AP HUG Unit 2

• Distribution of the human population today

  • Over two-thirds of the world's population live in these areas: South Asia, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Europe
  • South Asia consists of countries such as India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka
  • East Asia has countries such as China, Japan, and Korea
  • Southeast Asia is made up of several different states including Thailand, the Philippines, and Vietnam
  • Europe has people located closer to natural resources instead of clustering solely around rivers and oceans, attributed to the Industrial Revolution
• Physical factors


  The natural elements that make up a place such as climate, weather patterns, landforms, bodies of water, and natural resources
• Human factors


  Various economic, cultural, historical, and political aspects of a place
• Dispersed population


  Population, buildings, or other features are spread out or scattered over a wider geographic area
• Clustered population


  Population, buildings, or other features are concentrated in a specific area or region with little to no space between the different features
• Types of population density

  • Arithmetic density
  • Physiological density
  • Agricultural density
• Arithmetic density


  Commonly used metric to show how crowded a particular area is, calculated by dividing the total number of individuals living in an area by the total land area
• Physiological density

  Measures the pressure that a population exerts on the environment to feed the population, calculated by dividing the total number of people in an area by the total amount of arable land
• Agricultural density


  Shows the level of efficiency of agricultural production in an area and the degree of reliance on human labor versus technology, calculated by dividing the number of farmers in an area by the total amount of arable land
• Higher population density

  Greater political power and representation, more opportunities for citizens, higher taxes and more expensive products
• Lower population density


  Less access to various amenities, more of a community feel, lower home prices, fewer taxes, and cheaper goods and services
• Exceeding the carrying capacity of the environment

  Can lead to over-exploitation of resources, depletion of essential nutrients, increased chance of desertification, and food shortages
• Population composition


  The various demographic characteristics of a population including age, gender, ethnicity, educational attainment, income, and occupation
• Population pyramid


  A tool used to better understand demographic characteristics, with the y-axis representing different age ranges and the x-axis representing the amount of people
• Age ranges in a population pyramid

  • Pre-reproductive years (0-14)
  • Reproductive years (15-44)
  • Post-reproductive years (45+)
• Sex ratio


  The ratio of males to females in a population, calculated by taking the number of male births and dividing by the number of female births, then multiplying by 100
• Dependency ratio

  Gives insight into how many people a society needs to support, calculated by taking the number of children aged 0-14 and people 65+ and dividing by the working age population, then multiplying by 100
• Crude birth rate (CBR)

  The number of live births per 1000 people in a population within a given year
• Crude death rate (CDR)

  The number of deaths per 1000 people in a population within a given year
• Natural increase rate (NIR)


  The percentage by which a population is changing in a given year due to births and deaths without accounting for migration, calculated by subtracting the CDR from the CBR
• Doubling time


  The amount of time it takes for a population to double in size
• Total fertility rate (TFR)

  The average number of children a woman will have, with 2.1 considered the replacement rate
• Natural increase is calculated by subtracting the crude death rate (CDR) from the crude birth rate (CBR), which shows the rate of population growth or decline in a society
• Natural increase rate (NIR)


  The percentage by which a population is changing in a given year due to births and deaths, without accounting for migration
• Countries with a high NIR will take less time to double their population, which often creates challenges as they may not be able to keep up with their growing population, resulting in a strain on the country's infrastructure and system
• Countries often track these growth metrics to better understand how they need to utilize their resources, set policies, and predict future challenges or opportunities
• Total fertility rate (TFR)


  The average number of children a woman will have
• A TFR of 2.1 is considered the replacement rate. If a country's TFR falls below 2.1, the population size will decrease, while TFR above 2.1 indicates population growth
• Infant mortality rate (IMR)

  The total number of deaths of infants under one year of age per 1,000 live births
• Social, cultural, economic, and political factors have a significant impact on the different population factors
• Access to better healthcare and educational services traditionally lead to an increase in the life expectancy of a society and result in a decrease in the TFR, IMR, and NIR
• If women have more access to education and opportunities in a society, traditional gender roles are changed, reducing gender inequality
• Societies with traditional gender roles and rigid systems usually have a higher TFR and NIR as women have fewer opportunities outside the home
• More economically developed areas often have higher rates of urbanization with more jobs opened up in the tertiary sector, leading to smaller family sizes as children are no longer viewed as economic assets and individuals prioritize their career
• Less economically developed areas tend to have economies that are agricultural-based with a greater concentration of jobs in the primary and secondary sector, often leading to larger family sizes as individuals require more assistance on their farms and in their home
• Governments have the power to implement laws and use propaganda to encourage family planning, promote the use of contraceptives, and enhance access to education, all of which would decrease the population growth rate of a society
• If a government restricts access to contraceptives, fails to provide adequate education on family planning, and denies women their rights, the result may be an increase in the population's growth rate
• Demographic transition model


  One of the most important models in this course, describing the stages of population change in a society
• Stage 1 of the demographic transition model

  1. High crude birth rate (CBR) and crude death rate (CDR) resulting in a low natural increase rate (NIR)

  2. Majority of the population engaged in subsistence agriculture

  3. Women have limited opportunities and lack access to education, with their roles primarily focused on household tasks and childbearing

  4. Seasonal migration in search of food

  5. Lack of access to medicine, contraceptives, and medical knowledge resulting in high mortality rates
• There are no longer any countries in Stage 1 as they have all moved further along the demographic transition model