POPULATION DISTRIBUTION AND DENSITY

POPULATION DISTRIBUTION REFERS TO THE WAY POPULATION IS DISPERSED AROUND THE WORLD SOME SPARSELY POPULATED. SOME AREAS DENSELY POPULATED V. UNEVEN NEGATIVE FACTORS THAT DISCOURAGE SETTLEMENT POSITIVE FACTORS THAT ENCOURAGE PEOPLE TO SETTLE IN CERTAIN PLACES

Positive factors – encourage population Favourable climate – no extremes of temps. Eg Ireland, England Flat land easy to build on – fertile land for agriculture - brown earth, alluvium– eg East Asia , Philippines, Eastern China – (rice growing areas) support huge rural populations. Over 80% of all people live below 500m Wealth and raw materials to stimulate industry – presence of coal in Western Europe in Industrial Revolution – availability of oil and gas eg France, Germany. Highly industrialised cities in East Asia eg Tokyo. Access to coastal areas – encourages development of industry – oil and gas as sources of electricity available here. Easy imports and exports – Eg India – Kolkata and Mumbai Good communication routes – focal points – eg Paris – access to urban areas – markets, jobs

NEGATIVE FACTORS THAT DISCOURAGE POPULATION DENSITY Climatic extremes - too hot, too cold Sahara Desert – drought makes agriculture and human survival v. difficult Much land is rocky, stony or sandy and so inaccessible Northern Canada – too cold – long dark, v cold winters – temps -18F in Winter – Area very remote – v few roads – inaccessible= Communities small and scattered -

Steep and infertile land that is difficult to farm or build on Steep and infertile land that is difficult to farm or build on. V high mountains with little access – or dense forests eg Amazon Basin Hot, wet rainforest discourages settlement Soils that rapidly become infertile discourage agriculture Region quite inaccessible and contains few roads -

Population Density Is used to help measure the distribution of people through the world, It is calculated by dividing the total population of an area by the size of the area It is then represented as the number of people per KM 2 Ireland’s is about 65 per KM2 4,581,000 million people ---- 70,000sqkm