Human, M1: Development And Population

Question 1

What does the level of development in a country describe?

Answer 1

The standard of living there

Question 2

What are the key factors which affect a country’s standard of living?

Answer 2

-Availability of clean water
-Availability of food
-Quality of Healthcare
-Housing Standards
-Education

Question 3

What is a developed country?

Answer 3

A country with a high standard of living and successful economies

Question 4

What is a developing country?

Answer 4

A country with a low standard of living and poorer economies.

Question 5

What does population distribution describe?

Answer 5

Population distribution describes where people live.

Question 6

What are the Physical factors which affect population density?

Answer 6

• Climate
  People do not want to live where there is a difficult climate
  Very hot and dry climates (e.g. Sahara Desert) can cause water shortages and farming difficulties causing food shortages or very cold climates (Greenland) which make it too cold for farming
• Soils/Vegetation
  Most people live where there are fertile soils (England) as they are good for farming meaning there is plenty of food.
• Relief
  People do not want to live in mountainous areas (Nepal) as it is difficult to build homes, factories and services. It is also difficult to grow crops.
• Natural Resources
  People prefer to live where there are resources e.g. energy (coal or gas) and minerals (silver and gold) as they can be developed for industry.
• Location for trade
  Most people live where there are good transport links for trading e.g Near coastal ports like the UK or near a major river like Glasgow and the Clyde as this creates jobs and wealth.

Question 7

What are the human factors which affect population density?

Answer 7

• Job Opportunities
  People live where there are industries and businesses to provide them with jobs so they can make money and have a better standard of living e.g. London.
• Transport Links
  Areas with good roads and railways are good for trade and business, and usually have many job opportunities e.g. England. This provides people with money to improve their standard of living.
• Technology
  Places with universities and advanced technology usually have many successful industries which provide jobs and money e.g. London. Technology also enables good housing e.g. heating and lighting, and high quality healthcare.

Question 8

Describe the population structure in a developing nation e.g. India

Answer 8

Wide base tells us there are many children due to a high birth rate.
A narrow middle and top tells us there are few older people due to a high death rate.

Question 9

Why is birth rate high in developing countries?

Answer 9

• People do not have access to contraception
• People are not educated about family planning
• Children can work and bring money to their household
• High infant mortality rates mean many children die young so people have large families to compensate.
• As there are often no pensions or care homes, parents rely on their kids to look after them when they get old.
  -Women often get married very young so start having kids at a young age.

Question 10

Why is death rate high in developing countries?

Answer 10

Death rate is high mainly due to poverty which leads to the following

Medical
-Not enough doctors, nurses or hospitals available.
-Lack of drugs to treat diseases such as AIDS due to unaffordable costs.

Social
-Poor quality housing e.g. overcrowding in shanty towns which causes diseases to spread quickly.
-Poor sanitation (lack of clean water and modern toilets)

Diet
-Difficult farming conditions lead to food shortages causing starvation
-Poor food hygiene: (e.g. no fridges/freezers) poor kitchen hygiene leading to diseases such as typhoid.

Question 11

Describe the population structure in a developed country

Answer 11

Narrow base tells use there are few children/ young adults due to low birth rate
Wider middle and top tells us there are more older people due to low death rates.

Question 12

Why is birth rate low in developed countries?

Answer 12

-Contraception such as condoms are readily available to prevent unwanted pregnancies.
-Family planning advise easily available to adults and sex education is compulsory in schools
-Children are an economic burden. They are not allowed to work and cost money for food, clothing and housing.
-Large families are not promoted by culture in developed countries any more. (They are not seen as a status symbol)
-Religion is less important in developed countries so people are more willing to use contraception
-Infant mortality is low so couples don’t need many kids to compensate for children they lose.

Question 13

Why is death rate low in developed countries?

Answer 13

Medical
-Many doctors, nurses and hospitals available e.g. NHS provides free healthcare to everyone in the UK.
-Good health education in schools e.g. healthy diet to prevent heart disease.
-Drug readily available e.g expensive AVR drugs to treat AIDS.

Social
-Good quality housing with little overcrowding and good heating systems.
-Good sanitation: Clean water supplies and good sewage systems to prevent diseases such as Cholera.
-Good working conditions with strict health and safety rules to prevent accidents.

Diet
-Good food hygiene and storage facilities reduce diseases such as Typhoid.

Question 14

What is the population problem in developing countries?

Answer 14

Huge number of children therefore:
-Not enough schools=many children uneducated
-Shortage of maternity hospitals= high infant mortality.

In the future there will be too many adults therefore the government will not be able to provide enough:
-Jobs causing unemployment
-Healthcare meaning there is not enough hospitals or doctors
-food causing malnutrition and health problems

Question 15

How could the government solve the population problem in developing countries?

Answer 15

-Provide access to contraception e.g. free condoms
-Improve education about family planning for adults in local health centres
-Improve education for women and encourage them to have careers thus encouraging women to marry older.
-Improve healthcare to reduce infant mortality.
-Strict government policies which promote small families e.g. China’s one child policy. Families lose benefits if they have more kids.
-Ban child labour so children cannot earn money.

Question 16

What is the population problem in developed countries?

Answer 16

Problem 1: More old dependant people who will cost the government money for:
-Pensions: Cost of pensions expected to increase by 400% in the next 20 years.
-Healthcare: Old people need more healthcare for diseases such as cancer and heart disease.
-Sheltered Housing: Many old people are disabled and need adapted housing
-Nursing Homes: Many old people need 24 hour care due to dementia.

Problem 2: Not enough young working people causes economic problems:
-Shortage of workers in the future especially for unpopular jobs e.g cleaners.
-Shortage of skilled workers in future e.g Doctors.
-Less people paying taxes so the government loses money.
-Government needs to raise retirement age e.g it will rise from 65 to 68 soon in UK.

Question 17

How could the government solve an ageing population problem?

Answer 17

Encourage people to have more kids by the following ideas:
-reduce taxes for families
-increase child benefit
-better maternity pay for women
Raise the age of retirement
Encourage retired people to work part time
Allow more migrants into country to do unpopular jobs
Encourage full-time parents to work part time
Increase taxes for working people

Question 18

What are social indicators of the level of development in a country?

Answer 18

1.These are measures which tell us directly about people’s lives in a country e.g.
-life expectancy
-Infant mortality
Both of these indicate how good healthcare is, housing, diet, and sanitation are.
2. Birth rate
3. Literacy rates. This tells us how good education is and can affect the economy if education is good there will be many skilled workers for industry and healthcare,
4. Number of people per doctor:
-If there are many people and few doctors then healthcare is poor,
-Few doctors also suggests a shortage of educated people so poor education.

Question 19

What are economic indicators of the level of development in a country?

Answer 19

Gross national product(GNP)
-this is a measure of wealth.
- it tells us how much money a country makes each year from it’s industries and services.
-There will be many well paid jobs in a country with lots of industry and services.
-Rich countries can spend money from industry on improving healthcare, education and housing.

Percentage of people working in agriculture
-More people work in better paid jobs in factories and offices in rich countries as most farm work is done by machines.
-In poor countries, farms are primitive as they have fewer machines and more farm workers.

Energy consumption per person
-More developed countries use lots of energy, oil and electricity in factories and use lots of electricity in their homes on appliances.

Question 20

What are Problems of single indicators?

Answer 20

All indicators are averages for an entire country so they don’t show differences within countries e.g. in Brazil cities like Rio are much more developed than the rainforest.

Problems of Social Indicators
Literacy rates: Some social indicators only tell us about one thing e.g. Literacy rates only tell us about education and nothing about housing or sanitation etc.
People per doctor: Doctors are not always needed for good healthcare; some countries have very good basic healthcare with nurses prescribing drugs and vaccinations.

Problems of Economic Indicators
GNP: Some countries like Saudi Arabia are very rich but the money is owned by a very small number of billionaires in the Saudi Royal Family. Most people remain very poor.
Energy consumption per person: This can be misleading as some highly developed countries such as Australia may have low energy consumption as they don’t need heating due to the warm climate.

IT IS THEREFORE BETTER TO USES A COMBINATION OF AT LEAST 3 INDICATORS RATHER THAN JUST 1.

Question 21

What are the physical reasons for differences in development between countries?

Answer 21

Physical reasons for differences in development
Relief
-Very mountainous countries e.g. Nepal are difficult for farming, causing food shortages. It is also difficult to build transport links, homes and industry which is bad for the economy.

Climate
-Dry, hot climate with unreliable rainfall e.g Somalia which is difficult for farming (food shortages) and causes poor working conditions (affecting the economy). Cold climates have a short growing season.

Vegetation/Soils
-e.g. Sahara Desert. Difficult for farming and building communications which affects diet, economy, housing and services.

Natural disasters
E.g earthquake in Haiti: destroyed farmland, housing, hospitals, schools, industry and infrastructure, reducing living standards and leaving country devastated.

Availability of Natural Resources
-brings in money which can be invested in development e.g. of schools/ hospitals etc.

Location for trade
-UK is an island with many ports for easy trade with Europe and the USA. This boosts economy and creates jobs. Money is invested in development.
-Many African countries are far from coastal ports e.g. Chad and it is expensive to transport goods overland. This prevents economic growth.

Question 22

What are the human reasons for differences in development of countries

Answer 22

Human reasons for differences of development
Industrialisation
-In rich developed countries e.g. UK, there are more manufacturing and service industries. Most people are employed in factories and services. This means they have well paid jobs and good working conditions and that these industries make a lot of money for the government to invest in development.
-In poor developing countries, there are few industries and most people work on farms therefore they have poorly paid difficult jobs and the government does not make much money to improve standard of life.

Population growth
-Most developing countries are rapidly growing causing:
Housing shortages and overcrowding e.g. Shanty towns
Lack of available healthcare and education
Job shortages, unemployment.
Food shortages and lack of clean water

War
-Countries such as Syria, which are at war, have has houses, schools, hospitals and transport destroyed.
-Most of the governments money is being spent on the war and there is little being spent on improving living standards.

Unfair Trade
-Richer countries have trade barriers and taxes which make it difficult for poorer countries to sell their products to them
-Most exports from poor developing countries are very low value goods. These are called primary goods and their price is controlled by rich countries.