Population Flashcards
What is an ageing population?
Population in which the proportion of people over 65 is increasing.
What is birth rate?
The number of live births per thousand population per year, expressed as births per 1000.
What is a census?
An official registration of the number of the people, and valuation of their estate, for the purpose of imposing taxes, and other general statistics of a country, usually made every 10 years.
What is a contractive pyramid?
A population pyramid with a relatively narrow base showing a recently declining birth rate. (Stage 3 DTM)
What is death rate?
The number of deaths per 1000 population per year, expressed as deaths per 1000.
What is the Demographic transition?
The changing relationship over time of the birth and death rates from both high to both low. Illustrated by the demographic transition model.
What is population density?
The number of people per square kilometer
What is the dependency ratio?
Shows how many young people aged less than 15 and older people over 65 depend on people of working age. It is worked out by the % of people aged younger than 15 plus the % over 65, divided by the % aged 15-64.
Countries with a high dependency ratio have less working age people and more people that need looking after.
what is population distribution?
The way in which people are spread or dispersed across an area.
What is total fertility rate?
The average number of children born to a woman in her life time.
What is infant mortality rate?
A measure of the number of infants dying under 1 year of age, usually expressed as a number of deaths per 1000 live births, per year.
What is fertility rate?
The number of children born to 1000 women of child bearing age.
What is crude birth rate?
the number of births in a given year divided by the population and multiplied by 1000.
What is natural change?
The change in the size of a population caused by the interrelationship between birth and death rates. If the birth rate exceeds the death rate then the population will increase. If the death rate exceeds the birth rate then the population will decrease.
What is life expectancy?
The average number of years a person from a specific country is expected to live.
How do you calculate population change?
Birthrate+- death rate +- migration
How does health affect a country’s population?
- High standard of healthcare in a country lowers infant mortality and birth rate as people don’t need to have as many children.
- Better healthcare as well as healthy diets etc means people live longer and death rate is lowered.
- Access to drugs to relieve people of diseases.
How does education affect a country’s population?
- Emancipation of women reduces birth rate as women get careers instead of staying home and raising children
- Compulsory education ensures people are educated about hygiene, contraception STDs, etc. So death rate and birth rates will be lowered.
- High standards of education in the long term can lead to medical advancements and better trained doctors.
How do social provisions affect a country’s population?
- Good social care provided to elderly increases life expectancy and reduces death rate.
- Availability of clean water means water bourne diseases are less prevalent.
- Media makes it easier to educate people and raise awareness about things such as outbreaks of disease.
How do cultural factors affect a country’s population?
- Some cultures + religions condemn contraception and encourage large families (catholics) increasing birth rate.
- In some countries, use of contraception, abortion etc. is banned leading to a higher birth rate as well as death rate due to spread of STIs.
- Some cultures say that women’s only role is to stay at home and raise children, leading to an increased birth rate.
How do political factors affect a country’s population?
- some countries have pro-natalist policies and provide benefits to people who have children and encourage more children as a result of a natural decrease and ageing population, (France)
- Conversely, some countries have anti-natalist policies as they see large population growth as a threat (Malthus). Such as in China where people have to pay fines for the second or more children.
- High taxation may mean people cannot afford to raise children. Young people may migrate leaving an ageing population
- War significantly reduces birthrate as people are occupied with fighting but after wars there are often ‘baby booms’
How do environmental factors affect a country’s population?
- Countries with frequent natural disasters will have a high death rate, as well as high outmigration of people fearing for their life, lowering their population
- In countries with heavy industry, air and water pollution can increase the death rate and infant mortality rate so people have more children.
- Very hot or very cold countries will have increased death rates due to spread of disease in the warm or effects of the cold.
What does population distribution describe?
The way people are spread out across the Earth.
What does population density describe?
The number of people living in a given area, calculated by number of people in an area / size of the area
What are the advantages of a dense population?
A dense population ensures that 100% of available resources are used by a city. As a result, the efficiency in which these resources are used tends to increase to reduce costs which can ultimately end up benefiting the environment since people become less wasteful with resources.
What are the disadvantages of a dense population?
Very dense populations put a strain on resources such as food and water. They also put strain on social services such as healthcare. Very dense populations cause housing shortages and often result in the development of shanty towns or alternatively, many high rise apartments. Dense populations increase noise and air pollution since there is a lot of human activity. They also increase congestion as a result of the mass of people using cars.
Why are some areas of the UK densely populated?
Places with good connections such as cities with ports are densely populated as there are many industries close to the port so jobs avaliable and workers will move closer to the industry. The place is also attractive for migrants. Such as Liverpool in the UK.
Developments such as Liverpool One shopping centre also make the area more attractive.
Why are some areas of the UK sparsely populated?
Most of Scotland is sparsely populated except from the major cities. This is probably because of the relief in the area that makes developments of good infrastructure difficult and discourages the development of industry in the area, so there are little jobs for people. Also cold climate can make people unattracted to that area.
Why might distribution change?
- Migration
- Counter urbanisation - urban to rural migration.
- Ageing population moving to coastal areas and countryside
- Redevelopment of areas, can decrease population density as high rise buildings are demolished in favour of houses instead, or vice versa.
What is the replacement level fertility?
The level of fertility at which population exactly replaces itself from generation to generation.
In MEDCs it is 2,1 per woman but in countries with higher mortality rates, the average number of births needs to be higher.
How can level of healthcare affect fertility rate?
- Improvements in healthcare lead to a drop in infant mortality, so people dont have to have as many children.
- Availability of contraceptives and knowledge and desire to use it can reduce the fertility rate. In Rwanda, 10% of women practice modern methods of contraception an total fertility rate is 5.12, wheras in Brazil 70% of women practice modern methods of family planning and total fertility rate is 2.21.
How does level of education affect fertility rate?
- Some contries access to health and education may be limited such as Afghanistan.
- Higher literacy rates lead to improved knowledge of birth control, more opportunities for employment and more choice, leading to lower fertility rates.
How can religion affect fertility rates?
Islam and Catholics oppose the use of birth control.
In many parts of the world, tradition and religion calls for high rates of reproduction.
How can the status of women affect fertility rates?
In some countries, it is seen as the woman’s role too have as many children as possible.
What economic factors affect fertility rates?
- Women have more opportunities for employment so may have less children and marry later.
- Reduced access to employment means women are forced to devote most of their time and energy to child bearing.
- In LEDCs, children are seen as economic assets as they can be used as workers on land to bring in more income.
- Education and childcare makes it very expensive to have a child in some countries.
How can political factors affect fertility rates?
-Some governments try to influence the rate of population growth, with pro or anti natalist policies e.g. China and Singapore.
How do high infant mortality rates affect fertility?
High infant mortality rates mean people have more children to ensure more survivors.
How do age structures of a country affect fertility rates?
-Countries with large proportions of young people may see population increase due to more people in the fertile ages.
What factors affect mortality?
- Age distribution (more old people, more deaths)
- Gender (women have a higher life expectancy
- Occupation
- Income
- Literacy (more educated, get paid more)
- Access to food
- Medical facilities
What are the advantages of the DMT?
- Can be applied to all countries
- Timescales are flexible
- Easy to understand
- Easy to compare between countries
- Describes what happened to the UK well.
- NICs are going through similar stages, just faster due to imported knowledge.
- Gives a good generalised picture
What are disadvantages of the DMT?
Birth rates in several MEDCs have declined below death rate so a 5th stage had to be added.
- Not as relevant to countries that are not industrialising, such as many African countries.
- Timescale is being shortened as countries develop at much faster rates.
- Model does not include impacts of migration
What are the 5 stages of the DMT?
1 - high fluctuating - low population, high birth and death rates
2 - early expanding - raising population, declining death rate, high birth rate
3 - late expanding - increasing population, declining birth rate, low death rate
4 - low fluctuating - high population, low death rate, low birth rate
5 - zero population / low declining - high population declining slightly - low birth rate, below death rate.
What does the dependancy ratio show?
How reliant young and old people are on the economically active population. Expressed as:
dependancy ratio = young population (0-14) + old population (65+) divided by population aged 15-64
What is the optimistic population theory?
The optimistic theory: Boserup
Key concept: Population growth drives economic development; people are intelligent so when old resources run out, we find new ways and technology to replace them
Evidence: Coal replaced oil and gas, Coal is being replaced by renewables and nuclear as it is running out. Food production has evolved - genetically modified crops, selective breeding etc.
What is the pessimistic population theory?
The pessimistic theory: Malthus
Key concept: Population growth will always outstrip food supply with negative consequences such as war and famine. This is because population increases geometrically (2,4,8,12,24…) whereas food supply increases arithmetically (2,4,6,8,10…)
He said preventative checks would reduce birth rate and positive checks would increase death rate (war famine etc.)
Evidence: Countries in Africa are suffering from serious famine due to lack of food.
What are some benefits of an ageing population?
Economic -
Employment opportunities for care workers, grey pound: older people have spending power which provides an economic boost in the form of tourism etc, changes to infrastructure to aid mobility, they can still do part/full time work: beneficial to companies as they can work flexible hours
Social -
They do volunteer work in day care centres, charities etc, they pass down wisdom (knowledge of life), uneven distribution of the elderly at the south coast means more services for the elderly. They can provide childcare for working parents.
Political -
Grey vote: the elderly are more likely to vote compared to other age groups hence parties adapt policies which appease the elderly to secure votes.
What are the problems with an ageing population?
Economic -
Pension crisis: there are less people of working age who pay taxes that provide old age pensions. This number will fall from 60 to 55% in the next 30 years
Growing health crisis: diseases such as dementia are increasing and sufferers need constant care. Geriatric care, therefore is required more (care for the old). The services are concentrated in popular retirement locations such as the south coast of England and the rural urban fringe.
Social -
Raised retirement age from 65 to 70 can cause upset, uneven population distribution means less services for the young, impact on family: more pressure to look after the elderly
How can an ageing population be managed?
Pension reforms such as increasing the retirement age so that people work for longer and collect their pensions for a less time
Immigration of people of working age will increase the proportion of the working age so more taxes are paid to support pensions and health care services for the elderly
Are policies to manage an ageing population sustainable?
Economically:
Yes - a larger working population (from migration) reduces the dependency ratio and helps people now and in the future. This is because taxes can be raised to pay for health care and pensions so economic resources can be generated to support the ageing population structure.
No - In the future, the large working age population (obtained from migration) will be over 65 so there will still be an aging population: immigration would have to be steady at all times to ensure there is always a large enough population for the growing ageing population
Environmentally:
For it to be environmentally sustainable - migrants need to be housed in sustainable homes with sustainable energy to ensure that the increased population does not damage the environment for the future generations. In this way the environment and resources are not polluted so they can be used by future generations.
What is the carrying capacity?
Maximum number of individuals that can be supported sustainably by a given environment.
What is the optimum population policy?
If the population is too small then resources cannot be developed effectively.
The optimum population is the size that permits the full utilisation of the natural resources of an area giving a maximum per capita output and standard of living.
If there is overpopultaion, but an increase in population or decrease in natural resources, standards of living will decline as a whole.
What was Malthus’s theory?
He said there was a finite population size in relation to food supply and any increase in population beyond that point (crisis point) would lead to decrease in standard of living and to war famine and disease.
His theory was based on 2 principles:
-Food supply only increases at an arithmetic rate
-Population grows at an eponential rate.
Malthus suggested to reduce the population growth by:
-delaying age of marriage
-abstinence of sex
