AICE Geography Unit 4 (Population)

ZPG definition

"Zero population growth;" describes the stabilization of the world's population total, and should be achieved when global birth rates drop to the level of global death rates.

The assumptions of the DTM

*-* Modernization (socio-economic progress) takes the form of a transition from a traditional, peasant society to an urban, industrialized economy. *-* The death rate responds very quickly to socio-economic progress. *-* The birth rate takes longer to respond to the changes. *-* During the period where fertility exceeds mortality, the total population will grow.

Census definition

A collection of data about a specific population, it can be about employment ethnicity, educational attainment, religion, patterns of social activity, housing, etc.

Human development index definition

A composite index that takes into account different factors that contribute to a country's level of development.

Replacement level definition

A fertility rate of two children per woman.

Demographic Transition Model

A graph that shows the changes in a country's birth rate, death rate, and total population over time. Time itself is not the independent variable, instead it's modernization or development. It can be applied to any country. It is divided into 5 stages.

Julian Simon (1981)

A very optimistic theory; believes that the supply of natural resources is really infinite. As a resource begins to run low, its price will rise and so it will be worth investing time and money in developing technology that will produce more of the resource or in developing alternatives to the resource or in reorganizing society so that it does not have to depend on that particular resource. Global exploitation of crude oil since 1980 supports this theory.

Quality of life definition

All of the factors than influence a person's wellbeing, such as wealth, social factors, environmental factors.

Medical infrastructure ((factors that affect mortality)

Areas with a shortage of medical facilities and trained medical staff have high death rates. A lack of hospitals and clinics means that people have to rely on traditional remedies when they get ill, and although these can be effective, they do not have the same success rates as modern medicines and medical techniques.

Infant mortality (factors that affect mortality)

Areas with high rates of infant mortality have high rates of mortality overall.

The year the global population reached 1 billion

Around 1800 during the Industrial Revolution.

Increasing purchasing power and a decent standard of living (standard of development used to produce an HDI)

As people get richer, they regard children as an economic liability rather than an economic asset (children must be clothed and educated, requires a large house, if parents want conveniences of modern life they need a small family). This is an economic incentive to reduce their fertility.

Religion (factors affecting levels of fertility)

Can lead to larger families or opposition of birth control (ex. Both Islam and Roman Catholic Christianity oppose the use of artificial birth control).

Factors affecting levels of fertility

Death rate (especially infant mortality rate), tradition, education, age structure of the population, religion, economic factors, government policy, and the status of women.

Development definition

Describes an increase in the total value of goods and services produced by a country, leading to an improvement in the people's welfare, quality of life, and social well-being.

Population momentum definition

Describes continued population growth that does not slow in response to growth reduction measures (such as contraception or natural disasters).

Working population definition

Describes individuals between ages 15 and 65.

Dependent population definition

Describes individuals under the age of 15 and over the age of 65.

Green Revolution definition

Describes innovations and improvements in food production that began in the 1940s by Norman Borlaug. Its helped alleviate the food crisis around the world.

Carrying capacity definition

Describes the maximum population that a particular environment can support.

Population structure definition

Describes the numbers of males and females within different age groups in the population. It allows for a detailed analysis of a country's population. It allows governments to plan ahead for the future needs of the population and it also allows for comparisons to be made between the populations of different countries, and how its population has changed over time.

Consumption triangle definition

Describes the relationship between population growth, resources, and economic development. Resources are needed to support the population growth and economic development; population growth; can stimulate economic development; population growth increases the demand for resources, as does economic development; economic development can lead to technological change which can lead to the production of new, alternative resources.

Sustainable development definition

Development which only uses resources and the environment in ways that ensure they will still be there for future generations.

Bjorn Lomborg (2002)

Directly challenges popular environmental concerns and believes that major problems such as pollution, HIV/AIDS, hunger, overpopulation, and species loss are area-specific and highly correlated with poverty. They can therefore be solved by economic and social development.

Reason for growth of human population

Discovery of farming, domestication of animals, developed technologies, developments in medicine, developments in water supply.

Injury-related diseases (factors that affect mortality)

Especially important in the young adult section of the population; examples include murders and war casualties (ex. Parts of central Africa, Iraq, and Afghanistan), road traffic accidents, and industrial industries.

Aspects of food security

Food availability, describes sufficient quantities of food that are available at all times; food access, describes where people have enough money or land to obtain food for a nutritious diet; food use, where people know what constitutes a good diet and they have the means to prepare and cook their food to provide themselves with this diet.

The impacts of a youthful population

Food supply will need to increase to feed the extra non-productive population; pressure on the health service; there may be a shortage of kindergartens and schools; there is pressure on the government to provide facilities and taxes may increase; anti-natalist policies may be put in place to reduce birth rate in fear of over-population; unemployment rates could increase; when children grow up this provides a large pool of relatively cheap labor which could attract industrial production and economic growth.

Government policy (factors affecting levels of fertility)

Governments set policies to either reduce or increase children. (ex. In the past, China used the one-child policy and in Russia pays families to have more children).

HIV/AIDS (factors that affect mortality)

Has a huge major effect on mortality rates. (ex. Botswana death rates as a result of this).

Population pyramid (population increase)

Has wider bases and tapering tops (ex. Burkina Faso, Stage 2 and Brazil, Stage 3); a usual indicator of possible poverty, lack of education, lack of contraception, etc.

Non-communicable diseases (factors that affect mortality)

Heart disease, high blood pressure, lung cancer, obesity, alcoholism, etc. These are becoming more common around the world as a whole as disposable incomes become more common. The causes of these disease include low physical activity, low cost of food, availability of refined foods, increased consumption of alcohol and tobacco, and increased life expectancy.

Changing fertility rates in HICs

Here population growth has been slow for several decades and some countries have already experienced a fall in population. (ex. the former communist countries of central and eastern Europe). Some countries are offering financial incentives for people to have children due to their falling populations (ex. Japan and Russia).

Thomas Malthus (1798)

Ideas of a pessimistic theory; believed that, if left unchecked, the population would always outstrip the food supply because population grows at a geometric rate while food can only grow at a constant rate. Population would be checked only by famine, disease, and wars over limited resources. Did not take into account the Green Revolution.

Paul Ehrlich (1968)

Ideas of a pessimistic theory; the planet has a well-defined size and contains finite resources, whereas humans have the ability to multiply themselves in endless quantities. Eventually overpopulation would become the cause of wars and environmental disasters over resources. Did not take into account the Green Revolution.

Esther Boserup

Ideas of an optimistic theory; believed that population growth would stimulate increased food supply through improvements in farming and technology. The improvements related to the Green Revolution support this view.

A long and healthy life (standard of development used to produce an HDI)

If people know that their children have a good chance of surviving, they don't have as many; government bans on child labor will make children less of an economic asset; some governments will enforce anti-natalist or pro-natalist policies depending on the growth of population; social expectations take a long time to change (religion or a man's status may be based off how large a family is).

Economic factors (factors affecting levels of fertility)

In LICs children are viewed as an economic asset- they can work on the family farm or in the family workshop, they can be sent to work in a factory at an early age, and they can support their parents in old age. Large amounts of children make a family richer. In HICs and LICs the opposite is true.

An aging population (factors that affect mortality)

In a country that has an increasing proportion of old people, death rates tend to rise.

Tradition (factors affecting levels of fertility)

In many areas in the world there is a cultural expectation that people will have large families and this tradition often overrides a woman's desire to stop having children. There may also be expectations of women to marry young (ex. Islam)

Death rate (factors affecting levels of fertility)

In the poorest countries, the birth rate is often high to compensate for the high rates of infant mortality. Improvements in healthcare, sanitation, and diet can reduce child deaths and therefore reduce the need to have so many children as security for the future (ex. in some parts of sub-Saharan Africa a woman must have 8 or 9 children to be 95% certain of having a surviving son).

Problems of population growth

Increased pressure on environment; increased risk of malnutrition and famine; increased demand for houses, education, healthcare, jobs, etc,

Education (factors affecting levels of fertility)

Increasing female literacy is a vital step towards lowering fertility. With education comes knowledge of birth control/contraception and more opportunities for employment outside of the home.

The standards of development used to produce an HDI

Increasing purchasing power and a decent standard of living, improvements in educational provision, and a long and healthy life.

Population policies definition

Influencing natural population change (a pro-natalist policy help increase populations in areas with aging populations ex. Russia), anti-natalist populations do the opposite); migration (encouraging immigration, ex. 19th century United states); redistribution (encouraging internal migration ex. to Brasilia in Brazil).

Disadvantages of the DTM

It is Eurocentric; it ignores regions between a country; it can't predict when a country will reach a certain stage or how long it will take to pass through each stage; it does not take into account the role of governments and the effect they have on population; it does not include the impact of migration; it cannot predict the effect of disease or war.

Advantages of the DTM

It is easy to understand, it is a universal concept, it provides a starting point for the study of demographic change over time; the timescales are flexible; it enables comparisons to be made between countries.

The status of women (factors affecting levels of fertility)

Many women in LICs are trapped by poverty and cultural expectations into a lifetime of childbearing, and suffer from ill health, second-class legal status, ad a lack of land. (ex. In Kerala, in southern India, women have a high social status; as a result birth rates and infant mortality rates are low, and poverty is declining).

Stage 2 of the DTM

Modernization stimulates improvements in medicine (vaccines), sanitation (clean water and sewage treatment), and hygiene (the use of soap), which led to a falling death rate. Children are still regarded as an economic asset so the birth rate remains high;; urbanization and industrialization are typical of this stage because population pressure drives people away from the farms (ex. Afghanistan and Yemen).

Economic development (factors that affect mortality)

Mortality rates fall as a country gets richer due to improvements in health, sanitation, education, etc.

Poverty (factors that affect mortality)

Most important factor leading to high death rates from to health, sanitation, education, STDs, etc.

In-migration definition

Movement within a country; moving into a new area to live there permanently.

Out-migration definition

Movement within a country; moving out of an area to live in a new area permanently.

Main features of the Green Revolution

New hybrid seed variations that have increased the yields of cereal crops (ex. Rockefeller Rice); better irrigation systems; increasing the use of chemical fertilizers; increasing the use of herbicides and pesticides; mechanization of farming; land reform programs; improvements in the rural transport infrastructure; new genetically modified versions of crops (ex. Golden Rice).

Overpopulation definition

Occurs in an area where the available resources are unable to sustain the population living there. An area can become overpopulated if its population grows to outstrip the resources or if the resources dwindle to a point where they can no longer support the people.

Underpopulation definition

Occurs where there are too few people in an area to use all the resources efficiently for the current level of technology.

The Club of Rome (1972)

Optimistic/Pessimistic; we still have 50 years to develop a truly sustainable global society- but it is up to us, and population growth is just one aspect of the drive to a sustainable future.

Reason for declines in human population

Pandemics (ex: Black Plague) but even in times of large death rates, global population still usually went up.

Types of population models

Pessimistic (models that predict a global population crash, ex. the ideas of Thomas Malthus) and optimistic (predict continued economic growth and the stabilization of the world, ex. ideas of Esther Boserup and Julian Simon).

Factors affecting changes in mortality

Poor nutrition, dirty water, lack of proper sewage disposal, poor healthcare, high STD and disease rates (ex. sub-Saharan Africa); good economy is directly related to death rate in that it allows countries to pay for healthcare, good nutrition, sewage, etc.; increasing GDP/person and a youthful population means that there are few deaths related to disease and old age; in countries with an aging population deaths related to old age are increasing (ex. Western Europe); death rates are high in former communist countries due to high levels of alcohol) consumption (ex. Russia).

Factors that increase the death rate

Poverty, famine, plague, war, natural disasters, political instability/corruption, and unfair trade policies.

Factors that affect mortality

Poverty, infant mortality, medical infrastructure, economic development, an aging population, HIV/AIDS, non-communicable diseases (NCDs), and injury-related deaths.

Optimum population definition

Reached when the population is in balance with the available resources of an area, given the current level of technology. It is very hard to achieve and harder to maintain.

Causes of a youthful population

Related to the demographic changes which occur when a country leaves Stage 1, and when it moves to Stage 2 the death rte drops but the birth rate remains the same; this leads to an increase in proportion of old people. A youthful population can also be because of when there are high levels of immigration.

Consequences of the Green Revolution

Requirement of expensive fertilizers; varieties of plants that are susceptible to pests; increased use of herbicides and pesticides which lead to pollution of water supply; salination of soil by improperly managed irrigation; mechanization has increased rural unemployment and encouraged rural-urban migration putting pressure on towns and cities; varieties can be low on minerals and vitamins.

The old-age index definition

Shows the proportion of elderly people in a population.

Juvenility ratio definition

Shows the proportion of younger people in the population.

Dependency ratio definition

Shows the relationship between the working population and the dependent population (ex. Germany has a dependency ratio of 52, meaning that for every 100 people in the working population, there are 52 people dependent on them).

Changing fertility rates in LICs and MICs

Since 1950, the fastest rates of population growth have been in the developing world. Birth rates are now declining and this fall is expected to continue. The growth rates in poorer countries are sowing but their populations are still expected to grow for several decades (ex. The greatest falls in fertility are expected over the next few decades in the LICs of Africa and the Islamic nations of the Middle East).

Population pyramid (population decrease)

Smaller bases, very highest amount in the 60-70 year range with tapering tops (ex. Japan, Stage 5); death rate is higher than birth rate due to the huge elderly population.

Causes of food shortages

Soil exhaustion; drought, floods, tropical cyclones, pests, disease, low capital investment, poor transport, wars, and biofuels.

Overall population change definition

The annual population change of an area is the cumulative change in the size of its population after both natural change and migration have both been taken into account. Population change is expressed by a percentage.

Fertility rate definition

The average number of children each woman in a population will have in her lifetime.

Life expectancy definition

The average number of years, from birth, that a person can expect to live. It is usually different for men and women (women tend to live slightly longer).

Net migration definition

The balance between immigration and emigration.

Natural increase definition

The change in the size of a population caused by the difference between the birth rate and the death rate. If the birth rate exceeds death rate, the population will grow (ex. Uganda).

Natural decrease definition

The change in the size of a population caused by the difference between the birth rate and the death rate. If the death rate exceeds birth rate, the population will fall (ex. Japan).

Stage 5 of the DTM

The country has arrived at the post-industrial phase with the economy dominated by service industries and hi-tech industries. The status of women is high and fertility rates decline even further as many women put a career before a family. The population is aging with a large number of old dependents. Death rate exceeds birth rate, leading to a decreasing population (ex. Japan).

Stage 1 of the DTM

The death rate fluctuates more than the birth rate because of occasional plagues and famines but because both rates are high and relatively equal, the population remains fairly constant. Only a few isolated tribes can be considered Stage 1.

Stage 3 of the DTM

The death rate stabilizes at a low level, while the birth rate falls due to improved standards of living, the education of women, and an increase in the use of contraception. Children are seen as an economic liability because child labor is made illegal. Women get employed more often and produces a large and productive working population, a small number of old people, and a falling percentage of young dependents (ex. India and Mexico).

Stage 4 of the DTM

The industrial society is fully developed and the country is now an HIC; both fertility and mortality are low and roughly equal so the population stabilizes and stops growing. Life expectancy continues to increase but the number of old dependents is still relatively low. The birth rate tends to fluctuate more than the death rate as it responds to economic conditions (ex. United States and Argentina).

Support ratio definition

The inverse of the dependency ratio and is less frequently used.

Improvements in educational provision (standard of development used to produce an HDI)

The longer children stay in education, the later they go out to work and the longer they are a drain on family finances (families with fewer children will experience less of a drain); people who are educated are more likely to understand about family planning and methods of contraception; educated women want to have a career as well as a family (and therefore wait longer and have fewer children in total); educated women are more likely to take control of their lives and make their own decisions.

Infant mortality rate definition

The number of children who die, under the age of one, expressed per thousand life births per year.

Death rate definition

The number of deaths per thousand people per year.

Birth rate definition

The number of live births per thousand people per year.

Population density definition

The number of people in a given area, usually measured as the number of people per square kilometer.

Anti-natalist policies definition

These policies are adopted when a country is worried that their population is rising too quickly, leading to overpopulation. The most effective way to do this is to educate the girls of a population (ex. 1-child policy in China)

Pro-natalist policies definition

These policies are adopted when a country is worried that their working population is declining and the number of old people is increasing (ex. Russia and China).

Age structure of the population (factors affecting levels of fertility)

This is important for the number of future births. (ex. In Mali, where the 48% of the population is under 16, more people are able to have children, opposed to Japan, where 14% of the population is under 16).

Standard of living definition

This mostly has to do with economics, money, and wealth.

Consequences of food shortages

Undernourishment; famine; vicious circles; aid dependency.

Population distribution definition

Usually shown on a map and uses variations in population density to show how people are spread out across an area.

Population pyramid (aging population)

Wide bases with wide middles, a tapering top, and the highest amount of people between the 50-60 year range (ex. the United States and the United Kingdom, both Stage 4).

Sections of population

Young dependents (children), working population (adults), and old dependents (adults).