Where is the world's population distributed?
The world's population is not equally distribuated over the whole earth. This key issue will help us understand why that is by developing an understanding of population concentration, sparsely populated regions, and population density.
- Population Concentrations:
Two-thirds of the earth's population are grouped into four main regions. These are East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Western Europe. These areas have a high population concentration and can be shown by a cartogram. A cartogram shows the size of a country based of of its population. (picture shown) The four major regions have several things in common. For example, they are all located near a river or an ocean, they are low-lying places, and have a comfortable climate. - East Asia
- East Asia occupies one-fifth of the world. It mostly includes China, Taiwan, Japan, and Korea. The country with the highest concentration is China. The people here are clusterd tawards the coast, and most of them live in rural areas. In South Korea and Japan, most of the people live in the cities and have service jobs.
- South Asia
South Asia includes India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, and one-fifth of the world's population lives here. Most of the people that live here live along the Ganges and Indus rivers. Most of the people are farmers and live in ruarl areas.- Southeast Asia
- Nearly 500,000,000 live in Southeast Asia, and are on the islands between the Pacific and Indian Ocean. Most of the people that live here work the land, and live in rural areas unlike the people in Japan.
Europe- This area contains Western and Eastern Europe and parts of Europe that are in Russia. All in all there are 48 countries. About 75% of the population lives in urban areas while about only 20% work the land. Most of these countries depend on trade and commerce to gain enough resources to support it.
- Eastern North America
- About 2% of the world’s population live here and all but 5% live in cities
- Sparsely Populated Regions
People choose to live in specific environments. Most people want to live in areas that have a fairly warm-climate and are mid-latitude. This concept can also be represented by a term called ecumene which refers to the portion that humans have permanently marked at a place to live.- Dry Lands
- This refers to the areas that are too dry to become farmland. It is not useful for agriculture, but very useful for collecting natural resources.
- Wet Lands
- This refers to areas that receive too much precipitation; however, it the precipitation is just very heavy during a specific part of the year then people can adapt and grow certain food there.
- Cold Lands
- This refers to areas that are covered in ice; this mainly includes the North and South Pole.
- High Lands
- This refers to areas that have too much of an intense elevation; not many people live in these are
- Population Density
- This is the amount of people living in an section of land. There are many different ways to figure out the density of a certain area. For example, a city has a higher density than a rural town.
Arithmetic Density- One can find this by dividing the total number of people in an area by the total land area. For example, to find the arithmetic density for the US, you divide the amount of people (300 million) by the amount of land (3.7 million square miles) and you get 80 people per each square mile.
- Physiological Density
- This is the number of people that is sustained by a unit of farmable land. For example, Egypt has a physiological density of 2,580 people per square kilometer.
- Agricultural Density
- The ratio between the amount of arable land and the number of farmers. For example, the US has a low agricultural density because there is 1 farmer per square kilometer.
- Details
- Demography can be described as the study of the characteristics of a population. Demographers look at a population’s ethnicities, ages, density and more.
- Globalization is the process that results in making something worldwide in scope. This has been largely influenced by trade and technology.
- Overpopulation is the condition when a population exceeds the carry capacity of an area. For example, overpopulation is an issue in East Asia and especially Japan.
This video discusses why the population density and concentration is the way it is in South and Central America. It also talk about which regions have a very high population and which ones have a low population.
Key Issue #2:
Where has the world’s population increased?
One can tell because all of the characteristics or aspects follow similar patterns so they are easy to determine and follow.
Natural Increase
Crude Birth Rate (CBR)- total number of live births in a year for every 1,000 people alive in the society. This can be determined by demographers and used in finding the NIR. For example, in Africa the CBR is very high compared to the UK.
Crude Death Rate (CDR)- the annual number of deaths per 1,000 people of the total population.
Natural Increase Rate (NRI)- this is the percentage by which a population grows per year. It can be found by finding the difference between the CDR and the CBR.
The NRI is lower in our world today than it was ten years ago. Part of the reason it has dropped is because the population base is higher now than it has been in years past. Also this has affected the doubling time which is the number of years needed to double a population if there is a constant NIR. For example, if the NIR had followed it’s doubling time 35 years ago then the population today would be half a billion higher; however, it declined so it did not follow the predicted doubling time. Even though the NIR has dropped the greatest population growth in the past ten years has been in Asia.
Fertility- Total Fertility Rate (TFR)- is the average number of children a woman wil have during her child bearing years. This is measured the find the number of births in a society.
Mortality
- There are 2 measures of mortality, infant mortality rate and life expectancy. The infant mortality rate (IMR) is the annual number of deaths of infants under 1 year of age compared to total live births. The highest rates are usually in the poorest countries while the lowest are in the more developed countries. The IMR also shows a country’s medical or health-care system. Life expectancy measures the average number of years a new born infant can expect to live at current mortality levels. This is lowest in the poor countries and high in developed countries.
In this video, a Kenyan politician explains that the child fertility rate is the lowest it has ever been. I found this video to be interesting since Kenya is one of the countries with the highest fertility rate.
Key Issue #3:
Why is population increasing at different rates in different countries?
o Today, there are no countries in stage 1; however, there are countries remaining in all the other stages. For example one country in stage two is Cape Verde. Cape Verde is in stage 2 because it has a higher death rate than other countries because it struggles with famine and diseases such as malaria. Chile is one country that is in stage 3. It is in stage 3 because there is such a large gap between the death rates and the birth rates. Denmark is an example of a country in stage 4. Its birth and death rates are almost evened out, and the age distribution over its population is fairly even.
Why might the world face and overpopulation problem?
§ Malthus wrote about this in his book The Principle of Population and stated that the population will grow exponentially and food supply will grow linearly. Garret Hardin and Paul Ehrlich agreed with Malthus and stated that economic growth must be faster than population growth; otherwise, impoverishment is the outcome.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8v6W_CsOXs&feature=related
· Demographic Transition
o A demographic transition is a change in society’s population and there are several stages. A country can be at any one of these stages and each country’s stage is determined by their birth rate, death rate, and natural increase.
o Stage 1: Low Growth
§ During this stage there is a low birth rate and a very high death rate. For the natural increase the population remains fairly steady. Around 8000 B.C., there was the agricultural revolution which was a time when human beings first domesticated plants and animals and no longer relied on entirely on hunting and gathering. Even though this occurred, they still remained in stage 1.
o Stage 2: High Growth
§ During this stage the birth rate is very high, but the death rate is falling rapidly, and there is a very rapid increase in the natural increase. After 1750 countries began to enter into stage 2 because of the industrial revolution. This was a conjunction of major improvements in industrial technology. This allowed more money to be made for those countries which in turn helped their communities to become healthier. This also led to the medical revolution. This was an outbreak of new medical technology and improved medical practices. This medical revolution helped countries migrate into stage 2 because know people were living longer.
o State 3: Moderate Growth
§ During state 3, the birth rate is falling rapidly and the death rate is falling more slowly. There is a rapid increase in the natural increase.
o Stage 4: Low Growth
§ During stage 4, the birth rate is falling more slowly, but there is only a slight fall in the death rate. The natural increase has a very slow increase. Also, in stage 4 the CBR and CDR equal out and they are roughly the same. This is called zero population growth.
· Population Pyramids
o Population pyramids is a way that a country’s population can be displayed by age and gender groups on a bar graph. On a traditional population graph females are on the right side, and the males are on the left. The age goes from lowest to highest (bottom to top).
o Age Distribution is the age structure of a population. One important factor of age distribution is the dependency ratio; which is the number of people who are too young or too old to work, compared to the number of people in their productive years. The dependency ratio can be used as an effective way to compare and contrast different countries.
o In population pyramids you also have to take into consideration gender and the sex ratio. The sex ratio is the number of males per hundred females in the population. This will be different for each country because it depends on birth rates and death rates for both sexes.
· Countries in Different Stages of Demographic Transition
o Today, there are no countries in stage 1; however, there are countries remaining in all the other stages. For example one country in stage two is Cape Verde. Cape Verde is in stage 2 because it has a higher death rate than other countries because it struggles with famine and diseases such as malaria. Chile is one country that is in stage 3. It is in stage 3 because there is such a large gap between the death rates and the birth rates. Denmark is an example of a country in stage 4. Its birth and death rates are almost evened out, and the age distribution over its population is fairly even.· Demographic Transition and World Population
o Now most countries are in stage 2 or 3, few are in stage 4, and there are none in stage 1. Most of Europe and North America are in stage 4, but African, Asian, and Latin American countries are in stages 2 or 3 because of their rapid population growth and lack of the evening out of the birth and death rates.
This video above displays the Demographic Transition Model Graph and describes the characteristics of the different stages. It also displays stage 5 which economist are debating its involvement in the Demographic Transition Model.
Key Issue #4:Why might the world face and overpopulation problem?
· Malthus on Overpopulation
· Thomas Malthus was an economist who proposed that population growth will surpass the food supply leading to a starvation pandemic. He believed that if the population grew to big that the economy couldn’t support it.
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o Population Growth verses food supply
§ Malthus wrote about this in his book The Principle of Population and stated that the population will grow exponentially and food supply will grow linearly. Garret Hardin and Paul Ehrlich agreed with Malthus and stated that economic growth must be faster than population growth; otherwise, impoverishment is the outcome. o Malthus also had many critics. Some of them included Karl Marx who stated that overpopulation was the product of capitalization. There was also Julian Simon who said that the ultimate resource in the human mind, and Esther Boserup, who said that population growth supports technological innovation.
· Debate over how to reduce natural increase
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| Economic Development Alternative |
o Lower Birth Rates have consoled economist and showing them that maybe there might not be such a big risk of overpopulation. Since they have declined in the last 20 years economist have thanked the promotion and distribution of contraceptives, but they stated that they best way to lower birth rates is different for each country. Another view point to lowering birthrates is the economic development alternative. This states that if a community has more money then they can spend it on education and health-care programs that would help lower the birth rates.
o Higher death rates are the cause of diseases that keep adapting to the antibiotics or treatment and making it difficult to cure such diseases.
This video is about the Malthusium Theory. It gives a great explanation about his predictions of what was going to happen, and how very small aspects of his theory were correct.
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