UNIT TWO:
POPULATION
Population Intro
• Why important to study?
– More people on earth than at any other time in
history (7+ billion)
– World’s pop increased faster in second half of 20th
Century than ever before
– Almost all global pop growth is occurring in
LDCs…poorest countries growing fastest…in some
cases leads to famine and human suffering
– People are living longer – past 50 yrs global life
expectancy has increased by 20 yrs
STOP: Continents Discuss:
• Why are there more people!?
• So why mostly in the LCD’s?
DEMOGRAPHY
• Demography: study of human population
• Most demographers agree world
population growth is slowing – why?
• Project population will plateau at @ 12
billion some time in 21st C
• Historically population growth has been
steady but certain events have checked
it…..such as?
How Get Demographic Information? The
Census
• The US Census is taken every 10 years to count
the population of the country.
• Gender, Age, Race, Income, Disabilities,
Education . . .
• The #’s are important as they determine
government funding
• Many protest that not all of the population is
counted – homeless
• UN collects data on world population, as well as,
The World Bank and Population Reference Bureau
Key Issue #1: Population Concentrations
• Ecumene: portion of earth’s surface occupied
by permanent human settlement
– ¾ world pop live on 5% of earth’s surface….Why?
• Sparsely Populated Regions
– Dry
– Wet
– Cold
– Highlands
Heavily Populated Regions
• 2/3 of world pop lives in 4 regions
1.) EAST ASIA (E. China, Japan, Taiwan,
Koreas)
• 1/5 of the world’s population
• Clustered near the coast
• China has 20 large urban areas, but 2/3 pop is
rural
• China = world #1 in population
• ¾ Japan and Korea = urban
Heavily Populated Regions
2.) SOUTH ASIA (India, Pakistan,
Bangladesh, Sri Lanka)
•
•
•
•
•
1/5 of the world’s population
Clustered near rivers
Confined by natural boundaries (Himalayas . . .)
India = world #2 in population
¾ rural/farmers
Heavily Populated Regions
3.) EUROPE ( E and W)
• mostly urban
• 1/9 of the world’s population
4.) SE Asia (islands of Java, Sumatra,
Borneo, Papua New Guinea, Philippines,
Vietnam, Thailand)
•
•
•
•
Indonesia = world #4 in population
Mostly rural
Mainly islands
Clustered near rivers and deltas
STOP: Continents Discuss
• What are at least 3 similarities between
the most populous regions?
Differences?
• Where are some other population
clusters in the world?
Top 10 Populous Nations
•
•
•
•
•
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
China
India
U.S.A.
Indonesia
Brazil
6. Pakistan
7. Russia
8. Bangladesh
9. Nigeria
10. Japan
– China and India expected to flip flop
– U.S. will stay #3 because of immigration
– LDCs taking top spots from MDCs
Population Density
• Arithmetic Density: total # of people
divided by total area of land (ratio)
-used to compare conditions in different countries
-enables geographers to compare # of people trying to
live on a given piece of land in different regions of
the world.
• Highest = Bangladesh, Japan, Netherlands
• Remember high pop (China) not necessarily
high pop density
World Population Density
Problems with Arithmetic Density
• Arithmetic Density does not
always accurately portray
population distribution.
• Can be misleading b/c is an
average
– Examples: Egypt had a
population of 73.3 million in
2004, and an arithmetic
density of 190 per square
mile. However, 98% of the
population lives on only 3% of
the land making the density
meaningless.
– US = 78/sq mile, but
Manhattan is 67,000/sq mile
and Loving, TX .1/sq mile
Pop Density cont’d
• Physiological Density: ratio of people to
a given unit of cultivable/arable land
(suited for agriculture)
– i.e. can you feed your population?
– Can be high because of high pop density or
poor land
– Ex: US 404/sq mile of arable land
Egypt 9,073/sq mile of arable land
Agricultural Density
Definition: ratio of farmers to the amount of
arable land.
MDC’s have LOW Agricultural Density because
of technology.
Putting Agriculture and Physiological densities
together allows you to look at the
relationship between population and
resources.
Density Chart
Arithmetic Density
Canada
3
Physiological
Density
65
Agricultural
Density
1
US
Egypt
32
79
175
2296
2
251
Japan
India
338
356
2695
690
46
163
Netherlands
Bangladesh
398
1127
1748
1927
23
472