Revision Notes for Class 12 Geography Book I Fundamentals of Human Geography Chapter 2 The World Population: Distribution, Density and Growth
What do you mean by population distribution?
It refers to the way people are spaced over the Earth surface
- 90% of the world’s population lives in about 10% of its land area
- 10 most populated countries contribute 60% of the world population
- Of these 10 countries, 6 countries are located in Asia
- So Asia has the largest population in the world
Density of population
- Density refers total population divided by total area
- More than 200 persons are living in North Eastern part of USA North Western part of Europe, south and Southeast and East Asia
- On the other hand the population is less in North and South poles, hot and cold desert areas, equatorial areas have less than 1% per Sq.km
Why is population density low in these areas?
Because these areas are not having ideal conditions for life
Factors influencing distribution of population
(A). Geographical factors
(B). Economical factors
(C). Social and cultural factors
(A). Geographical factors
- Availability of water
- Landforms
- Climate
- Soils
1. Availability of water
- People prefer to live where freshwater is easily available
- Used for various activities
- River valleys have very dense population
2. Landforms
- Plains, plateau and mountain
- Mountain areas have less population due to unfavourable conditions
- Plains have more population
- Easy for cultivation and to develop infrastructure facilities
3. Climate
- Due to extreme cold and hot population is less in some areas
- Population is more where ideal climate exists
- Example- Mediterranean region
4. Soil
- Population is more where fertile soil is found
- Population is less in unfertile soil areas (example desert area)
(B). Economic factors
- Minerals availability
- Urbanization
- Industrialization
1. Minerals Availability
- It generates employment opportunities in the name of mining activities and industries
- Hence skilled and unskilled people migrate and make the area more densely (example Katanga zambiya copper belt in Africa)
2. Urbanization
- Cities offer better employment opportunities
- Educational and medical facility
- Better means of transport and communication
- Good Civic amenities
- Attraction of the city life attract the people to the cities
3. Industrialization
- Industrial belt provides job opportunities and attract large no number of people
- These include not only factory workers but also transport operators, shop keepers bank employees, doctors, teachers and other service providers (example Kobe-Osaka region in Japan)
(C). Social and cultural factors
- Religious and cultural significance
- Peaceful areas attract people
Population growth
- It refers to the change in number of inhabitants of territory during a specific period of time
- The growth is always expressed in percentage
Growth of population: Change of population in particular area in a region
Growth rate of population: This is the change of population expressed in %
Natural growth of population: The rate of increased population between birth rate and death rate of two ends of time of a region.
Birth rate – death rate = Natural growth
Actual growth = birth – death + migration – out migration
Positive growth of population
- Birth rate is more than the death rate between two end of time
Negative growth of population
- When death rate is more than the birth date between two end of time
Components of population change
- Crude birth rate: number of live birth/ 1000 person in a year
- Crude death rate: number of death per/ 1000 persons in a year
- Migration: the movement of people from one place to another for various reasons
- Place of origin: a place from there people move
- Place of destination: the place where the people reach
- Immigration: migrants who move into new place
- Emigration: migrants who move out of a place
- Two sets of factors of migration
- Push factors and
- Pull factors
1. Push Factors
- Unemployment
- Poor Living conditions
- Political turmoil
- Unpleasant climate
- Natural disasters and
- Socio economic backwardness
2. Pull Factors
- Better job opportunities
- Living conditions
- Peace and stability
- Security of life and the property
- Pleasant climate
Role of Science and Technology
- The stream engine replaced human and animal energy
- Mechanized energy of water and wind
- Both led to the development of industries and Agriculture
- Epidemics and other communicable diseases were controlled by medical facilities
- Death rate was totally controlled by the medical facilities
Doubling time of world population
- World population was doubled due to the following reasons
- Settled agriculture
- Industrial revolution
- Technological advancement
- Development of transport and communication
Spatial pattern of population change
- The growth of developed countries is low as compared to developing countries
- There is negative correlation between economic development and population growth
Impact of population change
- Over utilisation of resources
- Leads to dieses like HIV& Aids
- When population declines it leads to the problem in production
- The average life span would be less
- Increased pressure agricultural land
- Problems in developing infrastructure
Demography transitional theory
First stage: birth rate and death rate are high
Why so it is?
- Infant mortality rate high resulting in high fertility rate
- No family planning
- More children for work
- Religious dogma of big families
Why of high death rate
- Attacks of epidemics
- Low quality of food
- No medical facility
Second stage
- Birth rate remains high
- Death rate decreased rapidly due to medical facilities
- Healthy conditions
- Pure drinking water
- Increased in quality and quantity of food grains
- Low infant mortality
Third stage
- Death rate and birth rate both decreased
- It shows stable population growth
Why is it decreased?
- Family planning
- Industrialization
- Better living conditions
- Incentive for small family
- Women freedom
Population control measures
- Family planning to prevent the child birth
- Improving the women’s health
- Propaganda and free availability of contraceptives
- Text disincentive for large families
- Thomas Malthus stated that number of people would increase faster than food supply
- For our sustainability of our resources we should have control over the population increase.
