1. Ch. 15 Populations, Cities, and the Environment
Chapter 17

2. Population by the Numbers
About 2,000 years ago the world’s population was around 300 million
Little changed until the Industrial Revolution
At the onset of the Industrial Revolution population began to grow
first billion
second billion
billion
billion
billion
billion
billion
2011 – 7 billion

3. Dynamics of Demography
Demography – scientific study of population; encompasses all measures of population: size, distribution, composition, age structure, and change; the study of the size, composition, distribution, and changes in human population.
Three basic demographic variables are crucial to understanding population dynamics.
Demography therefore plays a major role in policy formation, planning, and decision making in both the public and private sectors.

4. Study of Population Trends
The professional demographer considers these events in two ways:
first, by gathering, organizing, and analyzing the patterns of population size, structure, composition, and distribution;
second, by attempting to identify and understand relationships between demographic and social processes.

5. Study of Population Trends
Three population processes are considered responsible for growth and decline.
Fertility
Mortality
Migration

6. Measurement of Fertility
Fertility measures the number of children born to a woman or population of women.
Fertility rates: the average number of births per 1,000 people in the population
Crude birth rate = (live births x 1,000)
total population
This formula is “crude; “ it fails to identify those women in the population most likely to give birth; and it ignores the age structure of the population.

7. Measurement of Fertility
Fertility rate—the annual number of live births per 1,000 women ages fifteen to forty- four.
Age-specific fertility is the number of live births per 1,000 women in a specific age group.
Total fertility rate—the average number of children born to a woman during her lifetime.

8. Mortality Mortality refers to the deaths in a population.
Mortality rates: the average number of deaths per 1,000 people in the population
A related concept is infant mortality rates—the average number of deaths per 1,000 live births.
Also related is life expectancy—the average age to which a person can expect to live.
Life span – most advanced age to which human can survive.
Life expectancy – average number of years that persons in a given population born at a particular time can expect to life.
Morbidity – refers to rates of disease and illness in a population.

9. Measurement of Mortality
Crude death rate = (# of deaths x 1,000)
total population
Age-specific death rates to measure the number of deaths per 1,000 persons in a specific age group.
Infant mortality rate—the number of deaths among infants under one year of age per 1,000 live births.

10. Global Life Expectancy at Birth, 2013
Life expectancy also gives us information about the availability of medicine, medical treatment, and technology available.
© 2016 W. W. Norton & Co., Inc. 10

11. Migration
Migration refers to the movement of people from one geographical area to another for the purpose of establishing a new residence; international migration versus internal migrants.
Migration: the movement of people from one geographic area to another for the purpose of resettling

12. Migration
The gross migration rate is the number of persons per 1,000 members of a population who, in a given year, enter (immigrants) or leave (emigrants) a geographical area.
The net migration rate is the annual increase or decrease per 1,000 members of a population resulting from movement into and out of the population.

13. Migration Why do people migrate?
Push–pull theory - people move either because they are attracted elsewhere or because they feel impelled to leave their present location.

14. World Population Growth
The world’s population is growing at a rate of 83 million people per year, as a result of high birth rate in poorer countries and low death rates in developing countries.
The growth and the distribution of the world’s population—almost 7 billion—vary greatly among the nations of the world.

15. Theories of Population Change
Robert Malthus was concerned about population growth and overpopulation.
The Malthusian theorem states that exponential population growth would outpace arithmetic growth in food production and other resources.
These concerns first emerged during the Industrial Revolution. In other words, population numbers would increase in the pattern 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, and so on (doubling), while food production numbers would increase in the pattern 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 (adding 1 each time). 15

16. World Population Growth over 2,000 Years
© 2016 W. W. Norton & Co., Inc.

17. Theories of Population Change (cont'd)
Neo-Malthusians believe that population growth will eventually outpace available resources, leading to a global catastrophe.
Anti-Malthusians believe that family planning (contraception or any other method of controlling family size and birth of children) and other changes will eventually cause population shrinkage.
Discussion: Ask your students what they think about these two ideas. Do they see one or the other more commonly portrayed in the media? 17

18. Theories of Population Change (cont'd)
Demographic transition: a theory suggesting the possible transition over time from high birth and death rates to low birth and death rates, resulting in a stabilized population
Anti-Malthusians forecast a very different future when demographic transition, now occurring in many industrialized nations, spreads to the rest of the developing world.
Discussion: Ask your class if there are benefits to a stabilized population—or negative consequences? 18

19. Cities
Urbanization refers to the movement of increasing numbers of people from rural areas to urban areas.
This is because many people once made their living from farming, or using wide plots of land. Nowadays, most people “go to work” because work is not at the home site. Before the Industrial Revolution, most people around the world lived in rural areas. The wide-scale development of cities was made possible by the significant social, economic, and political changes accompanying the Industrial Revolution. These changes have altered our social landscape. [ 19

20. Percent Population Residing in Urban Areas by County, 2010

21. Cities (cont’d)
A metropolis is an urban area with a large population, usually 500,000 to 1,000,000 people.
A megalopolis (or megacity) is a group of densely populated metropolises that grow dependent on each other and eventually combine to form a huge urban complex. 21

22. Urbanization (cont'd)
Suburbanization is the shift of large segments of population away from the urban core and toward the edge of cities.
Urban sprawl is a derogatory term applied to the expansion of urban or suburban boundaries, associated with irresponsible or poorly planned development.
Along with urbanization, an important countertrend surfaced in the years immediately following World War II, called suburbanization. 22

23. Cities (cont’d)
Another trend that has changed many formerly blighted cities is gentrification —the transformation of poor inner-city neighborhoods into more affluent, middle-class communities.
Students may have been aware of this trend in recent years, when property values skyrocketed. Suddenly areas that were once considered “undesirable” were becoming “fixer-uppers.” An unfortunate aspect of gentrification is that as property values within a gentrified area increase, original residents must bear higher taxes and costs of living. In many instances, they are unable to keep their homes. 23

24. Cities (cont'd)
Many sociologists also believe that the freedom of city life is a source of alienation.
Alienation: decreasing importance of social ties and community and the corresponding increase in impersonal associations and instrumental logic
Louis Wirth’s research was in line with the belief that cities caused social atomism (a social situation that emphasizes individualism over collective or group identities). If group identity is considered unimportant or unavailable, this could increase feelings of alienation. 24

25. Cities (cont’d)
Bystander effect: the social dynamic that shows that the more people are present in a moment of crisis, the less likely any one of them is to take action)
The death of Kitty Genovese came to symbolize alienation and lack of community. The original account of the twenty-eight-year old’s murder outside her Queens apartment building claimed that there were thirty-eight witnesses—none of whom intervened.
Research on the bystander effect suggests that it is a result of pluralistic ignorance, a process in which members of a group individually conclude that there is no need to take action because they see that other group members have not done so. 25

26. The Environment
The environment refers to the natural world, the human- made environment, and the interaction between the two.
Discussion: why are sociologists interested in the environment?
Hopefully they will be able to see the connection between the social world and the natural world. For instance, do people treat strangers the same in big cities as they do in small towns? As a result of the landscape, the interactions are different.
The environment impacts our social interactions immensely, and we’re going to talk about that in the upcoming slides. 26

27. Environmental Problems
Sociologists are interested in how human populations impact the natural world, especially as environmental degradation has increasingly become a social problem.
We know that humans impact the physical environment. We also know that there are environmental issues like pollution and deforestation. Sociologists are interested in how these issues affect us on micro and macro levels. 27

28. Environmental Sociology
Environmental sociology: the study of the interaction between society and the natural environment, including the social causes and consequences of environmental problems
Environmental sociology focuses on four areas:
how the political economy influences the environment
society’s attitudes about the environment
the environmental movement (an organized, social movement)
sustainable development 28

29. Environmental Sociology (cont'd)
The environmental movement is a social movement organized around concerns about the relationship between humans and the environment.
Its first efforts, in the nineteenth century, (conservation era) focused on conservation of wilderness areas.
Environmentalists advocate for protection and restoration of the natural world. 29

30. Environmental Sociology (cont’d)
The modern environmental movement arose in the mid- twentieth century in response to ecological disasters that threaten public health and safety.
Mainstream environmentalism grew in the 1980s as the movement consolidated and lobbied government about environmental concerns. 30

31. Environmental Sociology (cont’d)
Most recently, grassroots environmentalism has emerged in response to perceived blind spots in the larger mainstream groups. Grassroots organizers focus on local action and community involvement.
While environmental issues are often hailed as social problems, it is encouraging to see how individuals can exert effort and make a positive change. We’ll talk more about ways that this can happen in the next chapter, but try thinking of ways that you might get involved with issues that are important to you!
Coastal or community cleanups are common examples of local action. 31

32. Malthusian Perspective
Population, if left unchecked, will tend to exceed the food supply.
Checks on population can be positive (famines, wars) or preventive (birth control).
For the poor, any improvement in income is lost to additional births.
The wealthy and better educated already exercise preventive checks.

33. Raising people’s aspirations for a higher standard of living enhances the beneficial effects of universal education on population control.
A society could accomplish this by raising wages above the minimum required for subsistence, thus providing the poor an opportunity to choose between more children at a minimal standard of living or smaller families with a higher quality of life.

34. Neo-Malthusians
The neo-Malthusians modified Malthus’s propositions in an attempt to explain the current world situation and to predict possible futures.
Neo-Malthusians note that the development of reliable contraceptives has not distorted marital relations as Malthus feared that it might.

35. Neo-Malthusians
Historical developments since Malthus’s time indicate that values promoting, and norms supporting, smaller families are positively related to certain kinds of social and economic changes.
Neo-Malthusians argue that many nations have a rate of population growth that overloads this self- regulating process because population growth is excessive to the extent that resources are diverted from socioeconomic change to population maintenance.

36. Projected Population of the United States

37. Demographic Transition Theory: Four Stages
Demographic transition – the process by which a population, as a result of economic development, gradually moves from high birth rates and death rates to low birth rates and death rates.

38. Population Control
Population control is the conscious attempt to regulate population size through national birth control programs.
Historically, many societies were more concerned with increasing their population size than with overpopulation.
Voluntary population control is generally known as family planning—making it technically possible for women to choose the number of children they will have.

39. Future World Population Growth
After more than 200 years of acceleration, the annual population growth rate is declining.
The current growth rate of 1.2 percent compares favorably with the peak of 2.04 percent in the late 1960s.
Moreover, the rate is projected to drop to zero by the end of the twenty-first century.

40. Future Population Growth
Demographers are unsure of future world population growth in part because they do not know for sure how many children today’s youth will have, nor do they know what will happen to change life expectancy, particularly in developing countries.
In developed countries, fertility rates are at or below two children per couple
In developing societies, women average four children each.

41. What is the future of world population growth?
The United Nations offers three possible world population growth scenarios, varying depending on their assumptions regarding the average number of children women will bear.
Medium Scenario: women will have to average two children, world population will rise to more than 9 billion by 2100, depicts zero population growth—when deaths are balanced by births so that the population does not grow.

42. What is the future of world population growth?
The time lag is what demographers call population momentum—a population continues to grow, regardless of a recent drop in the birth rate, because of the existing population base created by past growth.

43. The World’s Population Explosion

44. Population Growth in the United States and Other More Developed Countries: 1950-2050

45. Population Growth in the U.S.
The population of the United States will continue growing despite the average American family reproducing at the replacement level of 2.0 children per family.
The U.S. population experienced natural increase (excess of births over deaths) each decade of the twentieth century.
Demographers often use the total fertility rate (the average number of children born to a woman during her lifetime) to predict population change.