Too many people?

Year 8 Humanities Homework booklet

Key TermsBefore you can study population geography you need to know the meaning of some important words.Task:Link each key term in the table below with a line to its definition (or meaning).

Key term DefinitionTotal population The average number of people per square

kilometrePopulation Distribution

The number of births in a year per thousand people.

Population Density How people are spread around, in an area, region, country or continent.

Population Pyramid The overall number of people living in a particular place.

Birth Rate The number of death in a year per thousand people.

Death Rate A bar graph showing how the population of a place is divided into:• males and females• different age groups

Extension Activity:Research the following key terms and write a definition in the space provided:

Key term DefinitionSparsely populatedDensely populatedNatural increase in populationInfant mortality

How is the world’s population changing?

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

7000

millions

10000 BC

5000 BC

2000 1000 1 AD

First farms appear

• The world’s population has grown steadily since 10,000 BC.• The world’s population grew slowly until 1000, accelerating after 1800.• The world’s population grew slowly until 1000, accelerated after 1800, then started to slow down.

How is the world’s population changing?The 31st October 2011 was an important date. The world’s population

passed 7 billion. That’s 7,000,000,000 people! How did it get there? Tasks:1. A graph is a great way to show how something is changing. Draw a line graph to show the change in the world’s population. (It’s started for you on the opposite page.) Use the figures in Table 1.

2. Adding the labels in Table 2 to your graph will bring it alive. Link each label to the appropriate place on the graph line you have drawn. An example has been done for you.

Table 1 Year

Population

(millions)10,000 BC

4

5000 BC 51000 BC 501AD 2001000 3001600 5001800 10001927 20001960 30001975 40001987 50001999 60002011 7000

Year Write this label…10000 BC

We live by hunting and gathering

9000 BC First farms appear

7000 BC First towns appear

4000 BC The wheel is invented

3000 BC The first cities appear

1000 BC The Iron Age starts

43 Romans invade Britain

400 Romans leave Britain

1750 The industrial revolution starts

3. Remember, the steeper the graph line, the quicker the population is changing. Circle the sentence below the graph which best describes how the world’s population has grown.

Extension activity: What do you think will have happened to the world’s population by 2500? Give a reason for your answer. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Why do populations change?The world’s population is growing rapidly, but it is not rising at the same rate in all parts of the world. In some countries it is rising fast. In other countries the population is rising slowly, or even falling. To understand why populations change you need to understand the relationship between the birth rate and the death rate.Task:1. Remind yourself, what do these terms mean?• Birth rate ……………………………………………………………………………………………………• Death rate ………………………………………………………………………………………………….2. Table 3 shows 10 things that could happen in a country. Next to each write the effect it would have on the birth rate or the death rate. Select from:Death rate rises, Death rate falls, Birth rate rises, Birth rate

falls

Table 3 Way of life/Change Possible result

A savage war breaks outMore/better food becomes availableCrops fail causing extensive faminePeople’s wealth increasesA deadly disease breaks outReliable birth control methods become availableMany men take several wivesMore doctors are employedFew girls go to schoolMore women go to university and get good jobs and careers

Why do populations change?The study of population is called demography. People who study population change say that most countries’ populations pass through 4 stages as their population grows. This is called the population cycle and is shown below:

Task:1. What would happen to the total population of a country if:• Death rate is higher than birth rate – population rises/falls/stays the same• Birth rate is higher than death rate – population rises/falls/stays the same• Death rate and birth rate are equal – population rises/falls/stays the same2. You can see that the population cycle has 4 stages. What happens to the total population (the red line) at each stage:• Stage 1: Birth rate and death rate are both high. The population ……………….• Stage 2: Birth rate stays high, death rate starts to fall. The population ……………….• Stage 3: Birth rate and death rate are both falling. The population ……………….• Stage 4: Birth rate and death rate are both low. The population ……………….

Extension activity: At which stage do you think the following countries would be? Label them on the graph.The United Kingdom, China, Burkina Faso (West Africa), Germany

Where is everyone?

Greenland Mexico City

London Australian Outback

People are spread very unevenly around the world. How people are spread out is called the population distribution. Some places in the world are empty, they are sparsely populated. Other places are very crowded. They are densely populated. How many people live per square kilometre is called population density.

Task:1. Look at the photos above. Decide if they are sparsely or densely populated:• Greenland: …………………………….• Mexico City: …………………………….• London: …………………………….• The Australian Outback: …………………………….2. Label these 4 places on the map opposite.

Where is everyone?The map below shows the distribution of the world’s population.Task:3. What colour is used to show areas where : the population is very dense ……………………….. hardly anyone lives ……………………….

4. Circle those statements below that accurately describe the overall distribution of the world’s population:• Most people live on or near the coasts• Most people live in the middle of the world’s continents• Few people live in the middle of the world’s continents• Europe is very densely populated• It is densely populated in the north around the Arctic Circle

Extension activity: Name 2 other regions of the world that are:• very densely populated ……………………………… ………………………………• sparsely populated ……………………………… ………………………………

Where is everyone?The distribution of the world’s population has not happened by chance. There are reasons to explain why some places attract people to live while other places are avoided by people.Task:5. Look at the characteristics of places in Table 4 below. Next to each, write whether the characteristic is likely to:

encourage people to live there discourage people to live there

Table 4 Characteristics Encourage/discourage

Example

Hot with little or no rainFlat land with fertile soilsEasily available energy and other resourcesVery cold with long wintersLots of jobs and opportunityMountainousMild climate, adequate rain

Extension activity: Name an example of a place (e.g. a region, country, city) with the characteristics in Table 4.

6. Go back and look at the 4 pictures of different places. For each, give one reason why they are either densely populated or sparsely populated:• Greenland: ………………………………….• Mexico City: ………………………………….• London: ………………………………….• The Australian Outback: ………………………………….

A population pyramid is a bar chart that shows the population of a country divided-up into different age groups. By looking at it we can see how many people there are in each age group and how many of them are males and how many are females.

A population pyramid for the UK

Age group

Age group

Population (millions)

Population (millions)

A population pyramid for India

Task: Look at the population pyramids for India and the UK to help you answer these questions:1. Roughly how many people are below the age of 19 in India? _________million2. Is this higher or lower than in the UK?_________________3. Can you think of 3 problems that this may cause for the government of India? _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________4. Roughly how many people are over the age of 65 in the UK? _________million5. Is it higher or lower than in India?________________6. Can you think of 3 problems that this may cause for the government of the UK?__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What are population pyramids and what problems can they identify?

Brazil is a country that has a high birth rate but also quite a high death rate. Most of people live in large cities in Brazil like Sao Paolo and Rio de Janiero. In these two cities 1 in 5 people live in shanty towns known as favelas. A favela is a collection of shacks built on waste ground, without permission from the authorities or landowners.Luiz arrived in the Morumbi favela in Sao Paolo where he met his cousin Felipe. He looked around and then followed Felipe. They hurried along narrow alleys that twisted and turned. It was getting dark. There was music everywhere, and talking, and laughter. Dogs barked, babies cried, TV’s blared. Bare-foot children played on the street. Women sat on doorsteps, cooking on charcoal stoves. ‘Be careful’, said Felipe, as they crossed a gutter filled with sewage.And then they were home. A shack of brick and corrugated iron, wood and plastic. They went in the big open door. Luiz had a meal of his favourite stew that night.Luiz did not sleep much. The floor was hard, and he was too excited about living in the city. The favela was very overcrowded, there were shacks everywhere and built from anything people could find. There was no running water or legal electricity. Some families had illegally put a line into a mains electricity pylon to get power. There was no sewage system so people often used the open drains as toilets. No one collects the rubbish so it sits in the streets where it rots and attracts rats. The children who live in the favela go to school when they are younger but not many finish their schooling. Instead they beg on the streets and many of the girls end up getting pregnant at an early age. This is what leads to the high birth rate. Life in the favela’s is often unsafe. The crime rate is high and drugs, violence and murders are common. Many people die at a young age in the favelas because of the awful conditions and poor quality of life they have.

What have been the impacts of population growth in the cities of Brazil?

Read the following passage:

Rio de Janiero

Sao Paulo

This is a ‘favela’ (a shanty town or slum) in

Sao Paulo

Your tasks are on the next page

Task:• Imagine you are work for an organisation offering aid (help) to the favelas of Sao Paulo. Write a postcard to a friend or family member in England telling them what your day is like in the favela. • Find a picture that would be suitable for the front of the postcard and glue it in. (If you can’t find a picture, draw one. Use colour.)

What have been the impacts of population growth in the cities of Brazil?

As recently as 1950, China's population was only 563million. The population grew dramatically through thefollowing decades to one billion in the early 1980s. Today, with just over 1.3 billion people, China is the world's most populated country. As the world's population recently passed 7 billion, China represents 20% of the world's population, so one in every five people on the planet lives in China. China's population growth has been slowed by the one child policy, introduced in 1979. The policy limits couples to one child. If a woman got pregnant for a second time they were fined, made to have an abortion, and even forced to be sterilised (this makes them infertile and means they cannot have another child).However, this policy was not enforced in all of China, it was mainly in the big cities. People living in rural areas did not have to follow this law. Nevertheless, it is estimated that the policy has reduced population growth in China by as many as 300 million people over its first twenty years. In Chinese culture it is very important to have a son. This is because a son will carry on the family name. Also, when a couple get married the woman always goes to live with her new husband’s family. If you have a son it means there will be someone to look after you when you get old. The one child policy meant that many families were not happy when they knew they were expecting a baby girl or when a girl was born. There was an increase in abortions and many new born baby girls were abandoned. It is thought that some parents even practised infanticide and murdered their baby girl. As a result of this very strict rule there is a ratio of 114 males for every 100 females among babies. (Normally, 105 males are naturally born for every 100 females.) and men in their 20s and 30s cannot find wives.Despite the one child policy, China's population is expected to continue to grow over the next few decades. This is mainly due to a decrease in infant mortality and a decrease in death rate as diet, living conditions and healthcare improves. By 2020, China's population is expected to pass 1.4 billion. However, around 2030, China's population is predicted to reach its peak and then slowly start dropping.

Your tasks are on the next page

China – what has it done to try and control the largest population in the

world?

Tasks:1. Imagine you lived in China. Give 2 positive points (good things)

about the ‘one child policy’ and 2 negative points (bad things).One positive point (good thing) about the one child policy is…____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________• Another positive point (good thing) about the one child policy is…____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________• One negative point (bad thing) about the one child policy is…____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________• Another negative point (bad thing) about the one child policy is…____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________2. What are your views about the one child policy? Why?______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________3. If you were asked to help a country by offering your ideas about

how to reduce its population size, what would be your best idea and why?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

China – what has it done to try and control the largest population in the

world?