Ch 2: Population and Migration Patterns and Processes Vocab

Question 1

Age-Sex Distribution

Answer 1

A model used in population geography that describes ages and numbers of males and females within a given population; also called a population pyramid.

Question 2

Agricultural Density

Answer 2

The number of farmers per unit area of farmland.

Question 3

Arithmetic Density

Answer 3

The number of people living in a given unit area.

Question 4

Baby Boom

Answer 4

A cohort of individuals born in the United States between 1946 and 1964, which was just after World War 11 in a time of relative peace and prosperity. These conditions allowed for better education and job opportunities, encouraging high rates of both marriage and fertility.

Question 5

Baby Bust

Answer 5

Period during the 1960s and 1970s when fertility rates in the United States dropped as large numbers of women from the baby boomers generation sought higher levels of education and more competitive jobs, causing them to marry later in life. As such, the fertility rate dropped considerably, in contrast to the baby boom, in which fertility rates were quite high.

Question 6

Carrying Capacity

Answer 6

The largest number of people that the environment of a particular area can sustainably support.

Question 7

Chain Migration

Answer 7

The migration event in which individuals follow the migratory path of preceding friends or family members to an existing community.

Question 8

Child Mortality Rate

Answer 8

Number of deaths per thousand children within the first five years of life.

Question 9

Cohort

Answer 9

A population group unified by a specific common characteristic, such as age, and subsequently treated as a statistical unit.

Question 10

Cotton Belt

Answer 10

The term by which the American South used to be known, as cotton historically dominated the agricultural economy of the region. The same area is now known as the New South or Sun Belt because people have migrated here from older cities in the industrial north for a better climate and new job opportunities.

Question 11

Crude Birth Rate

Answer 11

The number of live births per year per thousand people.

Question 12

Crude Death Rate

Answer 12

The number of deaths per year per thousand people.

Question 13

Demographic Accounting Equation

Answer 13

An equation that summarizes the amount of growth or decline in a population within a country during a particular time period, taking into account both natural increase and net migration.

Question 14

Demographic Transition Model

Answer 14

A sequence of demographic changes in which a country moves from high birth and death rates to low birth and death rates throughout time.

Question 15

Demography

Answer 15

The study of human populations, including their temporal and spatial dynamics.

Question 16

Dependency Ratio

Answer 16

The ratio of the number of people who are either too old or too young to provide for themselves to the number of people who must support them through their own labor. This is usually expressed in the from n:100, where n equals the number of dependents.

Question 17

Doubling Time

Answer 17

Time period required for a population experiencing exponential growth to double in size completely.

Question 18

Emigration

Answer 18

The process of moving out of a particular country, usually the individual person’s country of origin.

Question 19

Epidemiological Transition

Answer 19

Sudden population growth as a result of improved food security and health care, followed by a plateau in growth because of subsequent declines in fertility rates.

Question 20

Exponential Growth

Answer 20

Growth that occurs when a fixed percentage of new people is added to a population each year. Exponential growth is compound because the fixed growth rate applies to an ever-increasing population.

Question 21

Forced Migration

Answer 21

The migration event in which individuals are forced to leave a country against their will.

Question 22

Generation X

Answer 22

A term coined by artist and author Douglas Coupland to describe people born in the United States between the years 1965 and 1980. This post-baby boom generation will have to support the baby boom cohort as they head into their retirement years.

Question 23

Geodemography

Answer 23

See population geopgraphy

Question 24

Immigration

Answer 24

The process of individuals moving into a new country with the intention of remaining there.

Question 25

Infant Mortality Rate

Answer 25

The percentage of children who die before their first birthday within a particular country.

Question 26

Internal Migration

Answer 26

The permanent or semi permanent movement of individuals within a particular country.

Question 27

Intervening Obstacles

Answer 27

Any forces or factors that may limit human migration.

Question 28

Involuntary Migration

Answer 28

See forced migration

Question 29

Life Expectancy

Answer 29

The average age individuals are expected to live, which varies across space, between genders, and even between races.

Question 30

Thomas Malthus

Answer 30

Author of Essay on the Principle of Population (1798) who claimed that population grows at an exponential rate while food production increases arithmetically, and thereby that, eventually, population growth would outpace food production.

Question 31

Maternal Mortality Rate

Answer 31

Number of deaths per thousand of women giving birth.

Question 32

Migration

Answer 32

A long-term move of a person from one political jurisdiction to another.

Question 33

Natural Increase Rate

Answer 33

The difference between the number of births and number of deaths within a particular country.

Question 34

Neo-Malthusian

Answer 34

Advocacy of population-control programs to ensure enough resources of a particular area are not great enough to support the area’s current population.

Question 35

Overpopulation

Answer 35

A value judgment based on the notion that the resources of a particular area are not great enough to support the area’s current population.

Question 36

Physiologic Density

Answer 36

A ratio of human population to the area of cropland, used in less-developed countries dominated by subsistence agriculture.

Question 37

Population Density

Answer 37

A measurement of the number of persons per unit of land area.

Question 38

Population Geography

Answer 38

A division of human geography concerned with spatial variations in distribution, composition, growth, and movements of population.

Question 39

Population Pyramid

Answer 39

A model used in population geography to show the age and sex distribution of a particular population.

Question 40

Pull Factors

Answer 40

Attractions that draw migrants to a certain place, such as pleasant climate and employment or educational opportunities.

Question 41

Push Factors

Answer 41

Incentives for potential migrants to leave a place, such as a harsh climate, economic recession or political turmoil.

Question 42

Refugees

Answer 42

People who leave their home because they are forced out, but not because they are being officially relocated or enslaved.

Question 43

Rust Belt

Answer 43

The northern industrial states of the United States, including Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania, in which heavy industry was once the dominant economic activity. In the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, these states lost much of their economic base to economically attractive regions of the United States and to countries where labor was cheaper, leaving old machinery to rust in the moist northern climate.

Question 44

Sun Belt

Answer 44

US region, mostly comprising southeastern and southwestern states, which has grown dramatically since World War 11.

Question 45

Total Fertility Rate

Answer 45

The average number of children born to a woman during her childbearing years.

Question 46

Voluntary Migration

Answer 46

Movement of an individual who consciously and voluntarily decides to locate to a new area—the opposite of forced migration.

Question 47

Zero Population Growth

Answer 47

Proposal to end population growth through a variety of official and nongovernmental family-planning programs.