1. Sidney Knight, Erika Schwibinger, Valerie Stewart
Chapter 2: Population
Sidney Knight, Erika Schwibinger, Valerie Stewart

2. What is overpopulation?
Definition - the number of people in an area exceeds the capacity of the environment to support life at a decent standard of living.
Explanation - many lower developed countries or cities are overpopulated. Overpopulation can lead to depletion of resources or starvation.
Example - New York in the early 1900s often had areas of the city where overpopulation was common. Immigrants were crowded into tenements and sometimes up to 10 people slept in one room.

3. Where are the major population clusters of the world?
Definition - a population cluster is an area where a good majority of a population lives in a high population density.
Explanation - in the world, the main clusters are located in East Asia (China, Japan, the Koreas, Taiwan), South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka), Southeast Asia (Indochina and islands between Pacific and Indian Oceans), and Europe (over 40 countries).
Example - about ¼ of the world population lives in East Asia and about ¼ of the world population lives in South Asia.

4. What are the major population clusters of the United States?
Definition - population clusters in the United States are areas of high population density, normally coastal cities or areas of immigrant history.
Explanation - starting with the 13 colonies, the majority of clusters have been on the Atlantic coast. Slaves and immigrants went through coastal cities. The Pacific coast is also a greatly populated area due to the surplus of Asian immigrants in the 1900s. Areas in the northeast are not as populated due to the lack of accessibility.
Examples - the New York area, California coast, southeast, and Illinois area are all densely populated.

5. What is agricultural, physiological, and population density?
Definition - through arithmetic, physiological and population density, the number of people occupying an area of land can be computed.
Explanation - arithmetic density (aka population density) is the total number of people divided by the total land area.
Physiological density is the number of
people supported by a unit area of arable
land. Agricultural density is the ratio of the
number of farmers to the amount of arable land.
Example - in the United States, there is an
arithmetic density of 78 persons per square mile.
In the United States, the physiological density is
404 persons per square mile of arable land. In the United States, the agricultural density is 4 farmers per square kilometer of arable land.

6. What is NIR? How is it calculated?
Definition - Natural Increase Rate (NIR) is the percentage growth of a population in a year.
Explanation - to figure out how much a
population grows each year, one must
subtract the CDR (Crude Death Rate)
from the CBR (Crude Birth Rate). However,
before doing so, the CBR and CDR have to
be converted from numbers per 1,000 to
numbers per 100.
Example - if the CBR is 20 and the CDR
is 5 (both per 1,000), then the NIR is 15
per 1,000 or a growth of 1.5 percent.

7. What is land suited for agriculture called?
Definition - Arable land is land that is best suited for agriculture.
Explanation - Arable land can support a number of people, and to figure out how many it can support, physiological density
is used. Farmers work on arable land.
The number of farmers to the amount
of arable land can be figured out by
agricultural density.
Example - in the United States, there is
vast amount of arable land, however,
compared to India, there are fewer farmers
to work this land, as technology and finance
allows extensive land to be farmed.
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8. What are IMR, CBR, CDR, and TFR?
Definition - IMR, CBR, CDR, and TFR are used to measure
the population change in a country or the world as a whole.
Explanation - IMR (Infant Mortality Rate) is the annual
number of deaths of infants under one year of age compared
with total live births. CBR (Crude Birth Rate) is the total
number of live births in a year for every 1,000 people
alive in the society. CDR (Crude Death Rate) is the total
number of deaths in a year for every 1,000 people alive in
a society. TFR (Total Fertility Rate) is the average number
of children a woman will have.
Example - in some LDCs, the infant mortality rates exceed
100 (more than 10% of babies die). A CBR of 20 means that
20 babies were born per 1,000 people. A CDR of 15 means
that 15 people died per every 1,000 people. Many
sub-Saharan African countries have a TFR that exceeds six,
whereas in nearly every European country the TFR is less than two.

9. What are the characteristics of each stage of the demographic transition model?
Definition - a demographic transition model measures the population growth of countries and is categorized into 5 stages.
Explanation - stage 1 has extremely high CBRs and extremely high CDRs. Stage 2 is identical to stage 1 only CBRs are a bit lower and CDRs are also a bit lower. Stage 1 and 2 countries are developing with a low literacy rate. Stage 3 countries are more developed with a changing status of women. Health
plans in stage 3 countries become available and the country becomes more industrialized. Stage 4 and 5 countries typically feature smaller families with decreasing CBRs and decreasing CDRs. The dependency ratio becomes equal which could lead to problems in that society.
Examples - no countries are currently in stage 1; stage 2 countries include many central african countries such as Nigeria, stage 3 countries include Brazil and China, stage 4 countries include the United States and Australia, and finally, a stage 5 country would be Germany.

10. What did Malthus argue?
Definition - the Malthusian theory states that population growth will eventually surpass the food growth, leaving the majority of a society without food.
Explanation - in the early 1800s, farmers didn’t have the technological advantages that we do now, and were not able to mass produce foods. Malthus proposed many ideas to lower the population.
Example - Malthus proposed cramming people into small living areas to increase the chance of spreading diseases and therefore increase the death rate.
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11. What is ecumene?
Definition - the portion of earth’s surface occupied by permanent human settlement.
Explanation - anywhere where land is used for agricultural, economic, or personal purposes is considered ecumene; branches off into arithmetic density, physiological density, and agricultural density.
Example - in Canada, the land considered “ecumene” corresponds with population clusters. Obviously, people use the land around them and that land becomes considered as ecumene.
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12. Why are women having fewer children in the U. S
Why are women having fewer children in the U.S. now versus 50 years ago?
Definition - Factors that contribute to the decrease in the total fertility rate of a country includes contraceptives, a higher literacy rate, and a more industrialized society.
Explanation - when women in a society become more educated, they begin to spend more time learning and working in the workforce as opposed to raising children. In stage 4 and 5 countries, children cost more to take care of, so families are kept small which encourages women to work. 50 years ago, women were expected to stay at home raising kids; now, most mothers have jobs which serve in place of having more children.
Example - in lesser developed countries such as Afghanistan, a level 2 country whose CBR is high, many women do not receive a proper education and therefore take care of the household and children.
Afganistan vs USA in 2010
USA in 1960 vs USA in 2010