AL - L6 Population Theory Flashcards
to help consolidate population theory relating to CAIE's AL Geography specification. This deck does not contain case study specifics - you must learn these on your own!
Define optimum population
The optimum population of a country is the number of people (1) that, with the existing technology and resources, (1), produces the highest average standard of living (1).
Under what conditions does overpopulation occur?
When population growth outstrip the resources or when the resources dwindle to a point where they can no longer support the people at a given level of technology
Describe what happens at stage 1 of the DTM
Both the BR and DR are high
Outline the impacts of food insecurity.
Positive:
encourages agricultural reform
Negative:
malnutrition and/or undernutrition and/or famine
social unrest
rising food prices
sickness that results in children unable to attend school
lower productivity in the workforce as workers can’t work
Describe the possible negative consequences of total population exceeding the resources in an area.
Negative consequences may be grouped as:
Demographic, e.g. increased death rate due to famine
Environmental, e.g. exhaustion of soil leading to soil erosion
Economic, e.g. unemployment and increased poverty
Social, e.g. out migration
Political, e.g. civil unrest
Define the term carrying capacity.
It is an ecological concept - the optimum number of people (1) that can be sustained (1) by an environment and its resources at a given level of technology (1)
What is the typical dependency ratio of a HIC?
Typically 70 dependents to every 100 economically active (70:100, 70% or 0.7).
This will, however, increase in time due to ageing
What are the characteristics of the public healthcare revolution?
Planning laws – minimum width of streets / back-to-back housing to increase ventilation etc.
The introduction of the NHS in the UK
Mass vaccination programmes and the development of vaccines
Increase of international aid for health
Advances in new treatments for cancers etc.
Define the term: (total) fertility rate
The average number of children each female in a country will give birth to so long as she remains healthy during her child bearing years.
Outline 5 criticisms/limitations of the DTM
The model is descriptive rather than explanatory
Birth rates in several of the most economically developed countries have, since the model was conceptualised, fallen below death rates (Germany, Sweden) – this has caused a population decline suggesting the model should have predicted a fifth stage.
The model, being more Eurocentric, assumed that in time all countries would pass through the same four stages. It now seems unlikely that many of the economically less developed countries, especially in Africa, will industrialise – at least not in the same way.
The model assumed that the fall in DR in Stage 2 was the consequence of industrialisation. Initially, the DR in many British cities rose, due to the insanitary conditions which resulted from rapid urban growth, and it only began to fall after advances were made in medicine. The delayed fall in the DR in many developing countries has been due mainly to their inability to afford medical facilities.
The fall in BR in Stage 3 has been less rapid than the model suggests due to religious and/or political opposition to birth control (Brazil), whereas the fall was a much more rapid, and came earlier, in China following the government-introduced ‘one-child’ policy.
The timescale of the model, especially in several South-east Asian countries such as Hong Kong and Malaysia, is being squashed as they develop at a much faster rate than did the early industrialised countries.
The model fails to account for population policies
The model fails to note that social change and shifts in social attitudes occur at different paces in different countries
Define the term: (crude) death/mortality rate
It is the number of people who die per 1,000 people per year.
How does education help to lower birth rates?
The main way is by educating girls.
This changes attitudes, behaviours and aspirations, and
informs, e.g. about family planning.
Educating boys is significant, but of secondary importance.
An educated girl may delay marriage or use contraception when she becomes sexually active.
Suggest why the mortality rate for males is higher than
for females.
Life expectancy for women is longer than for men, at all
levels of economic development
Reasons for lower life expectancy amongst males:
Whilst more males are born, more die in infancy.
Males will be seen as undertaking more dangerous jobs and more likely to be killed in warfare etc.
Females will be seen as healthier and physically more likely to demonstrate greater longevity.
Why is optimum population is difficult to achieve?
The population-resource relationship is dynamic and complex – population numbers constantly change, technology improves, and resources can be depleted, or new/alternative ones exploited – so the optimum population is not a fixed a number,
It changes too; optimum population may become under population as technology develops and new resources are discovered or if population declines; optimum population may become overpopulation.
If resources are exhausted or if population increases, it is difficult to establish whether optimum population is ever achieved because it is difficult to measure.
Suggest reasons for the recent increases in mortality rates
in some LICs and HICs.
- the implications of an ageing population/regressive age structure
- smoking (links to cardiovascular problems and cancers – the big killers)
- obesity (wide health implications)
- HIV/AIDS/and other diseases.
- catastrophic events, e.g. famine, war, earthquakes, often
combined
Tow do we calculate population change?
P = (B-D) +/- M
P = population
B = births
D = deaths
M = migration
Describe what happens at stage 5 of the DTM?
The BR falls below the DR
This results in natural decrease (or negative natural increase)
Suggest why the BR remains high into stage 2 of the DTM
Lag time - it takes time for social attitudes towards family size to change
Also takes time for families to see that the infant mortality rate is lowering, so births remain high until that notion filters through society
Early marriages
Define overpopulation
As a population rises above the optimum population and exceeds the carrying capacity of that area (1) there is an increase in pressure on resources to a point where they can no longer support/sustain the population (1). This reduces living standards and leads to environmental degradation (1).
Why does population growth slow with increasing economic development?
Greater gender equality
More investment in family planning
Wider availability of contraception
Changing attitudes towards ‘family’ and the structure of ‘family’
Increasing cost of raising children
Later marriage and increasing rate of divorce
Better perinatal and antenatal healthcare – reduces the IMR
Etc.
What are the 4 components of food security?
Access
Availability
Affordability
Utilisation
Describe and explain the uses and limitations of the DTM
Give some small scale examples of how a population can increase its resource supply and carrying capacity.
The building of small earth dams and digging wells and boreholes to provide water for basic irrigation.
Methods of soil conservation such as planting trees to make shelter belts to protect soil from wind erosion in dry periods. Low stone walls can be built along the contours of a slope to stop runoff and allow it time to enter the soil. This helps to prevent soil erosion and increases the amount of water in the soil, making it available for crops.
Tied ridging – low walls of soil are built in a field to form a grid of small squares which stops runoff and again allows water to drain into the soil. Root crops such as potatoes and cassava are grown on the soil walls.
Strip/inter Cropping involves alternate strips of crops at different stages of growth across a slope. This limits runoff as there is always a strip of crops to trap water and prevent soil moving down a slope.
Improved food storage which allows food to be kept fresh and edible for longer periods of time and protected from being eaten by rats and insects and from diseases.
What might the positive and negative impacts of an ageing population be?
Positive (insert your own case study detail):
More experience in the workforce
Childcare benefits
Charity work
Value of the ‘grey pound’
Negatives (insert your own case study detail):
Career stagnation - delayed retirement means promotions are blocked as people remain in the workforce for longer
Housing market impacts - cost goes up as demand rises but supply doesn’t
Lower tax revenues
Lower national security (elderly less likely to be in the armed forces)
Possible unrest at the prospect of raising taxation on the economically active
Higher government spending to meet pension and healthcare promises, means funds will likely be reduced elsewhere
Shifting political voice - elderly are more likely to vote conservative
Define the term: life expectancy
It is the average number of years from birth that a person is expected to live.
What are the economic implications of a high dependency ratio?
A higher dependency ratio is likely to reduce productivity growth.
A growth in the non-productive population will diminish productive capacity and could lead to a lower long run trend rate of economic growth.
If the government fails to tackle issues relating from a higher dependency ratio, there could be increased pressures placed on government finances, leading to higher borrowing or higher taxes on the economically active which also reduce economic growth.
Businesses may be dissuaded from investing owing to a smaller, and potentially more expensive, workforce.
Describe two ways to reduce the problem of overpopulation.
There may be population initiatives (e.g., family planning, transmigration)
Resource initiatives (e.g., increased food imports, new mining)
Technology initiatives (e.g., irrigation in crop production)
Outline the Boserup school of thought with regard to the school of thought with regard to the population-resource relationship.
“necessity is the mother of invention”. Someone will invent what is needed;
That means, if you need it, someone will invent it. If more food is needed, people would invent ways of increasing food supply - crops that fight diseases or survive with less water are examples of this.
Define the term: infant mortality rate
It is the number of deaths of babies/children under one year of age or before their first birthday per thousand live births per year.
Describe the possible positive consequences of total population exceeding the resources in an area.
Technology innovation
More efficient farming
More efficient use of existing resources
Describe the characteristics of the population shown in Mozambique’s 2023 population pyramid.
Reasonably balanced males and females
More females than males into older age
Fairly low life expectancy + data
Youthful population - high BR
Relatively few economically active
Reasonably high death rate
Define the term: (crude) birth rate
It is the average number of children born (live) per 1,000 people per year.
Why does life expectancy increase over time?
Life expectancy increases over time with development and improvements in diet, water supply, healthcare, education, etc. This is as true for LICs in the 20th and 21st centuries as for HICs from the 18th.
However, there are some situations in which life expectancy falls, notably through the influence of HIV/AIDS, e.g., Zimbabwe, or during prolonged crises, such as war or famine, affecting whole societies.
The opioid crisis in the USA has also seen a reduction in its life expectancy for the first time in many, many years.
Suggest reasons for the fall of the DR into stage 2 of the DTM
Improvements in medical care
Improved water supply and sanitation
Lowering of the IMR
Outline the constraints to managing a population.
Constraints = limiting factors. These include:
War
Climatic hazards
Food shortages
Things that affect carrying capacity
Natural hazards
Poverty
Ageing
Below replacement level fertility rates
Lack of resources
Which three revolutions have contributed to population growth over time?
The agricultural revolution
The public healthcare revolution
The industrial revolution
Describe the characteristics of the 2023 population pyramid shown for Mozambique .
Wide base
Concave sides
Low, narrow apex
Reasonably high death rate
Include data where possible
Stage 4 has low BRs and DRs. Why?
Low BR:
Family planning
Improving status of women in society
Later marriages and higher separation rates means babies are had later
Healthcare improvements
Contraception availability and education improves
Low DR:
Good availability and knowledge of healthcare
Reliable food supply
Clean water is accessible
Less dangerous work
Outline the social, economic, environmental, and political causes of food shortages.
Using the figure, compare the level of food security for Africa and Asia with the level of food security for the world.
