Geography - population& settlement Flashcards
What is overpopulation?
When there are too many people for the resources
What usually causes overpopulation?
rapid population growth
Where is overpopulation most likely to occur?
LEDCs such as Gambia, stage 2-3 of the DTM, as they have a high birth rate and falling death rates
What sort of population is it when there are high birth rates and low life expectancy?
A youthful population, it has a high dependancy ratio. Lots of people under 15 years old who are dependant on the working population
What are social issues with youthful, overpopulation in LEDCs?
Services like healthcare/education can’t cope, children have to work, not enough houses, food shortages, lack of houses = more illnesses from makeshift housing
What are economic issues with youthful, overpopulation in LEDCs?
There aren’t enough jobs, unemployment increases, Increased poverty as more people are born into already poor families
What are environmental issues with youthful, overpopulation in LEDCs?
Increased pollution and waste as more cars and more waste for landfill sites, More natural resources like trees are used up
What are two population policies that help to achieve sustainable development?
Birth control programmes and Immigration laws
What is sustainable development?
developing in a way that allows people today to get the things they need without stopping people in the future getting what they need
What is the case study for managing overpopulation?
China
Why does china have overpopulation?
Because it has the worlds largest population with over 1.3 billion people. In 1949 the population was only 540 million so people were encouraged to have more children to build a strong army and produce more food.
What was the result of having families have more children?
By 1970 the population increased to 830 million but the resources weren’t enough. Famine from 1958-1961, no access to things like water and electricity
What policy was introduced in 1970?
The late long and few policy
What is the late long and few policy?
It aimed to reduce natural population growth by encouraging people to have children later, leave longer gas between children and to have less children
Was this policy successful?
Yes, the fertility rate fell from 5.7 in 1970, to 2.9 in 1979. It helped to make development in China more sustainable.
The population continued to increase, what was the next policy put into place?
The one-child policy in 1979
What did the one child policy encourage people to do?
Only have one child
What benefits were given to couples that only had one child?
Longer maternity leave, better housing, free education. Couples that had more than one child didn’t get any benefits and were fined
How effective was the one child policy?
It prevented 400 million births and the fertility rate dropped from 2.9 in 1979 to about 1.8 in 2009
What is fertility rate?
The average number of a children a woman has in her lifetime
What do some people say about the effectiveness of the one child policy?
That the late, long and few policy was more effective and also Chinese people wanted less children as they became more wealthy
The one child policy also helped towards sustainable development, but what else did it cause?
An ageing population, there is a lower proportion of young people compared to older people, this causes man issues
What were some exceptions to the one child policy?
In some rural ares, a second child was allowed if the first is a girl or has a physical disability so they had children to work on the farm. Also if one of the parents had a disability or bother were only children they can have a second child so they could loo after the parents
What are social issues with an ageing population?
Healthcare services are stretched more, people become more stressed as they have less free time as it is spent looking after older parents, birth rate drops, people will have to retire later and the pension will drop as there are more older