Chapter Two Population

The world population is growing- over 6 billion people However, some regions have a much higher birth rate (number of babies born per a certain number of people each year)

Population People in MDCs tend to have fewer children per household now than in years past- why? LDCs tend to have more children per household than MDCs on average- why? LDCs tend to have high growth rates in population- why?

Population Population can tell us a lot about the world and human geography We study it because: – There are 6 ¾ billion people on the planet – The world’s population has been increasing faster than ever before in history since 1950 – Most of the global population growth is concentrated in LDCs

Population Demography is the study of population characteristics It looks at how people are distributed spatially, the density, the concentration, patterns, and characteristics of them like age, gender, occupation, fertility, health, income, etc…

Population This chapter looks at the following: – Where is the world’s population distributed? – Where has the world’s population increased? – Why is population increasing at different rates in different countries? – Why might the world face an overpopulation problem?

Where is the world’s population distributed? Not a uniform distribution across the earth’s surface? What might influence where people live?

Where is the world’s population distributed? We look at density (how many people there are in an area) and concentration (how close together or far apart they are- clustered or dispersed) 2/3s of the world’s population are clustered in four regions- East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Western Europe

Population The four clustered regions have some common ground: – Most people in the regions live near an ocean or river with access to an ocean (not landlocked) – The clusters are occupying generally low-lying areas – These regions have fertile soil and temperate climates

Population The four clustered regions have some common ground: – The regions are all in the northern hemisphere – All are between 10 degrees and 55 degrees north latitude (other than the southeast Asia cluster) – They are all also unique

East Asia 1/5 of the world live in East Asia- the land bordering the Pacific Ocean, including China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan 5/6s of those people live in China- the world’s largest (population-wise) country China has the 3 rd largest land area, but most people live along the eastern lands

East Asia Although China has many big cities, 2/3 of its people live in rural areas and are farmers

World Population Density

East Asia China has mountains and the Gobi Desert to the west and that is sparsely populated The east is much more clustered around the ocean and fertile river valleys The Korean Peninsula and Japan are also not uniformly distributed with people

East Asia Most people are in one of three main cities- Tokyo or Osaka, Japan or Seoul, South Korea- these three cover less than 3 percent of the 2 countries’ land area Most of the people live along bodies of water or the ocean in lower-lying areas rather than the mountainous interiors of the two countries

South Asia 1/5 of the world’s people live in South Asia This includes India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka India is the 2 nd most populated nation and has over ¾ of South Asia’s population

World Population Density

South Asia Most of these people live along rivers or the ocean in low-lying areas- like along the Ganges and Indus Rivers Like, China, although there are huge urban areas, most people are farmers living in rural areas

Southeast Asia This is the fourth largest region- pop. Half a billion people live in Southeast Asia, most on a series of islands between the Indian and Pacific Oceans These include Indochina (Laos, Thailand, Vietnam) and the islands of Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines Most live on Java in Indonesia- with over 100 million people

World Population Density

Southeast Asia Indonesia is the 4 th most populous nation on earth Again many live in big cities, but most people live on rural farms These three Asia areas account for over ½ the world’s population on less than 10 percent of the world’s land

Europe By combining the populations of western Europe, Eastern Europe, and the European portion of Russia, this is the third largest population cluster and 1/9 of the world’s population It includes over 48 countries This region is different from those in Asia because ¾ of the population live in urban areas and less than 20 % are farmers

World Population Density

Other Population Clusters In the western hemisphere, the largest population cluster is in northeastern US/southeastern Canada This represents 2 % of total pop. Like Europe, most are urban dwellers and around 5% are farmers California’s southwest, Mexico City, and parts of Brazil are also heavily populated

Other Population Clusters Another 2 % of the world’s population lives in western Africa- particularly along the south-facing Atlantic Coast like in Nigeria (*highest pop. in Africa) In Africa, most live in rural areas and are farmers

Distribution of World Population Population concentrations – The four largest population clusters – Other population clusters Sparsely populated regions – Dry lands– Cold lands – Wet lands– High lands Population density – Arithmetic density – Physiological density – Agricultural density

Sparsely Populated Areas Humans tend to cluster around certain environments- fresh water, trade venues, defensive locations, lower elevations, warmer climates The areas that are too wet, too dry, too cold, too hot, or too anything are not as desirable The portion of the earth’s surface that is occupied permanently is called the ecumene

Expansion of the Ecumene 5000 BC - AD 1900 Fig. 2-3: The ecumene, or the portion of the earth with permanent human settlement, has expanded to cover most of the world’s land area.

Ecumene, 5000 B.C.

Ecumene, A.D. 1

Ecumene, A.D.1500

Ecumene, A.D.1900

Sparsely Populated Areas Regions too dry for farming make up 20% of the world’s land surface The two largest of these are between 15 and 50 degrees north and 20 to 50 degrees south The largest spreads from north Africa (Sahara) across the Middle East (Arabian) to southeastern Asia (Gobi) The northern span also includes the Sonora and Mexican desert lands

Sparsely Populated Areas The southern area includes Australia’s outback, the Kalahari in South Africa, and parts of South America Deserts lack water and fertile land to grow crops and can’t support large populations A small percentage of people do live in deserts Some irrigate and grow crops, raise animals, or profit from natural resources like oil

Sparsely Populated Areas Lands that receive very high levels of precipitation (rain/snow fall) are also inhospitable and have lower populations These lands are located primarily near the equator – 20 degrees north and south of it Rainfall tends to be over 50 inches in these regions It also tends to be hot- making it very humid These are regions where rainforests thrive and growing crops is very hard

Sparsely Populated Areas The Congo, the Amazon, and some islands in southeast Asia and Oceania are included in this Some of these regions are seasonally wet and seasonally dry (monsoons) like in Asia and can grow crops enough to support a large population, but most of these regions cannot

Sparsely Populated Areas Extremely cold regions are also sparsely populated These tend to be concentrated at the north and south poles They are perpetually covered with ice or the ground is permanently frozen- permafrost These regions are also no suitable for farming and cannot sustain large populations

Sparsely Populated Areas High elevations are also sparsely populated areas The highest mountains are steep, snow- covered, sometimes oxygen deprived, and not suitable for agriculture A small percentage of the earth’s population live in mountainous regions like the Himalayas, Rockies, Alps, Andes, etc... There are even some large cities- Denver, Mexico City (2,243 meters)- on highland

World Population Distribution & Climate Zones Fig. 2-2: World population is unevenly distributed across the earth’s surface. Climate is one factor that affects population density.

World Population Density

Population in the US ing.america/map/index.html?&hpt=h p_c2

Climate Zones (simplified)

Population Density Density is the number of people occupying an area of land It can be measured as arithmetic, physiological, or agricultural

Population Density Arithmetic density is the total number of people divided by total land area This is population density In the US- pop. Is around 300 million and land area is 3.7 million miles Divide pop. by land area and you get 80 people per square mile on average Obviously, like per capita income, that’s an average

Arithmetic Population Density Fig. 2-4: Arithmetic population density is the number of people per total land area. The highest densities are found in parts of Asia and Europe.

Population Density Arithmetic density answers the where question in geography The number of people supported by a unit area of arable (farmable) land is called physiological density In the US it is 445 persons per square mile Egypt is 6,682 per square mi.

Physiological Density Fig. 2-5: Physiological density is the number of people per arable land area. This is a good measure of the relation between population and agricultural resources in a society.

Population Density Geographers compare arithmetic and physiological density to help them understand the capacity of the land to yield enough food for the people For example, Egypt’s densities compared shows that it has a sizeable population on a relatively smaller piece of land, but most of the land is not arable- all but 5% of Egypt live in the Nile delta and river valley

Population Density Agricultural density is the ratio of the number of farmers to the amount of arable lands This helps show economic differences which are evident by the different amounts of food produced The higher the number- the more people who are small-time farmers MDCs have lower agricultural densities because fewer people are farmers and have the technology and equipment to farm extensively and feed many

Population Density Physiological and agricultural densities can be compared The Netherlands have a high physiological density but low agricultural density, many they have a lot of people to feed but a small number of farmers can feed them because they are an MDC and have the technology India has a lower physiological but higher agricultural one because it is lesser developed with more small-scale farmers

Measures of Population Density

Where is the world’s population distributed? A cartogram (a map that is created using a different statistic to determine size than actual land area like amount of money or population) can show which countries are the “largest” in terms of population

World Population Cartogram Fig. 2-1: This cartogram displays countries by the size of their population rather than their land area. (Only countries with 50 million or more people are named.)

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