Population (Yr 11) Flashcards
What’s the death rate?
The number of deaths per 1000 people per year
What’s overpopulation?
When there are too many people in an area for the resources that are available.
What’s exponential growth?
When something, like population, doubles regularly.
What are birth rates?
The number of live births per 1000 people per year.
What’s optimum population?
The number of people that an area can support sustainably.
How do we know how many people live in a country?
Countries take a census every 10 years that asks questions about the number of people in a household, their ages, jobs etc.
They’re useful for the government to plan schools and hospitals.
However this information is harder to get in LEDCs.
What is population distribution?
The way in which people are spread out across the world. This distribution is uneven and changes over time.
What is population density?
The average number of people per sq km. it shows whether an area is sparsely or densely populated.
It’s calculated by following the formula:
P’ density = total population/ total land in sq km
What causes a sparse population?
Difficult accessibility Droughts and deserts Extreme climates Difficult terrain e.g. Mountains Volcanoes Land susceptible to natural disasters Poor farming land Lack of jobs
What causes a dense population?
Temperate climate Access to coast/docks and ports Higher job availability High birth rates Good land and soil Easily accessible locations Reliable energy supplies Good agriculture Transportation
What is the DTM?
DTM stands for demographic transition model and is a demonstration of the total population of a country over time in relation to the birth rates and death rates and how they change.
What does a population pyramid show?
The number of people within a country divided into different age groups and gender.
Stage 1, common for LEDCs, has a wide base (high birth rate), concave sides (high death rate) and is quite short (short life expectancy).
Stage 4, common for MEDCs, has a small base (small/declining birth rate), convex sides (low death rate) and is taller (longer life expectancy)
What is Boserup’s population theory?
The positive theory that if people were facing a crisis, they would invent a way to prevent it and that humans are intelligent beings who’ll find a solution to lack of resources.
The worlds population could continue to grow indefinitely.
What’s Mathulus’ population theory?
The negative theory that if the population got too big, there’d be a point of crisis.
Population is getting bigger faster than our ability to produce food and thought there’d be a limit to population growth.
Once population had grown to a point of crisis, there’d be a natural check e.g. A famine, war or natural disaster.
What’s zero growth?
When the birth rates and death rates in a country are about the same and the population is not increasing.
What’s negative growth?
Where the population is falling. These are usually richer countries with either the birth and death rates the same or there are fewer births than deaths.
What are the effects of an ageing population?
There are more people relying on the working population.
People working must pay for the pensions of people who’ve retired - more elderly dependents.
May have to work until 70 years.
Higher taxes
More old peoples homes
An economy which may run short of workers
(Looking at the graphs) the population has decreased but the elderly population has increased.
The population of England is at a record high but there are thousands of job vacancies
There are 5x more people aged 85 than there were in 1951
Case study: China - how does a government influence population?
China
1950 - they had the philosophy “a large population gives a strong nation”. Children were encouraged.
1959-61 - serious famine. Up to 20 million people died and the birth rate fell (more boys died than girls).
1960 - there was a population boom. It increased by 55 million per year but the government did nothing to reduce the birth rate.
1970 - mid 1970s onwards, the policy changed to “later (marriage), longer (gaps between children), and fewer (children). Government urged the population to decrease.
1980 - the new policy wasn’t effective.
Limits and contraception were pressured.
There were ‘granny police’ whose job was to ensure that women were taking the pill (if not, women could face being sterilized).
‘Boys are better’ - couples wanted sons so girls were killed or aborted in order to have a son.
‘Little emperors’ - only child’s (no siblings) were often very spoilt and greedy.
1990 - the one child policy was relaxed and birth rates increased slightly. Hard to avoid as many people born during the population boom were of child bearing age.
2000 - couples who had no siblings were allowed 2 children and people living in rural areas were allowed 2 if their first child was a girl (year of dragon)
2008 - Sichuan earthquake. Adoption was made easier for families who lost children and were allowed to try for another child.
Rules:
Can’t marry until late 20s
Can only have one successful pregnancy
Must be sterilised after 1 pregnancy
Case study: China - how does a government influence population? (One child policy)
ADVANTAGES
Pros:
- Approx 400 million births have been prevented
- Supporters for the policy feel it’s successful in cities and has provided better education for many children residing in the countryside.
- China has managed to limit its population growth according to the foreign and independent Chinese academics.
- Chinese government officials also stated, “compared with the worlds other developing countries wig large populations, we have realised this transformation half a century ahead of time”.
- Government has announced they’ll offer a range of benefits to families that have implemented the family planning policy.
- The policies range from health care to house renovation, poverty reduction, training programmes, land rearrangement, new technology, relocation subsidies and educational support.
- agencies hope it will enhance “population and family planning work” in rural areas and improve quality of life for those couples
- people were encouraged to obey the rules due to the 5-10% pay rise, priority housing and pension and family benefits.
Case study: China - how does a government influence population? (One child policy)
DISADVANTAGES
Cons:
- some believe it’s a mistake and will result in a number of serious demographic problems in the future. E.g. An ageing population that becomes male dominant meaning more elderly people who require support.
- illegal trade of children has causes suffering for thousands of people nationwide, especially poor families and hose on the fringes of society.
- government officials with more than one child will automatically lose their jobs
- benefit policies and mainly targeted at single child families and those with two daughters in rural areas.
- men in china outnumber women by over 60 million
- some feel the policy has led to an increase in forces abortions and penalties.
- since introduced, there’s been an increase in stolen children and it’s estimated that 70,000+ children are kidnapped each year and traded on the black market.
- traffickers can buy baby boys for £400 and girls are sold for as little as £200.
- many feel the policy has led to killing, adoption or selling off female infants because Chinese culture traditionally favours boys.
- disobeying could result in a 10% salary cut
