Unit II: Population Density
Population Concentrations Ecumene: portion of earth’s surface occupied by permanent human settlement ¾ world pop live on 5% of earth’s surface….Why? 2/3 of world population lives in 4 regions 1.) EAST ASIA (China, Japan, Taiwan, Koreas) China has 20 large urban areas, but 2/3 pop is rural China = world #1 Population ¾ Japan and Korea = urban
4 Populous Regions 2.) SOUTH ASIA (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka) India = world #2 World Population (within the next 50 years, India is predicted to surpass China’s population) ¾ rural 3.) EUROPE – Western and central Europe and extends eastward into the Ukraine…mostly urban 4.) SE Asia (islands of Java, Sumatra, Borneo, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand) Indonesia = world #4 Vietnam is quickly becoming one of the fastest growing countries in the world Mostly rural
China and India expected to flip flop Top 10 Populous Nations 1. China 6. Pakistan 2. India 7. Russia 3. U.S.A. 8. Bangladesh 4. Indonesia 9. Nigeria 5. Brazil 10. Japan China and India expected to flip flop U.S. will stay #3 due to immigration LDCs taking top spots from MDCs
Arithmetic Density: total # of people divided by total area of land Population Density Arithmetic Density: total # of people divided by total area of land Can be misleading because this is an average US = 78/sq mile, but Manhattan is 67,000/sq mile and Loving, TX .1/sq mile Highest Density = Bangladesh, Japan, Netherlands Remember high population (China) not necessarily high population density
Population Density 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 population density or poor land Ex: US 404/sq mile of arable land Egypt 9,073/sq mile of arable land
In pairs, discuss the following questions How does Arithmetic Density differ from Physiological Density? How can both types of density measurements be helpful when studying demography?