Name_______________________________________AP HG 2.2
Date______________
POPULATION & MIGRATION
How do we measure population?
DO NOW: Fill in the blanks using the word box!
(coalfarmers arablephysical conditionsLDCs East50% deserts
citiesecumenedistributed EuropeBangladeshAsiaIndia)
Throughout human history, people have been unevenly
_________________. Where people live is heavily influenced by
____________________________.
Populations are often clustered around sustaining resources,
such as bodies of water and ___________ land. Fewer people live in
______________, for example.
Approximately 75% of all humans live on only 5% of Earth’s
surface, the portion called the _________________.
About ______ of people on Earth live in cities, whereas the
other half live in rural areas.
Approximately 80% of Earth’s population lives in poorer,
__________ in Latin America, Africa and Asia.
The largest concentration of people on Earth is found in
_______________. Most Asians are subsistence _______________.
The second largest concentration of People is in South Asia
(________________, Sri Lanka, ____________________ and
Pakistan).
The third-largest concentration is in ___________________.
POPULATION DENSITY
ARITHMETIC/POPULATION DENSITY:
HIGH DENSITY = lot of people, little land
·
·
·
LOW DENSITY = little people, lot of land
·
·
·
PHYSIOLOGICAL DENSITY
HIGH DENSITY = lot of people, little arable land
·
·
Great pressure to produce enough food
LOW DENSITY = more arable land than people
·
·
AGRICULTURAL DENSITY
HIGH DENSITY = Lot of farmers for available farmland
·
·
LOW DENSITY = lot of farmland, little farmers
·
MDCS: technology and finance allow a few people to farm
extensive land
1. What does it mean that Canada has a low arithmetic
density?
2. The United States has a small agricultural density. What does
this mean?
3. Why do MDCs have lower agricultural densities?
4. Which two countries have the largest amount of people per
unit of arable land?
Canada is a huge country. Most of it is unfit for human
habitation.
by Zack Beauchamp on May 5, 2016, 9:10 a.m. ET @zackbeauchamp
[email protected]
Canada is a gigantic country — but most of its roughly 36
million people live in a very small area. This map, made by
redditor Vugg, gives a sense of just how concentrated Canada's
population is:
The area below the red line includes most of Nova Scotia, in
Canada's east, but most of the population comes from the area a
little farther west, in a sliver of Quebec and a densely populated
stretch of Ontario near the Great Lakes.
Toronto's metropolitan area makes up the plurality the
population in the region, around 6.1 million. Much of the Montreal
metropolitan area is in there as well, which amounts to around 4
million people. Other relatively large population centers in
Ontario — like London, Kitchener, and the nation's capital, Ottawa
— fill out the remainder of the roughly 18 million people living
below the red line.
So why did so many Canadians settle here? According to the late
William Lewis Morton, an eminent Canadian historian, it's basically
about agriculture. The best arable land has always been in Canada's
south — no surprise, given the cold weather farther north. A lot of
that arable land is in the area we see below the red line.
"Intensive commercial agriculture," Morton writes, "gave rise to
a dense network of villages, towns, and cities." When Canada
industrialized, it made sense to do that where the people already
were, so the population in this area grew.
Even outside of the red line, Canada's population is mostly very
close to the US. Ninety percent of Canadians live within 100 miles
of the US border. Maybe they just really wanted to be close to
America.
1. Does Canada have a high or low arithmetic density?
Explain.
2. Which Canadian city has the biggest population?
3. How can geographers explain Canada’s population
distribution?
4. What percentage of people live within 100 miles of the United
States border?
WHY DOES IT MATTER? THE IMPACT OF POPULATION DENSITY:
Arithmetic (crude) Density
This measure of population density is also called crude density.
This statistic is probably the most general and least useful of the
three measures of population density. To get crude density, divide
the total land area by the total population. You can see that when
you measure a large area of land, the arithmetic density becomes
meaningless because it “blends in” the urban population and masks
the sparsely-inhabited areas with an average. Arithmetic density is
more useful when you study homogeneous areas, like single cities or
towns, where populations are fairly evenly-distributed
Physiological Density
This may be the most helpful way of expressing population
density. Physiological density is the number of persons per unit of
agricultural land. This measure of density is useful, because it
can give us a rough estimate of how many people an area of farmland
can reasonably support.
Physiological density is also helpful when studying population
pressure and overcrowding. Population pressure is the total of all
the factors, like an increase in population, which reduces the
ability of a geographic area to support the inhabitants.
The productivity of the land is also a factor in studying the
physiological density of an area. Is the soil very fertile and
arable or is it overworked and poor? Since there are other factors
that you must consider, physiological density is not a foolproof
statistic.
What can we deduce from looking at a country’s physiological
density? We know that the higher the physiological density is, the
more pressure people put on the land to produce enough food to
survive. It also suggests that the available agricultural land is
being used by more people, and it may reach its output limit sooner
than a country that has a lower physiological density.
To put this concept into numbers, the United States has a
physiological density of 179, whereas Djibouti, in the Middle East,
comes in at 131,101. That means the government of Djibouti must
rely on external sources of food.
Agricultural Density
The measure of population density refers to the number of people
living in rural areas per unit of agricultural land. You do not
count people who live in cities when calculating the agricultural
density, only the estimated number of people actually living off
the farmland.
To find the agricultural density, divide the area of farmland by
the population of farmers in that area, giving you an average of
land worked by each farmer. You will find a lower level of
agricultural density in more developed countries, because they have
access to better technology and money, which allows an individual
to work more farmland. The condition of the soil can also affect
agricultural density since some countries have much more fertile
land than others. The bottom line is that a higher level of
agricultural density may mean that that available arable may reach
the end of its production potential sooner than an area of a lower
level of agricultural density.
In general, increases in population density equate to problems
for a country. Urban areas with a high arithmetic density have an
increased need for food, infrastructure, and health/human services.
These programs are extremely costly, and the economy of many
high-growth countries can’t adequately provide basic services for
their citizens. There are positive and negative influences of
population density on political, economic and social processes.
Political
Economic
Social
· More laws are needed
· Large cities hold the power
· More jobs needed
· Poverty increases
· Higher tax base
· More crime
· More health/human services needed
· Greater diversity
As the world population grows, greater pressure is being placed
on arable land, water, energy, and natural resources to provide a
satisfactory supply of food while maintaining balance in our
ecosystem. Population density can have a negative impact on our
environment and natural resources. These pressures can lead to
deforestation, result in overcrowding, and could lead to the
destruction of our planet’s delicate ecosystem. Growing populations
use large amounts of nonrenewable resources like timber, coal, and
oil. Once these natural resources are gone, they are gone
forever.
Population density impacts the carrying capacity of an area. The
carrying capacity is defined as how many people an area can support
on a sustained basis. Together with density, carrying capacity can
define whether an area is overcrowded. You can have an area of high
population density but is not considered overcrowded if the area
has a high carrying capacity. The area may have very rich soil and
modern farming methods. A country such as Greenland has a very low
carrying capacity. This could make the country overpopulated at a
density that would make other places underpopulated
Practice Questions:
1. If the physiological density is much larger than the
arithmetic density, then a country has
a. Inefficient farmers
b. A large number of farmers
c. A small percentage of land suitable for agriculture
d. Too many people for the available resources
e. Too few farmers for the large area of land suitable for
agriculture
2. India and the United States have approximately the same
arithmetic density. From this we can conclude that the two
countries have the same
a. Level of output per area of land
b. Number of people per area of land
c. Pressure placed by people on the land to produce food
d. Number of farmers per area of land
e. All of the above
