UNIT 2 CRITICAL

VOCABULARY

WORDS ABOUT STATISTICS

QUALITY OF LIFE:The general well-being of

individuals and societies. It is measured by wealth, environment quality, physical and mental health, education, leisure time, and social

belonging.

CORRELATION:A mutual relationship or connection between

two or more things. In demographics, there can be a correlation

between statistics and world development. For example, there is a correlation between low infant mortality rates and highly developed

heath systems. In other words, if a country has a low infant mortality rate, they will likely have

a highly developed health system.

INDICATOR:In statistics, an indicator is a value or piece of data that signals positive or

negative change. For example, data that shows a lower infant mortality rate in the country of Afghanistan than last

year is an indicator that Afghanistan is developing in a positive way.

WORDS ABOUT MONEY STATISTICS

& WEALTH

STANDARD OF LIVINGStandard of living refers to the level of wealth,

comfort, material goods, and necessities available to people. If a location has a “high standard of living,” the average people there

have money to buy all the things they need and many things they want. If a location has a “low

standard of living,” the people there may not be able to afford all the things they need to be

healthy and happy.

AFFLUENCE:Affluence means: having a large amount of money. Wealthy people live in affluence.

Someone very wealthy is said to be “affluent.”

POVERTY:Lacking money and material possessions.

“Poverty” refers to the poorest people in a society, while “affluence” refers to the very

richest people. They are two opposite extremes.

INEQUALITY:A lack of equality.

Wealth inequality means that some people are rich while others are poor.

Social inequality means that some people have privileges (like the right to vote, right to get married) while others

do not.

WORDS ABOUT “GETTING WORSE”

DEGRADE:To break down.

If the health system in Afghanistan degrades, this means it is breaking apart and becoming worse (less

effective) overall.

DETERIORATE:To become worse and worse over time. Things often deteriorate due to neglect: for example, if Afghanistan stops funding its health system, the quality of health

care will deteriorate.

REGRESS:To return to a former or less developed

state. If a country experiences “regression,” this means that it has made improvements, but the improvements

have gone away. A location may regress for many reasons: war, famine, disease,

radical ideas, etc.

WORDS ABOUT THE EARTH

CARRYING CAPACITY:The maximum population size that the

environment can sustain forever, given the food, habitat, water, and other necessities

available in the environment. People wonder what the carrying capacity for humans is on planet earth. We have a

limited amount of resources, but the population keeps growing.

CONSUMPTION:The using up of a resource.

If we consume all of the oil in the Earth’s crust, what will we use to power our cars

and factories?

SUSTAINABLE:Able to be maintained at a certain level.

People worry that our current oil consumption is not sustainable - this

means that if we keep using oil at the rate we do now, it will not last forever.

Scientists look for types of sustainable energy (like wind power) to replace types

of unsustainable energy (like oil).

ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT:A measure of human demand on the Earth's ecosystems. In other words, a

number that measures how much humans take from the environment. For

2007, humanity's total ecological footprint was estimated at 1.5 planet Earths; that is, humanity uses up resources1.5 times as

quickly as Earth can renew them.