Human Geography
Population
Chapter 4
Population: World Patterns, Regional
Trends
7 Billion (...and counting)
Insert figure CO4
Economist: World Population
Source100 people Library of Congress
Population Growth
• Implications of the Numbers
» Population clock
World Population
U.S. Population
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Human Geography 9eHuman
Geography 10e
Human Geography 9eHuman
Geography 10e
Human Geography 9eHuman
Geography 10e
Human Geography 9eHuman
Geography 10e
Population Geography
•
Provides the background
tools and understanding of
population data such as:
–
–
–
–
Numbers of people
Age of people
Sex distribution of people
Patterns of fertility and
mortality
– Density
•
Helps us understand how
the people in a given area
live, how they may interact
with one another, how
they use the land, what
pressure on resources
exists, and what the future
may bring
• Differs from demography,
the statistical study of
human population, in its
concern with spatial
analysis – the relationship
of numbers to area
Some Population Definitions:
• Crude Birth Rates
– The annual number of
live births per 1000
population
– It is “crude”
because it relates
births to total
population without
regard to the age or
sex composition of
the population
Insert figure 4.2
© Photodisc/Getty RF
Birthrate explained (video)
World Birth rates
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World birth rate map
Some Population Definitions
• Total Fertility Rate
– The average number of
children that would be
born to each woman if,
during her childbearing
years, she bore
children at the current
year’s rate for women
that age
– A more refined
statement than the
crude birth rate for
showing the rate and
probability of
reproduction among
fertile females
Insert figure 4.6
Fertility rates
Some Population Definitions
• Crude Death Rate…Why Crude?
– Also called mortality rate
– The annual number of deaths per 1000 population
– In the past, a valid generalization was that death rate
varied with national levels of development
– Characteristically, highest rates were found in the less
developed countries
– Nowadays, countries with a high proportion of elderly
people, such as Denmark and Sweden, would be
expected to have higher death rates than those with a
high proportion of young people
– World Death Rates
Some Population Definitions
• Infant Mortality Rate
– The ratio of deaths of
infants aged 1 year or
under per 1000 live
births.
– Infant mortality rates
are significant
because it is at these
ages that the greatest
declines in mortality
have occurred, largely
as a result of the
increased availability
of health services
Human Geography 11e
Insert figure 4.8
Some Population Definitions
• Maternal Mortality
Ratio
– Maternal deaths
per 100,000 live
births
– Maternal mortality
is the single
greatest health
disparity between
developed and
developing
countries
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South Sudan
Population Growth
• Rate of Natural Increase
– Derived by subtracting the crude death rate from
the crude birth rate
– Natural means that increases or decreases due to
migration are not included
Population Growth
• Doubling Times
– The time it takes for a population to double
if the present growth rate remains constant
Population Pyramids
• A graphic device that represents a
population’s age and sex composition
Insert figure 4.9
The Demographic Transition
Demographic transition explained
Demographic Transition Video
Hans Rosling on
Demographic transition
and population
The Demographic Equation
• Population Relocation
• Immigration Impacts
Human Geography 11e
World Population
Distribution
• Pattern of
Unevenness
• Ecumene
– Permanently
inhabited
areas of the
earth’s surface
Human Geography 11e
• Nonecumene
– The uninhabited or
very sparsely
occupied zone, does
include the
permanent ice caps
and large segments
of the tundra and
coniferous forest of
northern Asia and
North America
Population Density
• Density Measures
– Arithmetic
– Physiological
– Agricultural
• Overpopulation
– Carrying Capacity
• Urbanization
• Arithmetic Density
– The calculation of the
number of people per
unit area of land,
usually within the
boundaries of a political
entity
Human Geography 11e
• The figure can be
misleading since it is a
national average
density that does not
reveal any information
about type of territory
– some sparsely
populated areas are
largely undevelopable
Population Density
• Physiological
Density
– The ratio between
the total population
and the amount of
land under
cultivation in a give
unit of area
– An expression of
population pressure
exerted on
agricultural land
Human Geography 11e
• Agricultural Density
– The ratio between the
number of
agriculturalists
(farmers) per unit of
farmable land in a
specific area
• Carrying Capacity
– The number of people an area can
support on a sustained basis given the
prevailing technology
• Population Data and Projections
– Population Data
– Population Projections
Human Geography 11e
Population Controls
• Malthus
– A British economist
– In 1798 he published
“An Essay on the
Principle of Population
and It Affects in the
Future Improvement of
Society”
– The world’s population
was increasing faster
than the food supplies
needed to sustain it
Human Geography 11e
– Population increases
at what he called a
geometric rate
– The means of
subsistence growth
at an arithmetic rate
– Population growth
might be checked by
hunger or other
tragic events
Population Prospects
• Demographic Momentum
– When a high proportion of the
population is young, the product of past
high fertility rates, larger and larger
numbers enter the childbearing age
each year
• Aging
Human Geography 11e
Supplementals
Religions and Babies TED Talk
9 Billion? A Whirlwind Trip Through
Population Trends
Hans Rosling's 200 Countries, 200
Years, 4 Minutes