Lecture 6 Population Trends: Historical and Regional Perspectives

Population Trends: Historical Perspective Human beings have been around for 200,000 years, or perhaps, one million years. In hunting-gathering society, the earth could perhaps support several million people. Population began to grow more noticeably after the Agricultural Revolution. During the first 90 percent of human experience, the population of the world had grown only to the size of New York City today.

Population Trends: Historical Perspective World population was approaching 1 billion on the eve of the Industrial Revolution (about 1750). Each day 200, 000 people, each year 79 million people are added to the large population base.

Population Trends: Historical Perspective Source: resource-availability-collide.html

Population Trends: Historical Perspective Pessimists have used terms like “Population Explosion”, “Population Bomb” to describe recent population growth.

Population Trends: Historical Perspective YearLower Est. (M)Upper Est (M) 10,000 BC110 5,000 BC520 1 AD

Population Trends: Historical Perspective You may want to watch Hans Rosling’s talk: obal_population_growth.html

Population Trends: Historical Perspective Early population growth was slow, not because birth rates were low but because death rates were very high. On the other hand, recent rapid increases are due to dramatic declines in mortality without a commensurate decline in fertility.

Population Trends: Historical Perspective World population growth has been accompanied by migration from rapidly growing regions into less rapidly growing regions. Initially, that meant an outward expansion of the European population, but more recently it has meant migration from less developed to more developed nations. Migration has also involved the shift of people from rural to urban areas. Urban regions are currently growing more rapidly than ever before in history.

Population Trends: Historical Perspective Source: U.S. Census Bureau, International Data Base

Population Trends: Historical Perspective Source: U.S. Census Bureau, International Data Base

Population Trends: Regional Perspective Countries and Areas Ranked by Population:2011 RankCountryPopulation 1China1,336,718,015 2India1,189,172,906 3United States311,050,977 4Indonesia245,613,043 5Brazil203,429,773 6Pakistan187,342,721 7Nigeria165,822,569 8Bangladesh158,570,535 9Russia138,739,892 10Japan127,469,543 Source: U.S. Census Bureau, International Data Base

Population Trends: Regional Perspective Source: U.S. Census Bureau, International Data Base North America Represents almost 5 % of the world population, with almost 90 percent in the US. The First Census (1790) counted 3.9 million people in the USA. By 1850, war and disease reduced the number of native Indians to as few as 250,000 from 2-3 million in The number of Europeans increased to 25 million in 1850.

Population Trends: Regional Perspective Source: U.S. Census Bureau, International Data Base Mexico and Central America Population has grown rapidly since the end of World War II. Three-fourths of population are concentrated in Mexico. (97 million in 2000). Death rates started to drop since 1920s without declines in births. A massive population has created pressure for migration.

Population Trends: Regional Perspective Source: U.S. Census Bureau, International Data Base South America Represents 6 percent of the world population. Brazil accounts for 50 %. TFR in Brazil fell from 6 in 1965 to 2.3 in Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia inhabited by indigenous population have higher mortality and fertility rates.

Population Trends: Regional Perspective Source: U.S. Census Bureau, International Data Base Europe Represents 12 percent of the world population. Russia accounts for 20 % of Europe’s population, followed by Germany, UK, France and Italy. Low fertility and mortality rates in Europe. Central and Eastern Europe is actually depopulating. Scandinavian countries have slightly higher fertility rates but still below replacement level.

Population Trends: Regional Perspective Source: U.S. Census Bureau, International Data Base Northern Africa and Western Asia Predominantly Muslim region. One of the highest rates of population growth (2 percent in Egypt). Youthful age structure has fueled discontent and threatened political stability.

Population Trends: Regional Perspective Source: U.S. Census Bureau, International Data Base Sub-Saharan Africa Represents 11 % of the world population. Nigeria accounts for 25 %.,followed by Ethiopia and Zaire. Population size decreased between 1600 and 1850 due to commercialization of slavery. Usually high fertility and death rates. AIDS is arresting growth and has reduced life expectancy since 1980s.

Population Trends: Regional Perspective Source: U.S. Census Bureau, International Data Base East Asia 1.5 billion people with 85 percent in China. Close to one in every four human beings is Chinese. Japan has the lowest level of mortality and the highest life expectancy in the world. China has a TFR of 1.8 and Japan 1.3. Low mortality has resulted in “graying” of Japan.

Population Trends: Regional Perspective Source: U.S. Census Bureau, International Data Base South and South-East Asia One-third of world population. Two third of the region’s population are in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Indonesia has one of the lowest fertility among Muslim nations. Indonesia relocated people from one island to another to deal with overpopulation ( confucious’s solution).

Population Trends: Regional Perspective Source: U.S. Census Bureau, International Data Base Oceania Known as “Overseas Europe”. Home to less than 1 percent of the world’s population. Indigenous people have higher birth and death rates (e.g., PNG).

Population Trends: Regional Perspective Source: U.S. Census Bureau, International Data Base

Density of Population Source: U.S. Census Bureau, International Data Base

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