CHAPTER 2
GEODEMOGRAPHY:
PEOPLING THE EARTH
1
Definition: Demography
• Statistical analysis of human population
– Spatial Density
– Humans are quite unevenly distributed
over the Earth’s surface
– Population densities range from zero to
over 2,000 people per square mile
2
What is studied?
• Areas of inquiry
– Fertility
– Gender
– Health
– Age
– Nutrition
– Mortality
– Migration
3
What is studied?
• Also study the spatial variation of other
demographic qualities.
– Birthrate differences
– Death rates
– Overpopulation
– Sex ratios
– Age groups
– Crime
– Quality of life
– Human mobility
4
Density and Distribution
• Population distribution and density
– Uneven population distribution by continent
– Density divided into categories
– Density does not indicate standard of living,
overpopulation, or under population
– Physiological density difficult to measure
• More useful than the arithmetic density
• Agricultural Density better for comparing countries
– Shifting population densities
• Migrations
5
Density and Distribution
• Formal regions devised by population
geographers
• Distribution of people by continents
– Eurasia 73.3 percent
– North America 7.3 percent
– Africa 12.7 percent
– South America 5.5 percent
– Australia and Pacific Islands < 0.5 percent
6
7
3
1
2
8
Cartogram of World
Population
9
Density and Distribution
• Population density categories for
demographic regions
– Thickly settled areas – 250 or more per
sq mi
– Moderately settled areas – 60 to 250 per
sq mi
– Thinly settled areas – 2 to 60 per sq mi
– Categories based on single trait of
population density. (Formal Regions)
10
Choropleth Map of
Arithmetic Density
11
Density and Distribution
12
Physiological
Density
13
Agricultural Density
14
Demographic regions
• Is the world really overcrowded?
– Who determines or defines
“overcrowded”?
– How is this to be determined?
• Does population density give us the
full picture?
15
Demographic regions
• Population density
– What population densities do not tell
us
• Standard of living
• Over or under population
• As a statistic concept it conceals
changes that constantly occur
16
Components of Change
• Patterns of natality
– Birthrate – measured as the number
of births in a year per thousand
people.
– Total fertility rate (TFR)
• More useful measure than birthrate
• Varies greatly from one part of the
world to another
• Key number is 2.1 (replacement rate)
17
Total Fertility Rate (TFR)
• Measured as the average number of
children born to each woman during her
reproductive years
– Focuses on female segment of population
and reveals family size
– In Europe TFR now stands at 1.4
– Sub-Saharan Africa’s overall rate is 6.0,
Niger is highest with 7.4
– Remember that 2.1 indicates no growth –
just replacement
18
19
Components of Change
• Birth rate does not generally correspond
to population density
• Inverse situation in China/Europe and
interior of Africa
• High birthrates concentrated in a belt
through the lower latitudes
• Mid-latitudes and high-latitude countries
have low birthrates
• Birthrates now declining in most all
countries
20
Birth Rates
21
Components of Change
• The geography of mortality
– Mortality rate: Number of deaths per
1000 people
– In developed world most people die of
age-induced degenerative conditions
– In poorer countries contagious
diseases leading cause of death
– Discussion of differing death rates in
different parts of the world
22
Death Rates
23
Components of Change
• Reasons for differences in death rates
when compared with birth rates
– Countries with high birth rates tend to
have younger population
– More developed regions, such as
Europe, including Russia, have low birth
rates and an aging population that is
reflected in higher death rates.
– Australia, Canada, and the United States
attract more young immigrants
24
Components of Change
• Nature seeking to find a balance may
have developed effective diseases to
control population in Africa where our
species originated.
– Changing climatic patterns imposed a
great desert across Africa blocking
disease spread from humid tropic region
– AIDS started in Tropical Africa but has
diffused to more temperate climates
25
26
Components of Change
• Fatal or potentially fatal diseases can
occur in all parts of the world
– Many are increasingly resistant to
medicines – antibiotic overuse
– Monitored by World Health Organization
and US Center for Disease Control
– Next slide shows that few areas of the
world have been spared.
– Medical Geography – name given to
27
spatial study of human health
28
Components of Change
• Death comes in different forms
geographically
–In developed world – ageinduced degenerative conditions
• Enter the “sandwich generation”
–In developing nations contagious
diseases are leading cause of
death
29
Sandwich Generation
30
Infant Mortality Rates Compared for Selected Countries
YEARS USA
UK
Japan
Italy
Belarus
India
China
South
Korea
Haiti
Brazil
Afghanistan
Mexico
19501955
28
29
51
60
75
190
195
115
160
41
220
135
225
121
19551960
26
24
37
48
44
173
179
100
145
36
193
122
214
101
19601965
25
22
25
40
30
157
121
70
125
29
176
109
203
88
19651970
22
19
16
33
24
145
81
58
102
25
165
100
189
79
19701975
18
17
12
26
21
132
61
38
82
23
152
91
184
69
19751980
14
14
9
18
22
129
52
30
65
18
139
79
178
57
19801985
11
11
7
13
20
107
52
23
54
14
124
65
177
47
19851990
10
9
5
10
16
94
50
14
44
11
106
55
173
40
19901995
9
7
4
7
16
79
47
12
33
9
74
47
167
34
19952000
8
6
4
6
12
73
41
8
27
6
68
42
165
31
2005
6
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
.. .
...
...
Jordan Israel
Equal to or better than the USA figure for those periods.
...
not available
31 2008
Source: Encyclopedia Britannica
Components of Change
• Population explosion
– Triggered by a dramatic decrease in
the death rate
– No universal decline in the TFR
– Example of the geometric doubling of
world’s population
– Discussion of Thomas Malthus
predicting the population explosion
32
33
U.S.A. Population Pyramid
POPULATION MEASURES &
STRUCTURE
34
Infant Mortality
Rates
35
Life Expectancy at
Birth
36
% of Population
under age 15
37
Was Malthus totally off base?
• What could he not have
foreseen?
– Ingenuity: increasing food supply
– Green Revolution
• 21st century Organic Farming Revolution
– World's falling TFR
38
Components of Change
• Or population implosion?
– Karl Marx—communistic view of society –
class struggle driven by economics
– Ingenuity of humans in increasing food
supply
– Green Revolution
– World's falling TFR
39
Components of Change
• World population explosion is not a
worldwide phenomena
– Confined to underdeveloped and developed
countries with high TFR
– All industrialized, technologically advanced
countries have achieved low fertility rates
– Stabilized or declining populations
– Passed through the demographic transformation
40
Many developing countries are stuck here!
41
42
Demographic transformation
• In pre-industrial societies, birth and
death rates are normally high
• Coming of industrial era
– Medical advances and diet improvements
– Sets state for drop in death rates
– Life expectancy soared from average of 35
years to 75 years or more at present
– Results in population explosion
– Eventually leads to decline in birth rate
following decline in death rate
43
Demographic transformation
• In post-industrial period, demographic
transformation produces actual zero population
growth or decline
• Stages 3 and 4 of demographic transformation
– Require effective methods of birth control
– Traditionally, infanticide served as principal method
in some cultures
– Abortion remains common in some parts of the world
– More common are various contraceptive devices
44
Cape Verde – Chile – Denmark
45
46
47
China – One Child Policy
48
Family Planning
% of Women Using Family Planning
49
Family Planning
Methods
50
Demographic regions
• Geography of gender
– Gender roles and culture
• Importance of number of children to men
and women
• Restriction of places where men and women
can go
– Education of women results in falling
fertility levels
– China and India—female-specific
infanticide or abortion
– Results of infanticide
51
Geography of gender
• Humanity is divided almost evenly between
females and males, but geographical
differences in the sex ratio occur
– Recently settled areas tend to have more males
than females
– Look at the next slides parts of Alaska, tropical
Australia
– Alaska 53% male
– Mississippi 52% female reflecting the emigration
of young males seeking better jobs
– Africa – 59% females in some poverty-stricken
areas
52
Geography of gender
• Gendered spaces: Daphne Spain
– Finds them in homes, schools, at work, and sometimes
regionally
– Males and females often spatially segregated
– Inequality of status, access to knowledge, and well-being
• Some cultures impose gender-specific place taboos
– Muslim countries
– Mount Athos peninsula in Greece
• Influence of WWII on Germany where lower
number of males, even 50 years later
53
Geography of gender
• Female-specific infanticide or abortion
– Most notorious in China and India
– Results from culturally-based preference for male
offspring
– About 100,000 ultrasound devices available, even to
rural Chinese peasants, allowing sexual identification
of fetuses
– By 2020 China will have 110 marriageable aged
males for every 100 females
– India today, has only 930 females for each 1000
males creating a profound gender imbalanc
54
Why Children?
55
Rural Pakistan
• In rural settings where a child becomes
an economic asst by the age of six, girls
train for early marriage and motherhood
by looking after their younger siblings.
• While studies show that more educated
women bear fewer children, only one in
four women is literate.
• The average Pakistani woman has
more than six children.
56
Rural Pakistan
• Since daughters will marry out of their
birth households, spending money on
their education is seen as wasteful.
• Parents prefer sons for their labor, oldage assistance, and pride of
accomplishement.
• With a natural increase rate of close to
3%, Pakistan is still in state 2 of the
demographic transformation.
57
Age distributions
• How countries differ
– Countries with almost half their population
under 15 years of age
• Kenya, Africa has the highest number
• Many other nations in Latin America, Africa,
and tropical Asia
– Early industrialized countries have greatest
preponderance of people in the over20/under-60 category age bracket
58
Age distributions
• Growing number of affluent countries have
remarkably aged population
– Sweden has 18 percent over the age of 65
– Other European countries not far behind
• In Africa, Latin America, or other parts of
Asia, the average person never lives to age
65
• In Sudan, Gambia, Saudi Arabia,
Guatemala, and other countries only 2 or 3
percent reach age 65.
59
60
Population pyramid
• Useful graphic device for comparing
national age characteristics
• Reveals past progress of birth control
• Allows geographers to predict future
population trends
• Broad based pyramids suggest the
rapid growth of population explosion
• Excessively narrow based pyramids
represent countries approaching
population stability
61
62
63
Age distribution
• Different cultures result in populations that
have large numbers of young or aged people
• Age structure differs spatially within individual
countries
• Rural populations
– In US and many other countries are usually older
than the urban areas
– In the United States, the flight of young people has
resulted in rural people having a median age of 45
years or older
64
Age distribution
• Retirement havens for the elderly
– Arizona and Florida have populations far
above normal average age
– Sun City, Arizona legally restricts
residence to elderly
– In Great Britain, coastal districts have a
higher proportion of elderly
65
Demographic regions
• Standard of living: Use of the infant
mortality rate
– One simple measure to map living
standards is using infant mortality rate
– Tells how many children die (per 1000 live
births) before reaching one year of age
– Reveals many different things
•
•
•
•
•
Health and nutrition
Sanitation
Access to doctors, clinics, and ability to obtain medicines
Education
Adequacy of housing
66
Demographic regions
• Standard of living
– Human Development Index
• Combines literacy, life expectancy,
education, and wealth
• Examples of where countries place on the
index
• Surprises about the United States
67
HDI 2005
• (Liberia, Puerto Rico,
Afghanistan, Macau,
North Korea, Iraq,
Andorra, Liechtenstein,
Monaco, Montenegro,
San Marino, Serbia,
Vatican City, Kiribati,
Marshall Islands,
Micronesia, Nauru, Palau,
and Tuvalu are not
ranked, either because of
an inabilty or an
unwillingness to provide
the necessary data.)
68
69
Standard of living
• East vs west component, brought on by
collapse of the Soviet empire
• Standard of living could be the basis of
future mass migrations or conflicts,
especially where rich border poor
70
Brazil
• This boy lives in a village
in the Amazon basin
accessible only by river.
– While the village has
electricity, there is no
plumbing and raw sewage
puddles in the dirt road.
– There is a clinic but no
resident doctor, a two-room
school but few supplies
– Television is received via
satellite
71
Amazon Village Cont.
• Chances for employment in the village
are negligible.
• Most young people seek economic
opportunity in mines and logging camps
or in larger settlements such as
Manaus.
• Will this boy join the ranks of the ruralurban migrants?
72
Population ecology
• Cultural ecology is quite relevant to the
study of population geography
• Successful adaptive strategy
– Permits a people to exist and reproduce in
a given ecosystem
– Population size and growth offer an index
to successful adaptation
• Maladaptive strategies can lead to
dwindling number, even extinction
73
Population ecology
• Preadaption – to what extend did a groups’
ways of living precondition them for success
in a new land?
• Successful cultural adaptation
– Can lead to catastrophe if it causes significant
environmental alteration and destruction so as to
undermine livelihood
– The key is sustainability
– Adaptive strategy must allow many generations to
use the land in more or less the same manner
74
Population ecology
• Environmental influence (Climate)
– Characteristics of mid-latitude
settlement population concentrations
– Human viewpoint of “defective climate
zones”
• Human remain creatures of the humid and
subhumid tropics, subtropics or mid-latitudes
• Small populations of Inuit (Eskimo), Sami
(Lapps), and others live in cold or dry areas
• In avoiding cold places, we may reveal even
today the tropical origin of our species
75
Population ecology
• Main reasons for American interregional
migration
– Mild winter climate and mountainous
terrain
– Diverse vegetation including forests, and
mild summers with low humidity
– Presence of lakes and rivers
– Nearness to seacoasts
– Where?
76
Population Ecology
• Immigrants to Arizona reveal a preference for
its sunny, warm climate
• Immigrants to Florida cite attractive
environment as the dominant factor
• Different age and cultural groups often
express different preferences as reasons for
migrating interregionally in the United States
– All are influenced by their perception of the
environment
– Misinformation is at least as important as accurate
impressions
– People often form strong images of an area
without ever visiting it
77
Population ecology
• Environmental influence (Climate)
– Preference for living at higher altitudes
in tropical regions
• Escape the humid, not climate of tropical
lowlands
– Reasons for the tendency to live near
seacoasts
• Partly stems from trade and fishing
opportunities
– How the presence of disease affects
settlement patterns—Africa
78
Aging and Environmental
Preference
• Landscapes of the elderly become
especially noticeable in societies with
aging populations – those with low birth
rates and long life expectancy.
• Many North American retirees become
part of a migratory population known as
“snowbirds.”
• Traveling northward in summer and
southward in winter, they frequently follow
specific circuits of places and events. 79
Quartzite, Arizona
• In the desert, a giant
swap meet and lapidary
festival is held in
February.
• Close to a million
people, mainly retirees
attend.
• More than 50,000 winter
in Quartzsite but in
summer as
temperatures rise, the
resident population
drops to about 3000 and
snowbirds head for
more comfortable climes
80
Hollow Shell
81
Sweden
82
Population ecology
• Continental interiors tend to be regions
of climatic extremes
– Australia’s interior is a land of excessive
dryness and heat
– Desert regions lack water and people
cluster together where it is available from
rivers (Nile), or oases
– Extreme cold of Siberia & North central
Canada
83
Water in the desert
84
Population density and
environmental alteration
• Through adaptive strategies people,
especially where population density is
high, can radically modify their habitats
• Can happen even in low density areas
where the environment is fragile
• The carrying capacity of Earth varies
greatly from one place to another
85
Worldwide Ecological Crisis
• Partly because at present densities many
adaptive strategies are not sustainable
• Close relationship between population
explosion and ecological crisis
• Haiti
– Rural population pressure particularly severe
– Most available biomass (humus) now being
used in small intensively cultivated kitchen
gardens
– Surrounding fields and pastures becoming
86
increasingly denuded
Population ecology
• Overpopulation can precipitate environmental
destruction
– Yields a downward cycle of worsening poverty
– Many cultural ecologists believe attempts to
restore balance of nature will not succeed until we
halt or reverse population growth
• Adaptive strategy is as crucial as density
– Population pressure can lead to more
conservational land use
– Rural China offers supportive evidence
87
Overpopulation?
• Overpopulation can precipitate environmental
destruction
– Yields a downward cycle of worsening poverty
– Many cultural ecologists believe attempts to
restore balance of nature will not succeed until we
halt or reverse population growth
• Adaptive strategy is as crucial as density
– Population pressure can lead to more
conservational land use
– Rural China offers supportive evidence
88
Ecological Crisis
• Worldwide ecological crisis is not just a
function of overpopulation
– Relatively small percentage of Earth’s
population controls much of the industrial
technology
– Absorbs a gargantuan percentage of the
world’s resources each year
– Americans (US), who make up less than
5% of the world’s population, account for
about 40% of the resources consumed
each year
89
Population Ecology
• The factor of disease in population
location
– Malaria depopulated Italy’s coastal regions
after Romantimes
– Diseases attack domestic animals,
depriving people of food and clothing
– Sleeping sickness in parts of East Africa
•
•
•
•
Particularly fatal to cattle, but not humans
Cattle represent wealth and provide food
Serve a religious function in some tribes
Its spread caused entire tribes to migrate from
90
infested areas
Disease can influence settlement
91
Population ecology
• Environmental perception and
population distribution
– Major role in where a group chooses to
settle
– Example: European Alps
– Industrialization caused people to
flock to new areas for work
– Climate and interregional migration in
the United States
92
Population ecology
• Population density and
environmental alteration
– Can cause radical alterations through
adaptive strategies
– Population explosion and ecological
crisis closely related
– Belief—balance of nature not possible
until population growth is stopped
– High consumption of resources in the
United States
93
Cultural-demographic interaction
• Cultural factors
– Example: cultural food preferences
– Religion as a factor in migration
– Need for personal space differs
between cultures
94
Cultural integration and population
patterns
• Cultural factors
– Basic characteristics of a group’s culture
influence the distribution of people
– Rice domestication influenced high
population growth in Southeast Asia
– In environments similar to Southeast Asia
where rice was not grown, populations did
not reach such densities
95
Changing Cultural Factors
• In the 1700s, the introduction of the
potato to Ireland allowed a great
increase in rural population
– It yielded much more food per acre than
traditional Irish crops
– In the 140s, failure of the potato harvests
reduced Irish population through starvation
and emigration.
96
Fertility Decline
• France – first place in the world where
sustained fertility decline took root
– Did not keep pace with nearby lands of
Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom
– Was the most populous of these four
countries in 1800
– Became the least populous after 1930 and
still is
– During the years between 1800 and 1930
millions of Germans, British, and Italians
emigrated overseas
97
Fertility Decline
• Few French left their homeland
• French Canadians in Quebec continued
to favor large families
– About 10,000 people left France between
1608 and 1750
– Today, Quebec’s population of about 7
million does not include those that
migrated to New England and other areas
• Some unknown cultural factor worked to
produce demographic decline in France
98
Culture & Migration
• Why some cultural groups differ in their
tendency to migrate
– Religious ties bind some to traditional homelands
• Travel outside sanctified bounds of the motherland
considered immoral
• Responsibilities to tend ancestral graves and perform rite
at parental death kept many Chinese in China
• Navajo Indians bury the umbilical cord in the floor of the
hogan at birth, which seems to strengthen attachment to
the house
– Some groups consider migration a way of life
– Poverty stricken Ireland proved so prone to
migration that today Ireland’s population is about
half the total of 1840
99
Political Factors
• Governments can restrict voluntary migration
• Haiti and Dominican Republic share island of
Hispanola
– Haiti supports 620 people per square mile
– The Dominican Republic has only 440 people per
square mile
– Government restrictions on migration into the
Dominican Repluc make migration form Haiti
difficult
– If Hispanola were one country its population would
be more evenly distributed
100
Hati-Dominican Republic
101
Political Factors
• All cultures have laws based in the political
system to maintain order within society
• Laws, especially those concerning
inheritance, can affect population density
– In Europe, the code derived from Roman law
requires that all heirs divide the land and other
property equally. Farms fragment as generations
pass. Rural population density increases
– In Germany, primogeniture is favored –
inheritance of all land passes to the firstborn son.
But in south Roman law was practiced and severe
rural overpopulation occurred in mid-nineteenth
century
102
Protein deficiency and
malnutrition
• Research often produces negative results that
are enlightening
• Experts long assumed vegetarianism in India,
based on Hindu belief, led to protein deficiency,
malnutrition, and resultant health problems
• Study revealed no spatial correlation between
vegetarians and consumption of animal protein
• Nonvegetarians also eat little or no meat
• Greatest protein deficiency occurs in areas
where rice, rather than wheat bread accounts
for the greater part of cereal consumption 103
Malnutrition in India
104
Diffusion of Fertility Control
• Needed for the final two stages of the
demographic transformation
– Successful cultural diffusion of effective
methods of birth control
– Acceptance that small families are
preferable to large ones
• Sustained fertility decline arose in
Europe in the first half of the 1800s
105
106
Fertility decline in
Europe
Diffusion of fertility control
• France was the country of origin
• Spread slowly at first, eventually diffused
through most of Europe
• Fertility decline became accepted as
countries industrialized and became
prosperous
• Root of population explosion caused by
failure of European idea of fertility control
to spread to less-developed countries
• Why?
107
Diffusion of fertility control
• Reasons for birth control in an
urban society:
– Investment of large sums of money
into the formal education of its
children
– The forbidding of child labor makes
children a financial burden
108
People’s Republic of China – One
Child Law
109
Enforced fertility control
• China: “one couple, one child”
• Authorities sought to halt population
growth and decrease the number of
people
• Penalties for violations of the policy
– Huge monetary fines
– Cannot request new housing
– Lose rather generous old-age benefits
provided by the government
– Forfeit their children’s access to higher
education
– Maybe even lose their jobs
110
Enforced fertility control
• Late marriages encouraged
• China’s falling fertility rate
– Plummeted from 5.9 births per woman
to 2.7 between 1970 and 1980.
– Was 2.2 by 1990
– Latest statistics 1.8
• China achieved one of the greatest
short-term reduction of birthrates ever
recorded
• Cultural diffusion can be coerced
111
Enforced fertility control
• China has less rigidly enforced its
population control program in recent
years
– Economic growth eroded government’s
control over the people
– Allowed more couples to have two
children instead of one
– Rise of economic opportunity and
migration to cities led others to have
smaller families
112
Diffusion of fertility control
• Barriers to diffusion of fertility control
• Example of India’s rural society
– Children may offer the only way out of a life of
poverty and an old age of solitary begging
– Costs of raising and educating a child are
minimal and grow smaller with every child
added to the family
– Children start working at an early age,
replacing expensive hired labor
– Without offering a method of attaching the root
problem, the struture of peasant poverty,
tenancy, and insecurity is to offer nothing
113
Resistance
• Religious teachings
• Cultural attitudes –
– Machismo
– Preference for males
• Dependence on male children for
old-age support
114
Diffusion in population geography
• Disease diffusion
– Example: HIV/AIDS diffusion across the
world
• Discussion of theories on its origin
• May have started as early as 1930
• No doubt it started in Africa
– HIV-1 – in east-central Africa
– HIV-2 – in the upper Niger River country in the
Guinea highlands of West Africa
– Role of transportation in diffusion
– All types of diffusion spread disease
115
Diffusion in population geography
• AIDS
– Apparently originated in the local monkey
population
– Passed on to humans through the local
cultural practice of injecting monkey blood as
an aphrodisiac
– HIV-2
• Most similar to the simian type
• Has had less impact on humans in its source
region
• Has not spread as widely beyond Africa as HIV-1
116
117
118
Disease diffusion
• Diffusion after humans became infected
– Apparently moved throughout central and
western Africa
– Followed transport routes and spread
through growing urban areas
– Haitians working at civil service posts in
Zaire (now Democratic Republic of Congo)
carried disease back to the Caribbean in
the early 1960s
– Europeans visiting central Africa diffused
AIDS back to Europe
119
Disease diffusion
• American male homosexuals
vacationing in Haiti likely contracted
the virus and spread it throughout the
gay communities in the United States
• Americans falsely believed the virus
was exclusively linked to homosexual
behavior
• Western Europe became a secondary
diffusion area
120
121
Disease diffusion
• Not all diseases spread by contagious
diffusion
• Relocation diffusion – tourism,
temporary migration
• Hierarchical diffusion – disease
spread by persons affluent enough to
participate in international tourism
122
Diffusion in population
geography
• Diffusion of fertility control
– Arose in France during first half of the
1800s
– Product of industrialization
– Children not needed for farm work
– Example: China and enforced fertility
control
123