topic 1

• North-south divide

  Increasing inequality in levels of development between the North and the South / between HIC's and LIC's
• Development gap

  Difference in wealth between the developed north and the developing south
• OPEC


  Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries
• The G7/ G8


  Group of the world's wealthiest and most powerful countries
• The G10 or Paris club

  A group representing the wealthiest members of the International Monetary Fund
• Factors affecting population distribution at the global scale

  • Most live within 1,000km of the sea
  • Less than 500m high
  • In fertile valleys
  • Places with regular supply of water
  • In not extreme climates
  • Places with good communications
• Global patterns and classification of economic development

  • HIC's (High income countries, +12,735 per capital annual income)
  • MIC's (Middle income countries, 1,026 – 12,475 per capital annual income)
  • LIC's (Low-income countries, - 1,025 per capital annual income)
• GNI

  Gross national income, calculated as a country's gross national income divided by its mid-year population
• Economic classification


  • The first world: developed (Western Europe, North America, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan)
  • The second world: state-controlled communist countries (former Soviet Union)
  • The third world: or developing world (all other less developed countries)
  • More economically developed countries (MEDC's): (USA or UK) → most developed countries, high living standards
  • Newly industrialising countries (NIC's): South Korea and Taiwan → rapid industrial, social and economic growth since 1960
  • BRIC's – Brazil, Russia, India, and China → joined in 2010 in South Africa
  • MINT – México, Indonesia, Nigeria, and turkey
  • CIVETS – Colombia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey, and south Africa
  • Next eleven (N11)- Bangladesh, Egypt Indonesia, Iran, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, turkey, south Korea, and Vietnam → countries with high growing potential
  • Centrally planned economies (CPE's) – north Korea
  • Oil rich countries: Saudi Arabia and Libya
  • Recently industrializing countries: Chile
  • Less economically developed countries (LEDC's): Namibia and Egypt
  • Least developed countries (LDC): Afghanistan sub-Saharan countries
• Stages of the demographic transition model

  • Stage 1 → high and variable: birth/death rates high and variable, population growth fluctuates, no countries → only tribes
  • Stage 2 → early expanding: birth rates still high, death rates come down rapidly, population growth is rapid, Afghanistan, Sudan and Libya
  • Stage 3 → late expanding: birth rates drop, death rate remains low, population growth remains at a smaller rate, Brazil and Argentina
  • Stage 4 → low and variable: birth/death rates low and variable, population growth fluctuates, UK & most developed countries
  • Stage 5 → low declining: birth rate is lower than death rate, population declines, ageing population, Japan
• Reasons for high births and death rates

  • Parents want children for: labour, to look after them in old age, to continue family name, prestige, replace children who have died
  • People die from: lack of clean water, lack of food, poor hygiene/sanitation, overcrowding, contagious disease, poverty
• Reasons for low birth and death rates

  • Birth rates decline because: children are costly, Government looks after people (pensions and health care services), More women want their career, More widespread of family planning, Infant mortality
  • Death rates decline because of: Clean water, Reliable food supply, Good hygiene and sanitation
• Natural increase

  Crude birth rate - crude death rate, expressed as a percentage, doesn't take migration into account
• Doubling time

  The number of years needed for a population to double in size
• Population momentum

  The tendency for a population to grow despite a fall in the birth rate or fertility levels, occurs due to a relatively high concentration of people in the childbearing or pre-childbearing age
• Population projections

  Predictions about the future population based on trends in fertility, mortality, and migration
• Total fertility rate (TFR)

  Average number of births per thousand women of childbearing age
• Factors affecting changes in fertility

  • Status of women: gender related development index
  • Level of education and material ambition: highly educated societies has fewer children
  • Location of residence: rural areas have more children
  • Religion: most religions are pro-natalist and opposed to birth control
  • Health of the mother: unhealthy women are pregnant more often → higher infant mortality
  • Economic prosperity: not total but there is links with TFR
  • The need for children: high infant mortality rate
  • Lower population densities
  • Better healthcare
  • Raising standards of living
• Life expectancy

  Average number of years that a person can be expected to live, usually from birth, assuming that demographic factors remain unchanged
• Reasons for low life expectancy


  • Poverty
  • Conflict
  • AIDS virus
• Reasons life expectancy increases as a country develops

  • Improved food supply
  • Clean water
  • Adequate housing
• Life expectancy is often higher for women that for men
• Population structure or composition

  Any measurable characteristic of a population, including: age, sex, ethnicity, language, religion and occupation
• What population pyramids tell us

  • Wide base indicates a high birth rate
  • Narrowing base suggest a falling birth rate
  • Straight or near-vertical sides reveal low death rates
  • Bulges in the slope suggest high rates of immigration or in-migration
  • Slices in the slope indicate emigration or out-migration, or age-specific or sex-specific deaths
• Dependency ratio


  Measures the working population and the dependant population, calculated as (population aged less than 15 + population aged 65+) / (population aged 16-64) x 100
• Dependency ratios are a very crude measurement, as many people stay in school after 15 and many people work past the age of 64
• Triangular graphs


  Used to show data that can be divided into three parts, such as the age structure of a population, soil structure, and employment
• The future trends of fertility, mortality and migration shaping the pattern of population ageing in Europe is uncertain
• Right now, there is a ratio of 4:1, of working population to elderly
• There is an 80% chance that the ratio will be more than double by 2050
• For individuals, megacities offer

  • Jobs
  • Home
  • Opportunities to improve their standard of living and quality of life
• For some, migration to megacities can result in

  • Unemployment or under-employment
  • Poor-quality housing
  • Risk of environmental hazards
• For societies, megacities growth is associated with

  • Expansion of the built area
  • Increased traffic congestion
  • Air pollution
  • Declining water quality
• Forced migration


  The movement of refugees and internally displaced people as well as people displaced by natural or environmental disasters, chemical or nuclear disasters, famine or development projects
• Different types of forced migration

  • Conflict-induced displacement: forced to move due to armed conflict such as civil war, violence, or persecution
  • Development-induced displacement: forced to move as a result of large-scale infrastructure projects such as dams, motorways, airports, urban renewal schemes
• Megacities growth is associated with

  • Expansion of the built area
  • Increased traffic congestion
  • Air pollution
  • Declining water quality
• The perception of megacities as a place of potential economic benefit for migrant fuels their growth
• Forced migration


  Movement of refugees and internally displaced people as well as people displaced by natural or environmental disasters, chemical or nuclear disasters, famine or development projects
• Types of forced migration

  • Conflict-induced displacement
  • Development-induced displacement
  • Disaster-induced displacement
• Types of forced migrants

  • Refugees
  • Asylum seekers
  • Internally displaced persons (IDPs)
  • Development displacees
  • Environmental and disaster displacees
  • Smuggled people
  • Trafficked people