WORLD GEOGRAPHY
Sept. 12, 2014
Today
- Population (part 1)
“I’m not afraid of nuclear war. China has a population of
600,000,000; even if half of them are killed, there are still
300,000,000 left.”
- Mao Zedong, 1956
20 years later…
Maybe one kid is enough…
The world’s current population
7,000,000,000
The world’s current population
7,000,000,000
(well, actually about 7.2 billion)
- How did we get to this number?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcSX4ytEfcE
A few facts about human population
- The estimated total number of humans who have ever
lived: 108 billion (108,000,000,000).
- Approximately 6.7% of all people who ever lived are living
today.
A few facts about human population
For every 1,000
females…
1,010 males
A few facts about human population
- 30% of the world’s population regularly eats with
these:
A few facts about human population
- One of every three people is Chinese or Indian.
1.39 billion
1.27 billion
A few facts about human population
- Half of the world’s people live in China, India,
USA, Indonesia, Brazil, and Pakistan.
A few facts about human population
- The most densely populated country is:
Singapore
For every km2, there
are 7,300 people.
Human population
A key factor to studying and understanding human geography
is knowing about human population: Demography:
- Where is everyone?
- Why do some places have more people than others?
- Why does the population increase at different rates?
- What about overpopulation?
Where is everyone?
90% of the world’s population lives in the northern hemisphere
Where is everyone?
Where is everyone?
2000
1925
Where is everyone?
Today, approx. 53% of the world’s population lives
in urban areas.
Reporting population
Several ways of doing this:
- Population
- Population density (arithmetic)
- Physiological population density
Population density (arithmetic)
Simply the population size relative to land size (also called
“crude density”).
- Provides some insight into population, but does not
provide the whole picture.
Population density (arithmetic)
Provides some insight into population, but does not provide
the whole picture.
e.g.
Country
China
India
Crude population density
(people per km2)
146
421
Population density (arithmetic)
Physiological population density
Number of people per unit of area of arable land.
 Arable land = farmland (productive agriculture)
Physiological population density
Number of people per unit of area of arable land.
- e.g. Egypt
Arithmetic vs. Physiological pop. density
e.g.
Country
China
India
Egypt
Crude pop. density
(people per km2)
146
421
82
Physiological
pop. density
988
618
>2,800
Population distribution
- Locations and places where people live.
- Often represented on dot maps
 Each dot represents a certain number of people.
e.g. 100, 1,000, 100,000
- Depends on scale
One dot = 7,500 people
One dot = 50 people
One dot = 500,000 people
Population distribution
- Clearly, people are not evenly distributed across the
Earth.
- Population clusters started where food was grown.
- Cities developed from these areas.
- Only recently have advances in agriculture and transport
technologies allowed for the traditional patterns to
change.
World population concentrations
Four major concentrations:
1. East Asia - China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan
2. South Asia - India, Pakistan, Bangladesh
3. Europe
4. North America
World population concentrations
1. East Asia - China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan
- approx. 1.5 billion (22% of the world’s pop.)
World population concentrations
2. South Asia - India, Pakistan, Bangladesh
- approx. 1.5 billion
World population concentrations
3. Europe
- approx.. 750 million
World population concentrations
More than 4 billion of the world’s people are within these
three clusters/concentrations.
- Referred to as the Eurasian land mass.
World population concentrations
4. North America – USA, Mexico, Canada
- approx. 560 mil.
Dynamic population
http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/
- The world’s population is growing at a rate of 1.2%/year.
- This may seem small, but actually, huge.
- rate amounts to 75,000,000 people/year.
Dynamic population
The world’s population is growing enormously.
- due to shortened doubling time.
Population growth
- The percent (%) by which a country’s population grows or
decreases.
- Many factors affect this:
 life-style, standards of living, religious views, etc.
Population growth
- Natural increase: difference between number of births and
number of deaths.
- Crude birth rate (CBR) - # of births per year per 1,000
people.
- Crude death rate (CDR) - # of deaths per year per 1,000
people.
Natural increase
CBR
Mortality rate
Life expectancy
The demographic transition model
The demographic transition model
The demographic transition model
1. Low-growth stage
- High birth rate and death rate lead to population that
varies over time, with little long-term population growth.
- e.g. The Black Death
(14th century)
The demographic transition model
The demographic transition model
2. High-growth stage
- High birth rate and declining death rate lead to sustained
and significant population increase.
e.g. Industrial Revolution and advancement in science and
improved standard of living.
Europeans went all over the globe, made death rates drop
in South America, India, and Africa (after some
unpleasantness).
The demographic transition model
The demographic transition model
3. Moderate-growth stage
- Declining birth rate combined with already-low death rate
to continuing population growth.
e.g. 1900’s in USA – infant and child mortality rates
dropped, people use to have many kids because of a
chance they might die young and needed farm hands, no
more.
The demographic transition model
The demographic transition model
4. Low-growth (or stationary) stage
- Low birth rate and low death rate lead to a very low rate of
growth.
e.g. Birth Rates are the lowest in the world where women
are most involved in the labor force and educated. Europe
and USA
The demographic transition model
Stage 5?
- Decline in population
as death rate overtakes
birth rate
Before next class
Do the reading on the website (they will be “live” tomorrow).