1.4 Population Change

Question 1

Reasons for contrasting rates of natural population change

Answer 1

Population size is related to the amount of resources available, such as water, woods and minerals.

Question 2

Carrying capacity

Answer 2

Number of people the environment can support without there being negative effects tot the population.

Question 3

Optimum population

Answer 3

The mount of people that a region or a country can ecologically support, usually les than carrying capacity.

Question 4

High rate of natural population growth: China (Antinatalist)

Answer 4

1. Location and background
   - in 179, the population of China was 1 billion and was estimated that by 2025, the population would reach 1.8 billion.
   - couples had large number of children to help on farmland and look after then when they are older traditionally in China.
   - worry over the lack of resources to support a large population
   - China introduced the one child policy in hopes hat the population would get to 1.2 billion in 2025 instead of 1.8 billion.
2. Solutions
   - fines introduced
   - scenarios forced abortions and sterilization took place
   - incentives included pensions, healthcare and priority housing
3. Incentives
   - boys were highly valued than girls tradtitionlfy therefore an uneven gender balance
   - girls looked after the elderly traditionally, as fewer Turks being born with more girls going to work means the elderly are sometimes neglected
   - this led to the policy allowing couples to try again if their first baby turned out to be a girl
4. Results
   - China’s population is now rising more slowly
   - it still has a very large total population
   - the falling birth rate has lead to a rise in the relative number of elderly people

Question 5

Low rate of population growth: Japan

Answer 5

1. Introduction
   - Japan is located in East Asia
   - it has the largest proportion of over 65s of any other country by 23%, and it is expected to rise to 30% by 2030.
   - this is causing difficulties as the number of working people declines
2. Causes
   - Japan has a good healthcare provision leading people to live longer
   - women are marrying later causing low birth rates
   - it is very expensive to bring up children in Japan such as university fees
3. Problems
   - difficult to fund people’s pensions
   - healthcare provision is becoming stressed to the amount of elderly people
   - will not be enough working population got fill all the jobs available
4. Solutions
   - the government is considering providing tax incentives to families and providing more childcare facilities
   - a promotion on social and cultural change to make motherhoods more attractive
   - labour shortage could be solved by migrant workers
   - Japan is investing heavily in robotics to solve its labour shortages