AP Human Geography Population Vocab

Cairo conference

United Nations held an International conference on population in 1994 in Cairo, Egypt. It's resulting Program of Action is the steering document for the United Nations

population pyramid

a bar graph representing the distribution of population by age and sex

census

a complete enumeration of a population

zero population growth

a decline of the total fertility rate to point where the natural increase rate equals zero

Thomas Malthus

an Englishman who wrote an essay in the 1800's regarding population. He brought up the point that we may be outrunning our supplies because of our exponentially growing population. Overpopulation is a danger and food supplies will run out

child mortality rate

annual # of deaths of children under the age of 5, compared with total live births

neo-malthusians

argue against cornucopians. They believe the ideas of Thomas Malthus. Population can grow faster than food production which could result in starvation if human growth is not limited

Natalist Con

believes that there needs to be limits placed on the # of children per couple

contraceptive

birth control, for the purpose of limiting reproduction

population agglomerations

cities that are one million or over in population

epidemiological transition

distinctive causes of death in each stage of the demographic transition

Natalist Pro

encourages child bearing; italians

demographic equation

equation that summarizes the amount of growth or decline in population during a certain period of time, also taking into account the net migration and natural increase.

Gravity Model

interaction is proportional to the multiplication of 2 populations divided by the distance between them

arable land

land suitable for crops and for people to live on

cornucopians

people that believe our supply of resources is basically infinite. They argue that we could exploit outer space, or use resources that we can't even imagine now. This optimistic perspective is often referred to as "cornucopions" in reference to cornucopia or horn of plenty

total fertility rate

the average number of children a women will have throughout her child bearing years

life expectancy

the average number of years an individual can be expected to live, given current social, economic and medical conditions. Life expectancy at birth is the average number of years a newborn infant can expect to live

age distribution

the distributions of age in a population

carrying capacity

the largest # of people that the environment of a particular area/country can support

sex ratio

the number of males per 100 females in the population

overpopulation

the number of people in an area exceeds the capacity of the environment to support life at a decent standard of living

physiological density

the number of people per unit of area of arable land, which is land suitable for agriculture

dependency ratio

the number of people under the age of 15 and over the age of 64 compared to the number of people active in the labor force

doubling time

the number of years needed to double a population, assuming a constant rate of natural increase

natural increase rate

the percentage growth of a population in a year, computed as the crude birth rate minus the crude death rate

ecumene

the portion of Earth's surface occupied by permanent human settlement

demographic transition

the process of change in a society's population from a condition of high crude birth and death rates and low rate of natural increase to a condition of low crude birth and death rates, low rate of natural increase, and a higher total population

agricultural density

the ratio of the number of farmers to total amount of land suitable for agriculture

demography

the scientific study of population characteristics

infant mortality rate

the total number of deaths in a year among infants under 1 year old for every 1000 live births in a society

crude death rate

the total number of deaths in a year for every 1000 people alive in the society

crude birth rate

the total number of live births in a year for every 1000 people alive in society

arithmetic density

the total number of people divided by the total land area

J-curve

this is when the projection populations shows exponential growth; sometimes shaped like a "j". This is important because if the population grows exponentially, our resources will go up exponential and so will our use and greater demand for food

s-curve

traces the cynical movement upwards and downwards on a graph of population, giving the shape of the letter "s"