APPLYING THE NUMBERS

Chapter 8

Summarize the five population trends mentioned here.

Large and growing larger Growing population disparity

– Lower death rates in LDC’s (better health care, sanitation) while birth rates stayed high

– LDC’s have younger child bearing populations (pyramid)

Declining growth rates (birth rates declining), yet increasing numbers of births

Changing age structure: more older folks Moving to the cities: urbanization

What is a trend?

the general course or prevailing tendency; drift: trends in the teaching of foreign languages; the trend of events.

style; vogue: the new trend in women's apparel.

Why can the arithmetic figure of a country’s population density be misleading?

Because it includes all land area- rocks, mountains, etc. where people don’t live

Canada-3.3 people per square kilometre

What is physiologic population density? Which of the 2- arithmetic or physiologic- do most texts that you have read, use?

The number of people in a country per area of cultivated land (where people could cultivate the soil and actually live there)

Most texts use the arithmetic

Why is there such a large difference between the arithmetic or physiologic population densities of Egypt, and a relatively small difference for Bangladesh?

In Egypt, the area of land on which most people live is relatively tiny– Over 95% of Egypt’s population lives in the Nile

River valley– Ad= 65.8/km2; pd= 2006/km2

In Bangladesh, 66% of land is cultivated– Ad= 948/km2; pd= 1419/km2

“The Nile River is the lifeblood of Egypt.”

Historically a transportation corridor-necessary for trade

Annual floods carried alluvium (silt) from upstream- making the river mouth potentially a great place to cultivate things

Dams built to control effects of the floods and maintain irrigation, but loss of alluvium means higher chemical fertilizer use

Also, population continues to increase- so areas around the delta are being opened up

How have the physical characteristics of Egypt and Bangladesh influenced their population distribution patterns?

Egypt- growth started around Nile River and its delta; continued, despite floods and problems with dams up river

Bangladesh-has fertile soils and river deltas– Extremely flat, so flooding distributes nutrients

around a wider area, so population can spread out

– urban centres are basically evenly accessible because major cities are spread out

How can a high concentration of people be a factor in creating an even higher concentration of people?

People first settle in areas with water, arable land, good hunting/fishing possibilities, mineral deposits, and transportation capabilities

As trading developed, expansion of settlement occurred, towns etc grew up in areas more distant that previously, and political/economic centres grew

These in turn attracted more people