High
evaporation
Few attracted to the area so a low population
density
No water no crops Salty soil no crops
Isolated
Could build wells and pumps to produce water and
desalinated soil BUT Costly not enough could be
grown leading to shortages There would little
grass for grazing as most would be commercial
agriculture
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Population Density and Distribution
The distribution population is the degree to
which it is spread out across the country. From
this map of the UK we can see that the
distribution is significantly concentrated in the
south east of the country
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Population Density and Distribution
Once can also link distribution and density to
other geographical factors such as relief. It is
n coincidence that the more mountainous parts of
the UK are much more sparsely populated.
The UKs population is concentrated into urban
areas where 89 of the population live, of that
number 50 live in major conurbations, that
originally grew up as industrial centres close to
coals fields for their power supply.
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Population Density and Distribution
When describing and/or explaining population
density and distribution, you need to remember a
lot of key factors

• Relief
• Economic activity
• Climate
• Quality of farmland
• Aspect
• Communication (roads and railways)