Why is this world map different?

The size of each territory shows the relative proportion of the world’s population living there.

Global population distribution

Match the population to the country or area!

Greenland

India

London

Scotland

UK

England

6 million

5 million

1 billion

55 000

49 million

60 million

Answers in rank order (high to low).

India 1 billionUK 60 millionEngland 49 millionLondon 6 millionScotland 5 millionGreenland 55 000

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Learning Objectives

By the end of this lesson pupils:– Must be able to understand key geographical

vocabulary to explain population.– Should be able to give examples of sparsely

and densely populated regions.– Could be able to explain why regions are

sparsely or densely populated.

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Key Terms

Population – The people who live in an area

Population distribution – The way in which people are spread out in an area.

Population density – The number of people living in an area (usually per square kilometre).

Copy and complete the above table calculating the population density by dividing the population by the area.

Country Population (thousands)

Area (thousand sq km)

Density

Brazil 150638 8511

CIS (Russia)

288595 22402

France 56138 551

India 853094 3512

Japan 123460 378

Kenya 24031 580

USA 249224 9372

Country Population (thousands)

Area (thousand sq km)

Density

Brazil 150638 8511 18/sq km

CIS (Russia)

288595 22402 13/sq km

France 56138 551 102/sq km

India 853094 3512 243/sq km

Japan 123460 378 327/sq km

Kenya 24031 580 41/sq km

USA 249224 9372 27/sq km

Sparse and densely populated areas.

• Densely populated• Lots of people per

Km².

• Sparsely populated• Few people per Km².

11 per Km²2 per Km²

1. Use an atlas/your planner to label 5 densely populated areas in one colour and 5 sparsely populated areas in another

colour.

2. Add a key to your map

World population density and distribution