Topic 8 Flashcards
Population density
Population per area
Population distribution
How population is spread over an area
Population
All of the organisms of the same species living in a defined area at the same time
Phases
Lag phase : a period of time in population growth in which the organism is adapting to new environment so growth rate is slow
Log phase exponential : a period of time in which growth rate of organism is increasing over time as all requirements are available
Stationary phase : when the growth rate of a population has slowed down to zero as carrying capacity is reached where birth rate equals death rate
Carrying capacity
The maximum size of a population that an environment can sustain in terms of food water and other resources
Birth rate
Number of live births per thousand of population per year
Death rate
Number of deaths per thousand of population per year
Infant death rate
Number of death of children below age 1 year old per thousand of population per year
Natural increase
Difference between birth and death rates
Migration
Migration: the movement of people Into (Immigration) or out of (emigration) a region,country or an area.
Population growth
Population growth: (birth rate + immigration) - (death rate + emigration)
Pull factors
Pull factors (Immigrate)
Positive Factors that attract people TO
an area.
Good transportation and infrastructure
Good supplies of food
Well-paid jobs
Better quality of lifestyle
Better education
Better healthcare
Good temperature/climate.
Dependent
Those people in the population who aren’t economically active / working ( smaller than 16 and older than 65) thus rely on those who are economically active
Independent
Those people in a population who are economically active ( 17 and 65)
Taxes from independent people is used for
Education for the young and provision of schools for the children
Creating care home places and health facilities for the old population
Factors affecting birth and death rate
In farming areas of LEDCs: more children are needed in manual labor so families tend to be larger
In MECDS : it’s expensive to have children and pensions are being provided, so they don’t need children to take care of them when they are older
In LEDCs : many social and political factors results in low use of birth control whereas in MEDCS birth control is widely used so birth and death rates are lower
Push factors
Push factors (Emigrate)
Negative Factors that encourage people to move FROM an area.
War or conflict
Drought/ famine
Desertification
Bad climate
Unemployment and poverty
Poor quality of life
Natural disasters
Why there is a range of possible
world population figures:
Future cannot be predicted
Birth rates and death rates may change
Natural disasters may occur
Diseases and pandemic may occur Change in population policies
Medical advances
Managing human population size
Family planning: methods used by couples to decide the number of children to have and when, which is mostly encouraged by governments.
Birth control methods:
Contraception: used to prevent pregnancy.
B. Improved health: High infant mortality causes couples to have more children. When it is reduced by better healthcare and sanitation, the trend is reversed.
C. Improved education:
- Makes people more aware of methods to limit family size (family planning).
- Educated women have more opportunities to work so they may plan a career as well as having children, which limits how many children are born.
- Education can also lead to a tendency for late marriages and thus late childbearing.
D. National population policies:
Pronatalist policy: a national or regional policy that aims to encourage couples to have
children.
In countries like France, couples were encouraged to have more than 2 children.
Subsided or free nurseries/schools/high education.
Subsided or free healthcare for children or parents.
Subsided or free public transport.
Encourage appropriate immigration.
Allowances or benefits for having children e.g.: birth bonuses
Paid maternity or paternity leave.
at Hate
Antinatalist policy: a national or regional policy that aims to discourage couples from having children.
Some countries have no population policies at all and usually have high birth rates.
In LEDCs, population increases too fast, and these policies can form in weak measures such
as:
The provision of family planning, contraceptives, and education.
Laws encouraging couples to have only one or two children. E.g.: One or two child
policy in China.
One-child policy:
Advantages
Simple and easy to manage
Financial benefits for the families
Higher pensions and cheap loans
Disadvantages
Mandatory contraception
Gender imbalance due to preference of boys
Severe penalties eg. large fines
More job opportunities, food, housing, and Wealthy people can ignore
land
Exceptions: rural families are allowed 2
children and twins
E: Migration/immigration
Countries that are overpopulated, its population seeks to leave the country unlike countries
with low population, people immigrate to these countries.
F. Raising the age of marriage
G. Parental choice for lower families
Problems caused by population growth
Environmental problems
- Deforestation and loss of biodiversity.
Erosion and desertification due to over cultivation.
Damage to marine ecosystem due to overfishing.
- Air pollution due to increased vehicles and industries.
- Land pollution due to increased garbage.
- Increased noise pollution.
Water pollution.
Other problems (Economic)
1- Insufficient schools
2 Insufficient hospitals
3- High level of unemployment
4- Food shortage
5- Shortage of housing and infrastructure
6- Poverty
7- Shortage of water
8- Shortage of electricity
9- Traffic congestion
Problems caused by low birth rate
The working age population (independent people) decreases so the need for migrants increases.
- Increased number of old dependent people so decrease in fertility rate.
- Increased financial burden on medical system.
- Increased pension costs.
- increase cost of Health Care
6.lack of work force in the Future
7.less tax Payers
