1. AP Human Geography: Unit 2
Population Geography
AP Human Geography: Unit 2

2. Population Terms
Total Fertility Rate: Average # of children born to a woman
Infant Mortality Rate: # of infants that die before age one
Life Expectancy: Average length of someone’s life
Crude Birth Rate: number of live births per 1000 people
Crude Death Rate: Number of deaths per 1000 people

5. Natural Increase Rate
Difference between the Crude Birth Rate and the Crude Death Rate. A negative increase means the number of babies is not high enough to make up for deaths therefore the population is declining
This number does not account for migration
Most developing regions are seeing death rates out number birth rates = a declining population. If numbers are still high it is most likely due to immigration

6. Doubling Time Time that it takes for a population to double
Year Est. Population Double Time in Years
million
million years
billion years
billion years
billion years

7. What determines a Population’s Natural Increase Rate?
Economic Development A country’s economic development plays a huge factor on the quality of health care, employment opportunities and nutrition. Usually an increase in economic development results in a decline in fertility and growth rates

8. Education: Affects every aspect from fertility rates to prenatal care and the use of contraceptives
Gender empowerment: the status and opportunities available for women. Women who have more economic / political access, power, and education have lower fertility rates
Healthcare: Contradictory towards Natural Rate of Increase because improved healthcare in less developing countries has a lower IMR and an increase in life expectancy thus = population growth….But
Improved healthcare services also provide contraceptives and family planning limiting births too

9. Cultural Traditions: In many parts of the world culture encourages increased fertility rates by limiting women in employment out of the home through elevating motherhood and discouraging contraceptives. Ex: the need to have many sons
Public Policies: important implications for population growth. Ex: China with their “One Couple, One Child” policy of 1979 which provides economic incentives favoring families who have few children and penalties for those having too many

11. Geographer’s Population Models
Thomas Malthus
Population Pyramids
Demographic Transition Model

12. Thomas Malthus 1798: Wrote the Essay on the Principals of Population
Basic idea was
1. People need food to survive
2. People have a natural desire to reproduce
Food production increases arithmetically: grows by addition of more acreage into cultivation
Population increases geometrical: grows by the multiplication of human beings. Today known as exponential growth

13. Problems with Malthus Theory
He knew there would be development in agricultural technologies but he did not take into account how dramatic their affects would be
He assumed humans had no control over their reproductive behavior. He did not foresee population numbers slowing down due to
1. effective contraceptives
2. changing roles of women in society
3. individual people’s reproductive decisions

14. He did not recognize that famine was not related to a lack of food, but to unequal distribution of food
Ex: Famine exists in various areas of Africa in the 20th century despite an abundance of food in other parts of the world

15. Demographic Transition Model
This model explains changes in the natural increase rate as a function of economic development
It is another interpretation of population growth
According to this model……..
Countries at low levels of economic development reflect high birth and death rates but birth rates will significantly outpace deaths

16. If a country grows and develops through several stages of economic development………
Birth and death rates will both decrease, ultimately flattening out at some low level
Total Population: which increases remarkably during early and middle stages of economic development eventually plateaus as birth and death rates meet
This model has four stages

17. Demographic Transition Model 4 Stages
Phase One
Phase Two
Phase Three
Phase Four
Pre-Industrial
Transitional
Industrial

18. Many Geographers think……..
This model is too simplistic in explaining the relationship between economic development and population because it does not take into consideration other factors such as
Culture
Religion
Geopolitics
Migration
The structure of the global economic system

19. Pyramids
Population

20. Population Pyramids examine a country’s age-sex distrubution
Shows how a country’s populace is distributed between males and females at various ages
A Population pyramid with a pyramid shape of a wide base is of a country with high proportion of young people and is growing rapidly
A population pyramid with a more rectangular shape reflects a population with relative even numbers of young, middle aged and older people. Typically highly developed countries with lower growth rates

23. Population Cohort
A group of people that all have something in common and are usually grouped together for statistical purposes

24. 1. Baby Boomer Generation 1949-1964
Post WWII: Period of relative peace and economic prosperity in the United States. Plenty of jobs and Government Aid Programs such as the GI Bill
People had education, homes, and secure jobs. They also had a conservative social environment of the day which encouraged increase rates of marriage and fertility
This period produced the largest, best educated, and most financially secure generation in all American HX

25. #2 Generation X
This was the generation without the overwhelming numbers and unifying identity like the baby boomers
There were influences from the Vietnam War, government distrust and moral issues surrounding the Watergate Affair, women from the Baby Boom era who were reaching child bearing ages in the mid- 70’s were choosing education and pursuing more demanding careers while waiting longer to marry and then were having fewer children.

26. Thus Generation X saw their generation’s natural increase rate decline rapidly to the point where some geographers referred to this generation as the “Baby Bust”
This generation also will bare the future strain created by the baby boom era as they reach retirement age and put pressure on healthcare, social security, and other services. This will increase the US dependency ratio.(Those too young or old who can no longer work and are therefore dependent on those that do)