AP Human Geography Ch 2 Notes PDF

2.1 Summary: Humans are heavily clustered, and scientists argue on how this affects human behavior. Tests on rats in the same conditions show increased aggressiveness; does this apply to humans? Questions: How do geographers study populations? ○ By describing where Earth’s people...

2.1 Summary: Humans are heavily clustered, and scientists argue on how this affects human behavior. Tests on rats in the same conditions show increased aggressiveness; does this apply to humans? Questions: How do geographers study populations? ○ By describing where Earth’s people are distributed and how different population growth rates affect people’s needs. What is the distribution of the world’s population? ○ Most of the population growth is concentrated in developing countries. Some regions are threatened by overpopulation and may not have a favorable balance between people and natural resources, leading to complications. Which population portions have the highest number of inhabitants? ○ East Asia and South Asia. What are the differences between regions of high and low population concentrations? ○ Regions with a high population typically have favorable environmental conditions, natural resources, and economic opportunities. Regions with low population concentrations face the opposite. How can population be displayed on a cartogram? ○ Cartograms depict country sizes based on their population. It displays major population clusters as much larger than the rest of the world. What is ecumene? ○ Sections of Earth’s surface occupied by permanent human settlement. What are the similarities and differences between various approaches to measuring density? ○ Each method involves analyzing spatial patterns. However, arithmetic density is total population divided by total land area, physiological density is population per unit of arable land, and agricultural density is number of farmers per unit of arable land. What is arithmetic density, and what regions of the world have relatively high arithmetic densities? ○ Arithmetic density is total population divided by total land area. East Asia, South Asia, and Western Europe have relatively high arithmetic densities. What is physiological density and how does it compare to arithmetic density? ○ Physiological density is population per unit of arable land. It enables geographers to understand the land’s ability to produce enough food to meet human needs. What is agricultural density, and how does it help geographers? ○ Agricultural density is the number of farmers per unit of arable land. It helps explain economic differences between countries. 2.2 Summary: Countries have different age structures depending on their demographic transition stage. In stage 3 and stage 4 countries like the United States, there are many baby boomers. Compared to their parents, boomers had more education, and more women worked outside the home. Boomers married later, were more likely to live together without marrying, and had fewer children, often outside of marriage. Questions: What are some ways population can increase? ○ When there are more births than deaths and when there is an increase of in-migration. What is the natural increase rate, and regions with the lowest and highest NIR? ○ NIR is the percentage by which a population grows in a year (when births or fertility exceeds deaths or mortality); the NIR of the twenty-first century is 1.2%. South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa have the highest rates; North America, Europe, and Russia have the least. When was NIR the highest in history, and where does the current rate stand? ○ The peak was in the 1960s with a rate of 2.1%. The current rate is considered high by historical standards, with the number of people being added annually to 85 million. What are some similarities and differences in global patterns of births and deaths? ○ Economic development and access to healthcare both influence birth and death rates. Birth rates are typically higher in developing countries, whereas death rates vary depending on the spread of diseases and healthcare quality. What is the difference between crude birth rate (CBR) and total fertility rate (TFR)? ○ CBR is the total number of live births in a year for every 1,00 people alive. TFR is the average number of children a woman will have throughout her childbearing years. TFR tries to predict, but CBR shows society as a whole. What is the difference between infant mortality rate (IMR) and crude death rate (CDR)? ○ IMR is the annual number of deaths of infants under one year of age, compared with total live births, conveyed as the number of deaths among infants per 1000 births. CDR is the total number of deaths in a year for every 1000 people alive in society. What is the demographic transition? ○ A model that describes population change over time. It consists of four stages. What is stage 1? ○ High birth and death rates, resulting in a stable population with slow growth. No country currently is in this stage. What is stage 2? ○ Death rates decline due to improvements in healthcare and sanitation, while birth rates remain high, leading to rapid population growth. Europe and North America entered during the Industrial Revolution, while Africa, Asia, and Latin America entered later during the medical revolution.  What is stage 3? ○ Birth rates begin to decline due to changes in social norms, causing population growth to slow. In the first half of the twenty-first century, most countries in Europe and North America entered stage 3. What is stage 4? ○ Both birth and death rates are low, stabilizing the population with minimal growth (zero population growth). This can happen due to changes in social norms, and wide access to contraception. Countries in Europe and North America are in this stage. 2.3 Summary: Healthcare fluctuates vastly throughout the globe. Questions: Why do geographers focus on the healthcare of the people who are alive? ○ Because more and more countries are going into the higher stages of the demographic transition, the health of living people becomes a necessary topic to focus on. What are some different healthcare services in different countries? ○ Developed countries like Europe, an exception to the US, have medical facilities that provide government-paid, free, or low-cost healthcare to citizens. Why do females face challenging health risks? ○ The health risks develop from the fact of just being born female. This risk is especially high at childbirth for mothers and their baby girls. What are the risks and their reasons for mothers? ○ Mothers during, before, and after childbirth face many complications that underdeveloped countries can’t account for because of their lack of advanced technology, trained personnel, and medical facilities. In the US, however, low-income families can’t afford insurance that could mean life and death, and this is why its maternal mortality rate has gone up since the 1990s. What are the risks and their reasons for baby girls? ○ Baby girls are at risk because of gender inequality and preference, especially in India and China. Families prefer to have male babies so they can stabilize the family financially. This results in 700,000 female babies going "missing.” They are either killed or kept in a remote area and not reported. How does a country’s stage in the demographic transition determine the percentage of people in different age groups? ○ Countries in stage 4 will have a higher percentage of older people, while a country in stage 2 will have a higher percentage of younger people. This can also describe the different health challenges and what a country must focus on based on its stage.  How does the potential support ratio correlate to the care of elderly people? ○ It's the quotient of working-age people and those over 65. It highlights the economic and social challenges of an aging population, as fewer work-age people are available to support the elderly. It’s currently 9, but it's expected to go down to 4 in 2050, leading to increased economic strain and challenges to support services What is the population percentage of younger people in different countries/regions? ○ Under 15 years of age: 16% of the population in developing regions, 28% in developing countries, 43% in Sub-Saharan Africa, and 26% worldwide. What do the different shapes of the population pyramid tell us about the population and other factors? ○ A broader base of the population tells us there is a higher percentage of younger people, which puts a strain on the government and the working class to support it when they’re young and when they retire. A rounder shape of the population pyramid illustrates a balance between the age groups, resulting in a low dependency ratio. What is the epidemiologic transition? ○ The health threats in the stages of the demographic transition. What is stage 1? ○ Pestilence and famine: high mortality rates due to infectious diseases, malnutrition, and poor sanitation. What is stage 2? ○ Receding pandemics: improvements in healthcare, sanitation, and nutrition lead to a decline in infectious disease mortality. What is stage 3? ○ Degenerative and man-made diseases: chronic diseases and cancer become more widespread as life expectancy increases. What is stage 4? ○ Delayed degenerative diseases: Advances in medical technology and healthier lifestyles further postpone the beginning of chronic diseases. 2.4 Summary: While organizations like the Population Reference Bureau (PRB) and the U.N. Population Fund still use the four-stage model of demographic transition, some geographers believe a fifth stage exists, as seen in countries like Japan. Questions: What geographic concepts offer insights into the future? ○ They offer insight into future population and health. What is the possible stage 5 of the demographic transition?  ○ Very low birth rates falling below death rates, leading to a potential population decline. This stage is portrayed by an aging population and increased healthcare and social service needs. How do India and China promote lower birth rates? ○ China’s one-child policy successfully curbed its population from 14 million people added annually to 7 million by using incentives, educational programs, and coercion. But it also caused gender imbalance and an aging population. India utilized voluntary and informed choice, which led to a lower TFR, but the population still increased significantly. By how much has CBR declined worldwide? ○ Since 1990, CBR has declined from 27 to 20 worldwide and from 31 to 21 in developing countries. How has CBR lowered through education and healthcare? ○ Wealthier communities focus on using education and health-care programs to lower their CBR. Access to education, especially for women, has led to better family planning and increased use of contraception. Better healthcare services have also contributed to lower infant mortality rates, encouraging families to have fewer children. How has CBR lowered through contraception? ○ Use of contraception has reduced CBR by allowing people to control the number and timing of their children. In developing countries, contraception has prevented millions of unintended pregnancies and reduced unplanned births, but challenges like limited access and cultural barriers remain. How is the epidemiologic transition related to the demographic transition? ○ Depending on which stage a country is on in the demographic transition, which tells us much about the economy and population, it also correlates with which stage a country is on for the epidemiological transition and what health risks it faces. What is the reason for possible stage 5: evolution? ○ Infectious diseases can evolve to resist current antibiotics and treatment methods. What is the reason for possible stage 5: poverty? ○ People in poor areas are more prone to get infectious diseases and can’t get treated because of the high cost. What is the reason for possible stage 5: increased connections? ○ Infected people relocating to different areas carry there and spread the disease to others. What is Malthus’s theory? ○ The world’s rate of population increase grows more rapidly than the development of food supplies. Who are neo-malthusians? ○ People who believe in Malthus’s theory. They believe that the population will outgrow the resources and cause issues like hunger and poverty. How do the critics’ beliefs differ from neo-malthusians? ○ Food production, because of technological advancements, has become more efficient and better. This means that many regions aren’t in danger of outgrowing their resources.