I & S: Global Interactions, Choices and Population

• Population Distribution is about how people are spread across the earth.

  When we study population distribution we examine why some places have populations which are more tightly packed than others.
• Human Geography: study of PEOPLE and their communities, cultures, economics and interactions with the environment
• Physical Geography: study of the EARTH‘S SURFACE, including land formation, climate, currents and distribution of flora and fauna
• Why Birth Rates Change/Why Death Rates Change

  Social Factors 

  Economic Factors 

  Environmental Factors 

  Political Factors 

  Social-cultural aspects such as  attitudes, behaviors, religion, cultural, family, education, immigration

  Economic aspects such as economic growth, industries, employment, trade

  Ecological and environmental aspects relate to aspects  such as weather, climate, pollution

  Government aspects of  operation and intervention- laws, political parties, services provided   
• The Five Stages of the Demographic Transition Model:
• 1st stage:

  • High birth rates (often rural, more likely to have five children if it is likely that some will die)
  • High death rates (due to bad healthcare)
  • Characterized by a poor country that stays poor
• Population Pyramids: What can they tell us? 

  • Predictor of future population trends
• Dependency Ratio

  Indicator comparing the non-working population (0-14 and 65+) with the working population (15-64). 
• What if a country’s dependency ratio is 40 out of 100?

  Every person working is supporting 0.4 non-working people 
• High dependency ratio - either very poor and the birth rate has not come down yet or very rich and no one is having children…
• A low dependency ratio is more desirable as it indicates that there are proportionally more adults of working age to support the non-working population.
• Analysing graphs - T.E.A

  Trend - summarise patterns, connections or similarities between places, or Time periods, address the highest and lowest measurements

  Examples - provide examples form the graph relevant to your summary

  Anomaly - identify place/time that is not consistent with the pattern, connection or similarity
• Pro-Natalist Policy - policy which aims to encourage more births (this can include through incentives).

  Anti-Natalist Policy - policy which aims to discourage births (this can be through incentives and sanction [penalties/punishments] or direct action [abortions/sterilisations]).
• Analysing Maps - P.E.A.

  Pattern - summarise patterns, connections or similarities between places

  Examples - provide examples from the map relevant to your summary

  Anomaly - identify place that is not consistent with the pattern, connection or similarity
• Demographic transition model (DTM) depicts the demographic history of a country
• Transition from high birth and death rates to low birth and death rates as a country develops from a pre-industrial to an industrialized economic system
• Pre-industrial defined as the time before the Industrial Revolution, where economic activity was at a subsistence level for family consumption and survival
• Industrialized country defined as a country characterized by industry on an extensive scale
• Phase 1 (before development):

  • High birth and death rates
  • High birth rates subside in for high death rate
  • Lower death rate leads to more doctors and medicine, but still a high birth rate
• Population structure (Pyramids) show the amount of people in each age band and the balance of the male and female population
• If the population pyramid doesn't have a lot of change in the bottom two-thirds but then decreases in the older ages, the growth is stable or slow, mostly in middle-income countries
• Some countries have a negative or decreasing population pyramid, where the top and bottom thirds are smaller than the middle third. This is often seen in countries with high life expectancy
• Dependency ratio

  Indicator comparing the non-working population (0-14 and 65+) with the working population (15-64)

  A low dependency ratio is viewed as more desirable as this indicates that there are proportionally more adults able to support the non-working population of that country.
• Natural Increase

  The difference between the crude birth rate and the crude death rate 

  (Crude Birth Rate) - (Crude Death Rate) = Natural Increase
• Fertility Rate

  The average number of children that would be born alive to a woman during her lifetime
• Life Expectancy

  The average number of years a person may expect to live when born 
• Infant Mortality Rate

  Number of deaths of infants under 1 year of age per 1000 live births given in a year
• Child mortality Rate

  Number of deaths of children under 5 years of age per 1000 live births in a given year
• Population Density

  This is how tightly packed people are in a certain area. It is measured as the number of people per square kilometre. In order to calculate it we divide the total number of people who live in a place by the land area in square kilometres.
• 3rd stage:

  • Marks the start of a country’s transition towards lower population growth
  • Birth rate is falling, and the death rate is falling more slowly
• 2nd Stage:

  • Birth rate stays high
  • Death rate is declining rapidly (better economy, more access to medicine, resources, dependency ratio improved)
  • Stage in which population is growing the fastest
  • Harder to get the birth rate to fall since its easy to get medicine to people but can’t supply contraception to every woman in a country 
• 4th Stage:

  • Not much difference between the number of children being born and people dying
  • Low birth rate, low death rate
• Factors affecting Population Density

  Physical Geography

  Relief: Mountainous land vs flat land

  Resources: Water, fertile soil, fish, wood, coal, oil, etc.

  Climates: Tropical, mild, desert, tundra

  Human Geography

  Political factors: government stability

  Social factors: schools, hospitals, medical services available

  Economic factors: job opportunities
• Crude Birth Rate

  The number of live births occurring among the population of a country in a year per 1,000 people
• Crude Death Rate

  The number of live deaths occurring among the population of a country in a year per 1,000 people
• Factors impacting Death Rate

  • Former industrial areas - mining, dockyards
  • Smoking, poor diet
  • Air pollution
  • Access to healthcare (overused, run down)
  • Sanitation/disease prevalence
  • Lifestyle choices
• Factors impacting birth rate

  • Access to family planning
  • Cultural norms
  • Education levels, especially of women
  • Economic conditions
  • Government policies
  • War, conflict and natural disasters