Key Terms

Question 1

Natural increase

Answer 1

The difference between the number of births and the number of deaths in a given region

Question 2

Carrying capacity

Answer 2

The largest population that the resources of a given environment can support

Question 3

Low income countries (LICs)

Answer 3

Defined by the World Bank as countries with a gross national income per capita US$1045 or less in 2014, calculated using the Atlas method

Question 4

Population momentum

Answer 4

• The tendency for population growth to continue beyond the time that replacement level fertility has been achieved because of a relatively high concentration of people in the childbearing years
• this situation is due to past high fertility rates, which result in a large number of young people

Question 5

Net migration

Answer 5

The difference between the number of immigrants and the number of emigrants

Question 6

Crude birth rate (generally referred to as birth rate)

Answer 6

• The number of births per 1000 population is a given year
• only a very broad indicator as it does not take into account the age and sex distribution of the population

Question 7

Fertility rate

Answer 7

The number of live births per 1000 women aged 15-49 years in a given year

Question 8

Total fertility rate

Answer 8

The average number of children that would be born alive to a woman (or group of women) during her lifetime, if she were to pass through her childbearing years conforming to the age specific fertility rates of given year

Question 9

Replacement-level fertility

Answer 9

• The level at which each generation has just enough children to replace themselves in the population
• although the level varies from different populations, a total fertility of 2.12 children is usually considered as replacement level

Question 10

Crude death rate (generally referred to as death rate)

Answer 10

• The number of deaths per 1000 population in a given year
• it is only a broad indicator as it is heavily influenced by the age structure of the population

Question 11

Quality of life

Answer 11

The standard of living covering economic, social and other factors that are important to people’s lives

Question 12

Infant mortality rates

Answer 12

The number of deaths of infants under one year of age per 1000 live births in a given year

Question 13

Life expectancy (at birth)

Answer 13

The average number of years a person may expect to live when born, assuming past trends continue

Question 14

Population structure

Answer 14

The composition of a population, the most important elements of which are age and sex

Question 15

Sex ratio

Answer 15

The number of males per 100 females in a population

Question 16

Dependency ratio

Answer 16

The ratio of the number of people aged under 15 and over 64 years to those aged 15-64 years

Question 17

Middle income countries (MICs)

Answer 17

Defined by the world bank as countries with a gross national income per capita of more than US$1045, but less than US$12735 in 2014, calculated using the Atlas method

Question 18

Youth dependency ratio

Answer 18

The ratio of the number of people aged 0-14 to those aged 15-64 years

Question 19

Elderly dependency ratio

Answer 19

The ratio number of the number of people aged 65 and over to those aged 15-64 years