Population Geography Concepts

• Global population growth accelerated in the late 20th century, mainly in Less Developed Countries (LDCs).
• Overpopulation is defined by the relationship between population size and available resources on Earth.

Factors Influencing Population Distribution

• Low elevation
• Fertile soil
• Temperate climates
• Proximity to water bodies encourage settlement.
• Ecumene refers to the habitable areas of the world.

Sparsely Populated Areas

• Dry regions, covering 20% of Earth's land surface
• Wet regions with high precipitation, mainly near the equator, which depletes soil nutrients
• Cold regions near the North and South poles
• High elevation areas, with exceptions in Latin America and Africa

Population Density calculations

• Arithmetic Density: Total population divided by land area (sq. mi.)
• Physiological Density: Total population divided by arable land area (sq. mi.)
• Agricultural Density: Number of farmers divided by arable land area (sq. mi.)
• Carrying capacity is the maximum population size supportable by available resources without environmental damage.
• Agricultural density indicates a country's economic development level.
• High agricultural density is typically found in LDCs with low technology levels.
• Low agricultural density is found in LDCs with high levels of mechanization.
• High arithmetic population densities occur in parts of Asia and Europe.
• Physiological density effectively measures the relationship between population and agricultural resources.

Factors for Population Distribution

• Economic: Job opportunities and access to natural resources influence population distribution.
• Social/Cultural and Political: Housing availability, safety, community, and access to transportation affect population distribution.
• Economic: Uneven population distribution leads to uneven development.
• Scattered populations have lower wages, less access to services, and are overall less developed.
• Political: Electoral districts need roughly equal population sizes.
• Redistricting: Electoral district boundaries are redrawn every 10 years after the census.
• Environmental: High population density puts pressure on arable land, water, resources, and the food supply, causing pollution, resource depletion, and excessive energy use.

Population Pyramids

• Population pyramids assess population growth and decline and predict markets.
• Dependency Ratio: (Number of dependents (under 15 and over 65) / Number of working-age population) * 100
• High dependency ratio means more non-working people, leading to higher taxes for the working population.
• Sex Ratio: Proportion of males to females in a population
• Lower percentage of women in poorer countries may be due to high childbirth mortality.
• An increase in the percentage of elderly people occurs as countries progress through demographic transition stages.

Rates

• Crude Birth Rate (CBR)
  • Number of live births per 1,000 people per year.
• Crude Death Rate (CDR)
  • Number of deaths per 1,000 people per year.
• Natural Increase Rate (NIR)/Rate of Natural Increase (RNI)
  • Calculated as (CBR - CDR) / 10
  • Does not account for migration.
  • The number of people added each year has dropped slowly because the population base has increased.
• Population Growth Rate
  • More accurate as it includes migration (immigrants and emigrants).
  • US growth rate is 0.72%.
• Doubling Time
  • The number of years for a population to double at a stable growth rate.
  • Equation for doubling time: 70 / NIR
  • Developed countries generally have lower rates, except for CDR due to older populations.
• Factors for Women Having Fewer Children
  • Delayed marriage
  • Careers
  • Culture shift
  • Education
  • Family planning
  • Wealth
  • Better medical care

Historical Trends that influence population growth/decline

• Starting around 1750 due to the agricultural and industrial revolutions.
• Rapid urbanization and advances in healthcare and sanitation
• Economic
  • Population growth: High TFR, CBR, or life expectancy due to agricultural societies needing child labor.
  • Advancements in food production, nutrition, mechanized agriculture, and sanitation.
  • Economic prosperity and Core countries have better healthcare access, preventing and curing diseases
• Population decline
  • Industrial and post-industrial societies
  • Women involved in the workforce and urbanization leading to high costs of resources
  • Access to family planning for women
• Social
  • Population Growth
    • Religion and traditional cultures encourage big families and limited healthcare access for women.
    • Earlier marriages = more children
  • Population decline
    • Role of Women: More education and workforce participation leads to delayed childbirth, reducing childbearing years.
    • Healthcare access and understanding of contraception lowers TFR.
• Political
  • Population Growth: Pro-natalist policies encourage families to have children (e.g., propaganda and incentives).
  • Population Decline: Anti-natalist policies discourage families (e.g., propaganda, disincentives, and policies).
  • War: Causes a higher mortality rate, increased migration, and shortages of supplies.
• Natural
  • Population Growth: High TFR, CBR, or life expectancy
  • Population Decline: Natural disasters, famine, drought, and disease outbreaks (e.g., Bubonic plague in the 1300s).

Demographic Transition Model

• The model encompasses births, deaths, and NIR.

Malthusian Theory

• Population grows exponentially while food output only grows arithmetically.
• Boserup's theory states food supply is directly affected by population growth.
• As population increases, humans develop new technologies to increase food production.
• Neo-Malthusians
  • Focused on sustainable use of the environment and the earth’s limited resources cannot sustain a limited population
  • Addresses strain on natural resources and over consumption.

Population Policies

• Pro-natalist policies increase the fertility rate to combat aging or declining populations and to improve the labor force in Stage 4 and 5 countries.
• Anti-natalist policies decrease the fertility rate to address overpopulation, limited resources, and famine risks.

Migration

• A crucial factor in the speed of diffusion of ideas and innovation.
• Circular Migration - Temporary, agricultural work
• Periodic Movement - College, winter in south(weeks or months)
• Transhumance - Switzerland, Horn of Africa (seasonal pastoral farming)
• Nomadism - Constant travel that follows growth of vegetation
• Forced migration examples - African slave trade and Trail of Tears in the 19th Century
• Reluctant migration - 1969 Indonesian government campaign, moving people from Java to other islands

Migration Defined

• The permanent or semipermanent relocation of people from one place to another.
• Net migration is the difference between immigrants and emigrants.
• Voluntary migration is a movement in search of a better life.
• Push factors: Negative circumstances
• Pull factors: positive conditions and circumstances
• Intervening obstacle: barriers that hold migrants back
• Intervening opportunity: an opportunity that causes migrants to voluntarily stop traveling.

Migration, Factors and Opportunities

• Economic - a migrant lacks enough money
• Social - gets married
• Political - cannot get a visa
• Environmental - cannot cross sea, desert, or mountain range
• The most common reason people migrate is the lack of jobs and economic opportunities.
• Island of development- Place within a region or country where foreign investment, jobs, and infrastructure are concentrated.

Push and Pull Examples

• Push: job loss and lack of employment opportunities
• Pull: Job opportunities, higher wages, seasonal Jobs
• The Bracero Program during WWII had 4.6 million Mexicans migrate to the US for agricultural and transportation work.

Discrimination

• Push: Discrimination, prejudice, persecution, and racism due to gender, ethnicity, and/or religion.
• Pull: Freedom and lack (or less) of discrimination, prejudice, persecution, and racism.
• Familial or Kinship Ties
  • Case study: China’s Imbalanced Sex Ration - Demographic Push and Pull -There are more men than women in China do to anti-natalist policies -Resulted in migration of women nearby countries to marry young Chinese men
• Asylum: Political migrants that move due to fear of oppression and may be granted protection in accepting countries.
• People migrate to escape natural disasters, drought, and other unfavorable conditions.
• Demographic Push and Pull factors
  • Some countries unbalanced demographically -Gender - young adult might not find someone to marry -Young population - country faces risk of overpopulation

Zelinsky's Migration Model

• Countries in Stages 2 and 3 experience rapid growth and overcrowding
• Limits economic opportunities of the people, thus people migrate to less crowded stage 4 and 5 countries
• Growing economic opportunities and aging population in Stage 4 and 5
• MDCs have aging population and needs workers for difficult jobs
• Ravenstein's laws of migration

Ravenstein's Laws

• Short distances and Urban areas
• Migrants traveling long distances usually settle in large urban areas to have more opportunities.
• Step migration
  • Most immigration occurs through step migration, a process in which migrants reach their eventual destination through a series of smaller moves.
• Rural to Urban
  • Most migration in history has been from rural to urban areas
• Counter migration
  • Each migration flow produces a movement in the opposite direction, called counter migration/flow.
• Youth
  • Most migrants are younger adults, between ages 20 and 45
• Gender patterns
  • Most international migrants are round males looking for work
  • There are more internal migrants are females who are moving in with their husbands and husband’s families.

Forced and Voluntary Migration

• Voluntary Migration:
• Transnational: migration from one country to another country
• Immigrants to a new country retain strong cultural, emotional, and financial ties to their country of origin
• Remittances: money sent back to migrants’ country of origin-major economic flow
• From Rural to Urban areas, up to 55% of people live in urban areas today.

Migration Between Regions

• Russia
  • Government's decision to locate new factories and to offer economic incentives away from existing population concentrations.
• Canada
  • East to west
• China
  • Rural interior to large urban areas along east coast
• Brazil
  • Atlantic coast residents to move to the interior. Forward Thrust capital (Brasilia).

Intraregional Migration

• Most intraregional migration in developed countries is from cities out to surrounding suburbs.
• More privacy
• parking
• Superior suburban schools
• Late 20th century marked by net in-migration.

Involuntary Migration

• Refugees
• Internally displaced persons
• Asylum seekers
• Enslaved persons

Refugees-

• Someone who has been forced to flee his or her country because of persecution, war or violence.
• 68% of refugees come from five countries: Syria, Venezuela, Afghanistan, South Sudan and Myanmar
• Host countries provide civil rights, right to work, access to social services- which could cause a strain on resources, could create social strife and violence.
• Top countries of origin include South Sudan
• Civil war reached the fertile lands of the south, due to violence farmers were unable to produce food and famine and food insecurities has spread to the rest of the country.
• Case study: Rohingya of Rakhine State
  • Muslims in a Buddhist country
  • 1982 citizenship taken and became a “stateless” nation
  • Discrimination with employment and access to healthcare
  • 2017 military attacks, killings, burn villages
  • 723,000 have fled to the largest refugee camp in Bangladesh

Involuntary Migration:

• Internally Displaces persons:
• Someone who has been forced to flee their home but never crosses an international border
• Large groups of IDPs are located in Colombia, Syria, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Yemen

Involuntary Migration Examples:

• Asylum seekers -When people flee their own country and seek sanctuary in another country, they apply for asylum.
• Enslaved Persons
  • Historical: Atlantic Slave Trade
  • Modern Day: Human Trafficking

History

• Chain migration
  • Results in the formation of ethnic slaves - neighborhood filled primarily with people of the same ethnic group (Little Haiti, Little Havana, Chinatown, etc.)
• At independence
  • Europe -Sub-Saharan Africa
• Mid 19th to Early 20th centuries:
  • Ireland
  • Germany
• Late 20th to Early 21st centuries:
  • Latin America (mostly Mexico)
  • Asia (China, Hong Kong, the Philippines, India, and Vietnam)

Effects of migration

• Economic Effects of Migration
• Receiving Countries
  • Immigrants are a source of labor for less desirable and low paying work.
  • Reduce available jobs for citizens of the country
  • Immigrants often open businesses
• Countries of Origin
  • Decrease in unemployment
  • Less strain on resources
  • Brain Drain: Loss of trained or educated people to emigration

Social And Demographic Effect of Immigration

-Receiving countries
    -Cultural Contributions:
        -Immigrants bring aspects of their home culture

• Could spur backlash -Xenophobia -Demographic change -Age Composition: Most immigrants are working-age which reduces the dependency ratios and provides tax support for the young and elderly

Countries of Origin

• Demographic change
  • Unbalanced sex ratio
  • Young and elderly are left behind
  • Changes the traditional family structure
  • Relief from overcrowding

Political Effects of Immigration

• Immigration Restriction
  • Laws to restrict immigration due to xenophobia or the desire to limit cultural diversity
    • Japan and the United States
• Laws that encourage immigration
  • Guest worker programs
  • Family reunification
• Chinese Exclusion Act, 1882-1943
  • Severely restricted immigration

Explore key concepts in population geography. Questions cover population density, distribution, and factors influencing demographics. Understand the impact of human activity on regions.