Population

• Percentage employed in agriculture

  Higher percentage means a developing country, more people live in rural areas and rely on farming
• Income per capita


  Higher income means a more developed country, suggests manufacturing, service or IT related jobs
• Energy consumption


  Higher energy consumption means a more developed country, reflects greater use in housing and industry
• Literacy rate


  Higher literacy rate means a more developed country, reflects expenditure on schools, children not sent out to work
• Calories per person


  Higher calories per person mean a more developed country, better farming methods, access to food
• People per doctor


  Higher number of people per doctor means a developing country, hospitals overcrowded, lack of trained doctors, more disease
• Percentage access to clean water


  Lower percentage means a developing country, lack of piped water, taps, lack of sanitation, more people in shanty towns
• Problems of using single indicators

  • Average figure for the country as a whole is unreliable as there are many variations within a country
  • Single indicators do not account for differences between urban and rural areas, or poor shanty towns and rich inner city areas, or regional differences
• Physical factors affecting population distribution

  • Climate - few people live in Sahara desert, Arctic
  • Relief - flat areas easier to build/grow crops, mountainous areas difficult
  • Natural disasters - avalanches, landslides, earthquakes
  • Coastal areas allow trade and tourism
  • Fertile soils allow crop growing
  • Dense forests make areas inaccessible, grasslands allow grazing
  • Mineral resources attract people
• Developed countries


  Have advanced education systems, advanced health care, technology and many industries
• Developing countries

  Only have basic schooling, few doctors and many working in farming
• Gross Domestic Product (GDP)

  The total value of goods and services produced by a country in a year. Higher the GDP, more developed a country is
• Gross National Product (GNP)


  Measures the total economic output of a country, including earnings from foreign investments
• Economic development indicators

  • Gross Domestic Product
  • Gross National Product
  • % employed in agriculture
  • Income per capita
  • Energy consumption
• Life expectancy


  Average age to which a person lives. Higher the life expectancy, the more developed the country
• Infant mortality

  Number of babies per 1000 births who die under the age of one. Low IM=developed country
• Social development indicators

  • Life expectancy
  • Infant mortality
  • Birth rates
  • Death rates
  • Literacy rate
  • Calories per person
  • People per doctor
  • % Access to clean water
• Average figure for the country as a whole is unreliable as there are many variations within a country
• Single indicators do not account for differences between urban and rural areas, or poor shanty towns and rich inner city areas, or regional differences
• Use of GNP can overinflate development due to oil resources
• A country might do well socially and not economically or vice versa
• A country might have a subsistence lifestyle or a barter economy where there are no exchanges of money
• Human Development Index (HDI)


  Uses 3 indicators (2 social and 1 economic): life expectancy, literacy rate and average income per person - GNI. Scale 0-1
• Physical Quality of Life (PQLI)

  Uses 3 social indicators: literacy rate, infant mortality and life expectancy. Scale 0-100
• Population distribution


  Location of people across the world/where people live
• Population density


  Number of people living in an area
• Population pyramid

  Graphical representation of the age and sex structure of a population
• Ethiopia has a wide base population pyramid indicating a high birth rate, lack of family planning, contraceptives, and sex education
• Germany has a low birth rate population pyramid due to people wanting smaller families, desire for larger houses, holidays, women following careers, and marrying later
• Rural developed country fens, East Anglia (Commercial arable farm)


  • Modern technology: Tractors, combine harvesters, crop sprayers, GPS controlled tractors
• Reasons for high birth rates in developing countries

  • Need children to work on the land and earn money
  • Children look after elderly relatives
  • Early marriage
  • Low status of women
  • Tradition and culture of large families
  • High infant mortality
  • Lack of family planning and contraception
• Reasons for low birth rates in developed countries

  • Women marry later and have fewer children
  • Improved status of women
  • Small family , material aspirations e.g mansions, cars etc
  • Family planning, contraception, abortions, sterilization
  • Government influences through incentives and policies
• Measures used to reduce birth rates

  • Laws on marriage age
  • Raise status of women, more employment opportunities
  • Government incentives
  • Family planning clinics, free contraception
  • Advertise advantages of smaller families
  • Improve education and literacy
• Reasons for high death rates in developing countries

  • Disease
  • Poor diets, malnutrition, famine
  • Little medical knowledge, poor hospitals, lack of healthcare
  • Poverty, poor housing, lack of sanitation
  • Natural disasters
  • Poor farmland
  • Poor communications
• Reasons for decline in death rates in developed countries

  • Medical advances in vaccines
  • Better technology and medical treatments
  • Better diets and farming methods
  • Better public health measures
  • Better health education
  • Rising living standards
• Demographic Transition Model

  Describes the transition of a population from high birth and death rates to low birth and death rates as a country develops
• Stages of the Demographic Transition Model

  • Stage 1: High fluctuating (high birth and death rates)
  • Stage 2: Early expanding (high birth, falling death rates)
  • Stage 3: Late expanding (falling birth, low death rates)
  • Stage 4: Low fluctuating (low birth and death rates)
  • Stage 5: Declining population (birth rate below death rate)
• Human factors affecting population distribution

  • Job opportunities
  • Transport
  • Services
  • Technology
  • Trade
  • War
  • Disease
• Job opportunities


  Jobs in different industries encourage people to move to find work (Japan)

  Government aid attracts people to some areas
• Transport

  Areas which are accessible/good transport links have high population densities in contrast to remote areas which are isolated