Population Density and Distribution

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Population Density and Distribution
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Human Population

• In the last lesson you learned how to be a
  demographer. A demographer looks statistically
  at how people are distributed spatially and by
  age, gender, occupation, and so on.

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Human Population

• Now that we know how to compare populations by
  using population pyramids we have to ask
  ourselves an important question. Where do people
  live around the world?

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Population Distribution

• Population distribution refers to where people
  live around the world. For instance, in the
  United States most people live on the coasts or
  near major waterways. Population is not evenly
  distributed around the earths surface.

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Population Distribution

• Population is not distributed evenly because of
  several factors.

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Population Distribution

• The factors that influence population
  distribution are natural resources, climate,
  economic development, government policy,
  rural/urban settlement, capital resources, and
  conflicts.

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Natural Resources

• People live closer to valuable resources such as
  oil, arable land, and fresh water. Most people
  in the world live near the coast or along a major
  waterway and they live on flat ground that is
  easy to farm.

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Natural Resources

• A good example of how natural resources affect
  population distribution is China. Western China
  is not heavily populated because it is
  mountainous or a desert.

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Climate

• There are parts of the earth where people cannot
  live or it is very difficult to live because it
  is too cold. People dont live in Antarctica and
  very few people live in the arctic.

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Climate

• Few people live in hot climates such as deserts.
  Look at the Sahara and Gobi deserts.

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Climate

• Wet climates can also be a problem such as
  tropical rainforests. The Amazon rainforest is
  sparsely populated because the soil is not very
  fertile.

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Economic Development

• People dont live in areas where there are no
  jobs. This is one reason why people migrate to
  other countries or to cities. We will discuss
  this in a later lesson.

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Government Policy

• In the United States people are free to live
  wherever they want, however, in countries such as
  China or the former Soviet Union the government
  forced people to live in certain areas.

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Government Policy

• The Russian government forced thousands of people
  to move to Siberia in order to develop the
  natural resources and economy of the region.

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Rural/Urban Settlement

• The location of cities affects population
  distribution. Think about the United States.
  Most of the major cities are on the coasts or
  near the Great Lakes. These are also the most
  heavily populated areas.

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Capital Resources

• Areas that have good transportation networks such
  as roads, trains, subways, or busses are more
  heavily populated.

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Conflicts

• Wars have a major impact on population
  distribution because people flee areas that have
  conflicts. Some examples are the Sudan, Rwanda,
  and the Former Yugoslavia.

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Population Density

• Population density is the number of people
  occupying an area of land. In this course we
  will use the number of people who live per square
  mile or kilometer. However, there are other ways
  of computing population density.

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Population Growth

• We know where people live and why, and we also
  know where the population is denser. Now lets
  talk about why populations grow quicker than
  others.

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Population Growth

• China is the most populated country in the world.
• In the next 50 years India will have more people
  than China.
• Asia has over 1/3 of the earths population.

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Population Growth

• The factors that influence population growth are
• Modern medicine and hygiene
• Education
• Industrialization and urbanization
• Economic development
• Government policy
• Role of women in society

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Modern Medicine and Hygiene

• Population will grow in countries with good
  hospitals and doctors because
• Babies get regular shots
• People have regular health care
• There are no epidemics such as small pox, yellow
  fever, or cholera.

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Education

• Population will decrease in countries with many
  educated people because
• More people have careers so they decide not to
  have as many children
• Fewer people are farming so they dont want
  children

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Industrialization

• Population growth will decrease as a country
  becomes more developed. Countries that are
  highly industrialized have low population growth
  rates.

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Government Policy

• The government of China has a one child policy.
  Families can only have one child otherwise the
  population would grow too rapidly. If a family
  has more than one child they must pay a fine.

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Role of Women in Society

1. Countries with low population growth rates have
   more women working in the labor force.
2. Countries where women are expected to stay at
   home and be housewives will have high population
   growth rates.