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AP Human Geography
Chapter 2
Population
Name___________________
Period__________________
1. How do demographers look at the world’s population?
2. What issues will the study of population help one understand more thoroughly? (look
at the Key Issues)
3. Why is the study of population critical?
4. According to geographers, what is the definition of overpopulation?
Where does overpopulation exist and at what scale?
Case Study / Population Growth in India
5. Why does the Indian government hope that families similar to the Phataks have fewer
children in the future?
6. How do most of the people in India live, and why is this a concern when dealing with
population issues?
7. What is the relationship between population growth and economic growth? How is
India doing with respect to this relationship?
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Key Issue 1
Where is the World’s Population Distributed?
8. According to the text, what are the four major population concentrations in the world?
9. What is a cartogram? How is data displayed? (Figure 2-1)
10. What do the four population concentrations have in common?
11. What is the main difference between the Asian concentrations and Europe?
12. Describe the population distribution in East Asia. What are the internal differences
with respect to population distribution?
13. Where do the majority of people live in South Asia? How do most people in South
Asia live?
14. Describe the population distribution of Southeast Asia. How is it possible for the
environment of Southeast Asia to support so many people?
Other Population Clusters
15. What are the two other main emerging population concentrations? Describe their
geographic distributions.
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Sparsely Populated Regions
16. What areas do humans avoid, if possible? (The ‘TOO’s) What are some exceptions?
Population Density
Arithmetic Density
17. How do geographers use arithmetic density statistics?
Physiological Density
18. Why physiological density a more useful measure than arithmetic density?
What areas of the world have unusually high physiological densities? Why is this a
problem in some cases and not in others?
Agricultural Density
19. How is agricultural density related level of development? Why does the United
States have such a low agricultural density?
20. What does understanding the relationship between physiological density and
agriculture density allow one to analyze? Why is this especially important for making
future predictions?
Key Issue II
Where Has the World’s Population Increased?
21. What is the population equation (without migration)?
22. When was the highest NIR in history, and how many people are added to Earth each
year?
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23. Where is most of the world’s NIR located? Why?
24. How do the CBR, CDR, and NIR influence the doubling time?
Fertility
25. What is the difference between the CBR and TFR?
26. What is the spatial distribution of the world’s CBR and TFR?
What areas have the highest CBR and TFR? Why do agriculturally based societies tend
to have large families? In other words, why do wealthy countries tend to have small
families?
Mortality
27. What is the IMR most indicative of? Why do you think the United States has the
highest IMR among the industrialized countries of the world?
28. Technically, what is life expectancy based upon? What areas of the world have the
highest life expectancies? Why isn’t the United States in the highest category?
29. Why do some extremely wealthy societies have high crude birth rates?
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Key Issue III
Why Is Population Increasing at Different Rates in Different Countries?
30. For each stage of the demographic transition fill in the chart below.
Stage I
Stage II
Stage III
Stage IV
CBR
CDR
NIR
Pop Growth
Stage I
31. Why did the world stay in stage I of the demographic transition after the agricultural
revolution?
Stage II
32. Why did countries enter stage II of the demographic transition during the Industrial
Revolution? How this characterized by the J Curve (population line. fig 2-14)?
33. What is the connection between the demographic transition, industrial revolution, and
increased agricultural production?
34. Why did developing countries enter stage II after 1950? What impact has this had on
the world’s NIR and population.
35. In traditional societies why did women typically have a large number of babies?
Stage III
36. From a societal and economic perspective, why do countries enter stage III?
37. Describe the economics of large families for a traditional society versus an
industrialized society.
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Stage IV
38. Why does a country need a TFR of 2.1 to reach ZPG, and what impact can
immigration have on the situation?
49. How do changes in the social customs of a society explain why a country moves into
stage IV?
40. What areas of the world are in stage IV? Why could there be a stage V, and what
countries presently are in this situation?
Population Pyramids
41. How does the demographic transition influence the population structure a country?
How is this graphically represented?
42. How does the CBR influence a country’s population pyramid – for stage II and IV?
Age Distribution
43. How does the dependency ration impact a country from a social and economic
perspective?
44. How is the dependency ratio different for countries in stage II vs. stage IV?
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Sex Ratio
45. Describe the population pyramids and reason(s) for the following situations/cities.
(Fig.2-16)
Description
Reason(s)
LDC
MDC
Lawrence, KS
Detroit, MI
Honolulu, HI
Laredo, TX
Unalaska, AK
Naples, FL
Countries in Different Stages of the Demographic Transition
46. Use the chart below to describe the demographic characteristics of each country.
Cape Verde
Chile
Denmark
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Contemporary Geographic Tools: Spatial Analysis and the Census
47. What is the census, and why is it controversial in some circumstances?
48. Why is the Unites States census so important?
Global Forces, Local Impacts: Japan’s Population Decline
49. What factors have contributed to Japan’s population decline? What other countries
are experiencing the same phenomenon?
Demographic Transition and World Population Growth
50. Describe how the two big breaks from the past have led to the rapid population
growth?
Key Issue IV
Why Might the World Face an Overpopulation Problem?
51. Why does global population growth matter?
Malthus on Overpopulation
52. Describe Malthus’s thesis. Why was his thesis plausible at the time?
Neo-Malthusians
53. Summarize the two main points of Neo-Malthsuians.
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Malthus’s Critics
54. Summarize the anti Malthusian arguments in the chart below.
Argument(s)
Marx & Engels
Julian Simon
Boserup and Kuznet
Declining Birth Rates
Malthus Theory and Reality
55. Discuss the factors that helped prevent Malthus’s theory from becoming reality.
How much strength does the neo-Malthusian perspective have? Give specifics.
Reasons for Declining Birth Rates
56. Describe how improving the economic situation of a population leads to declining
birth rates.
Distribution of Contraceptives
57. If a country wants to reduce its CBR, why is the distribution of contraceptives such an
important strategy? Give some specifics examples.
58. How do economics, religion, and education explain the differences between types of
contraceptives used and rate by country?
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World Health Threats
59. Describe the relationship between the epidemiologic transition and the demographic
transition.
60. How does epidemiology (medical geography) use geographic concepts?
Epidemiologic Transition, Stages 1 & 2
61. What basically characterizes stages 1 & 2?
62. Why is stage 2 referred to as the stage of receding pandemics?
63. How did geography play a role in understanding how cholera diffuses?
Epidemiologic Transition, Stages 3 & 4
64. What characterizes the types of diseases associated with stages 3 & 4?
65. What do most people die from in stage 4?
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66. Some medical analysts argue that the world is moving into a stage 5, which is
characterized by a reemergence of infectious and parasitic diseases. Fill in the chart for
each of the categories considered to be contributing to a possible stage 5.
Evolution
Poverty
Improved Travel
AIDS
67. What areas (regions) of the world experience the highest rates of AIDS? Give
specifics with regard to rates of infection etc.
Case Study Revisited / India Versus China (page 76)
68. Fill in the chart with important details.
India’s Population Policies
China’s Population Policies