Lecture 23 + 24 Flashcards
The current population of the earth is about
7.5 billion (8.1 billion current)
True or false: People are equally distributed around the earth
False
Stage 1 of demographic transition
Pretransition
Stage 2 of demographic transition
Mortality transition
Stage 3 of demographic transition
Fertility transition
Stage 4 of demographic transition
Stability transition
Rank these countries in order of birth rate from low to high
- spain
- bolivia
- democratic republic of the congo
- usa
- mali
- spain
- usa
- bolivia
- democratic republic of the congo
- mali
True or false: Death rates tend to be higher in poor nations relative to wealthy nations
True
Wealth and development
Wealth is highly associated with a nation’s development
One way to measure development
The Human Development Index (HDI) takes into account several factors, including a nation’s healthcare, quality of life, economics, and education
What pattern of growth has been exhibited by the world’s human population over the last 2,000 years?
Greater than exponential (it’s all about r)
- on a logarithmic scale, exponential growth is a straight line
-> constant rate r dN/dt = rN
Human population growth
- on a logarithmic scale human growth (not a straight line)
- growth rate accelerates: greater than exponential increase
How did we get here? What kind of process would lead to a greater than exponential rate of increase?
Increasing r (largely a function of a shift in birth rates and death rates over human history
Pre-agricultural period population growth
- grew as humans expanded into new territories and developed new tools
- grew slowly over about 1 million years
- ~100,000 years
- hunters and gatherers
- tens of thousands of years to double
- population 5-10 million at the end
Agricultural period population growth
- stimulated human population growth
- population grew more rapidly over 7,000 years
- Began ~10,000 years ago
– Domestication of plants and animals
– Doubling time ~1,000 years
– 500+ million at end of period
Industrial period population growth
- led to increased food production and improved sanitation, nutrition, medical care
- population grew rapidly within three centuries
- ~300 years ago. Our current period
- Advances: Technology, Fossil fuels, Sanitation, Medicine
- Death rates decline
- Doubling time ~50 Years
Differences in birth and death rates (in part) lead to
an uneven population distribution
Death rates
Survivorship curves
Life expectancy: how long a person born in a given year can expect to live on average
How old will the average person born in the USA at year ~2000 be at death? (Or in other words what is their life expectancy?)
75-80 (77), a little higher for women
2000: ~ 77
2019 ~ 79
Africa
2000: ~ 50
2019: ~ 60
Life expectancy
- higher in wealthy nations
- going up around the world
Top 10 leading causes of death in 50 wealthiest countries
Noninfectious disease
1. heart attack
2. stroke
3. lung and tracheal cancers
4. alzheimer’s/dementia
5. obstructive lung disease
6. colorectal cancer
7. diabetes
8. hypertension/heart failure
9. breast cancer
Infectious disease
10. pneumonia
Top 10 leading causes of death in 50 poorest countries
Noninfectious disease
1. heart attack
2. stroke
Infectious disease
3. pneumonia
4. HIV/AIDS
5. diarrheal diseases
6. malaria
7. tuberculosis
Other
8. premature birth
9. malnutrition
10. birth trauma
Infant mortality rate
percentage of infants who die before age 1
- reduces with wealth
- poor countries’ rate ~ 14 times higher
Life expectancy and death rates are influenced by various factors
Wealth (development)
- increased nutrition, health care, sanitation