AP Human Geography
Chapter 2 Outline
I.
Name
Introduction (pg. 47)
a. Why is the study of population important (3 reasons)?
b. Define “demography.”
c. When studying population what are the 2 “where” questions that geographers ask and what
are the 2 “why” questions?
d. What are the 2 things involved in the study of the overpopulation problem?
e. When do problems result from overpopulation?
II.
Key Issue 1 - Where is the World’s Population Distributed? (pg. 46-53)
a. What are the 4 most populous regions in the world?
b. What are the similarities between these 4 regions?
c. List some information about the world’s 4 most populous areas and the 2 other population
clusters:
i. East Asia
ii. South Asia
iii. Southeast Asia
iv. Europe
v. NE United States and SE Canada
vi. West Africa
d. Where do people usually not live?
e. Define “ecumene.”
f. On how much of Earth’s surface do the majority of people (75%) live on?
g. How much of the Earth’s surface is ocean?
h. Dry Lands
i. How much of Earth’s surface is too dry to live on?
ii. Where are the Earth’s deserts?
iii. Why can’t humans live in deserts? However, what do deserts sometimes have to
“offer” humans?
i. Wet Lands
i. Where are the world’s wet lands?
ii. Why is it difficult to conduct agriculture in wet lands?
iii. What is the effect on food production in seasonal wet lands?
j. Cold Lands
i. Where are the world’s cold lands?
ii. Why are the cold lands unsuitable for life?
k. High Lands
i. Give an example of sparse population in high lands.
ii. What is an exception to people not living in high lands? Why might they live there?
l. Population Density
i. Define “arithmetic density.”
1. Why do geographers rely on this statistic?
2. Give an example of a place with high and low arithmetic density.
3. Which of the “where/why” questions does arithmetic density answer?
ii. Define “physiological density.”
1. Give an example of a place with high and low physiological density.
2. Complete this phrase: The
the physiological
density, the
the pressure that people place on
land to grow food.
3. What does physiological density help geographers to understand?
iii. Define “agricultural density.”
1. What does this statistic help to measure?
2. Give an example of a place with high and low agricultural density.
3. Why do MDC’s have lower agricultural densities?
III.
Key Issue 2 – Where Has the World’s Population Increased?
a. Define “crude birth rate,” “crude death rate,” and “natural increase rate.”
i. CBR
ii. CDR
iii. NIR
1. What is meant by the term “crude?”
b. Natural Increase
i. What is today’s NIR like today and what has happened to it in the past decade?
ii. How many people are being added annually to the world?
iii. Why do very small changes in NIR drastically affect the size of the world’s
population?
iv. Define “doubling time.”
v. Where is practically all of NIR happening?
c. Fertility
i. Where are CBR’s high? Where are CBR’s low?
ii. Define “total fertility rate.”
iii. What is the difference between what the CBR and TFR count?
iv. What is the average TFR worldwide?
d. Mortality
i. Define “infant mortality rate.”
1. Where are IMR’s high? Where are IMR’s low?
ii. What do IMR’s reflect about a country?
iii. Why is the U.S. IMR higher than other developed countries?
iv. Define “life expectancy.”
1. Where is life expectancy high? Low?
v. Why is the CDR lower for LDC’s than MDC’s?
IV.
Key Issue 3 – Why is Population Increasing at Diff’t Rates in Diff’t Countries? (pg. 57-69)
a. Demographic Transition Model – Describe each of the 4 states of this model. Be sure to
include WHAT is happening to population in each stage, WHY it is happening, and WHO
(what countries) are in that stage today.
i. Stage 1 – Low Growth
ii. Stage 2 – High Growth
iii. Stage 3 – Moderate Growth
iv. Stage 4 – Low Growth (also define “zero population growth”)
b. Population Pyramids
i. What do population pyramids show?
ii. The shape of population pyramids are mostly determined by
iii. Age Distribution
1. Define “dependency ratio.”
a. The larger the % of dependents, the
on workers.
2. What problems does having a large number of youth cause a country?
3. What problems do having a large number of elderly cause a country?
iv. Sex Ratio
1. Define “sex ratio.”
2. Slightly higher numbers of
, but males have
3. In poorer countries, what explains the lower number of women?
4. Why do societies with a high rate of immigration have more men than
women?
c. Briefly describe the demographic transition stages of each of the following countries:
i. Cape Verde
ii. Chile
iii. Denmark
iv. Japan
d. How many countries are in Stage 1 and 4 growth? What does this do to world population
growth?
e. What are the 2 “breaks” associated with movement through the demographic transition
model?
i. What is the challenge with the second break?
V.
Key Issue 4 – Why Might the World Face an Overpopulation Problem?
a. Malthus
i. Who is Malthus?
ii. What did he hypothesize?
iii. Malthus thought population would grow until what?
b. Neo-Malthusians
i. What did Malthus fail to realize?
ii. Neo-Malthusians believe that population is not only outpacing food, but also:
c. Anti-Malthusians
i. What are some arguments against Malthus?
1. Possibilism
2. Boserup/Kuznets
3. Simon
4. Marxists
5. Politicians in Africa
d. Reality
i. What is the current relationship between population growth and food production?
ii. Why has food production been able to handle a growing population?
iii. So, if the amount of food produced in the world can feed the world’s population, what
is the problem with food production and population?
e. Declining Birth Rates – How do we slow down the NIR?
i. Economic Development
1. What impact does economic development have on the birth rate?
2. What is the effect of economic development on women?
ii. Contraceptive Distribution
1. Why might contraceptive distribution be a more effective way to slow birth
rates than economic development?
2. Give examples of success in distributing contraception.
3. What are some obstacles to implementing widespread contraception use,
especially in cultures that give women a low status?
f. Epidemiologic Transition
i. Define “epidemiologic transition.”
ii. Describe the 4 stages of the epidemiologic model. Be sure to explain WHAT causes
death and give EXAMPLES of each stage.
1. Stage 1
2. Stage 2
3. Stage 3
4. Stage 4
5. Stage 5