Chapter 12 Population and Urbanization

1. Chapter 12Population and Urbanization Key Terms

2. demographyA subspecialty within sociology that focuses on the study of human populations, with particular emphasis on their size and rate of growth. • birth rateThe annual number of births per every 1,000 people in a designated area.

3. age-specific birth rateThe annual number of births per every 1,000 women of a specific age group. • fertility rateThe average number of children that women in a specific population bear over a lifetime.

4. crude death rateThe annual number of deaths per every 1,000 people in a designated area. • infant mortality rateThe death rate among those one year old or younger.

5. population pyramidA series of horizontal bar graphs, each of which represents a different five-year age cohort. • cohortA group of people who share a common characteristic or life event.

6. expansive pyramidsPopulation pyramids that are broadest at the base with each successive bar smaller than the one below it, showing that the population is increasing in size and composed disproportionately of young people.

7. constrictive pyramidsPopulation pyramids that are narrower at the base than in the middle, showing that the population is composed disproportionately of middle-aged and older people.

8. stationary pyramidsPopulation pyramids in which all age cohorts in the population are roughly the same size. • migration rateThe difference between the number of people entering and the number of people leaving a designated geographical area in a year.

9. push factorsConditions that encourage people to move out of an area. • pull factorsConditions that encourage people to move into an area.

10. emigrationThe departure of individuals from a country. • immigrationThe entrance of individuals into a new country.

11. internal migrationThe movement within the boundaries of a single country- from one state, region, or city within a country to another. • in-migrationThe movement of people into a designated area.

12. out-migrationThe movement of people out of a designated are. • natural increaseThe number of births minus the number of deaths occurring in a year.

13. rate of natural increaseThe number of births minus the number of deaths occurring in a year divided by the size of a population at the beginning of the year. • doubling timeThe estimated number of years required for a country’s population to double in size.

14. mortality crisisA violent fluctuation in the death rate caused by war, famine or epidemic. • positive checksEvents that increase mortality, including epidemics of infectious and parasitic disease, war, and famine.

15. demographic gapThe difference between birth rates and death rates. • urbanizationAn increase in the number of cities and growth in the proportion of the population living in cities.

16. labor-intensive poor economiesCountries that differ markedly from industrialized countries on indicators such as doubling time, infant mortality, total fertility, per capita income, and annual per capita consumption of energy. • core economiesThe wealthiest, most highly diversified economies in the world.

17. demographic trapThe point at which population growth overwhelms the environment's carrying capacity. • externality costsCosts that are not figured into the price of a product but that are nevertheless a price we pay for using or creating a product.

18. mega cityAn urban agglomeration with 8 million or more people. • urban agglomerationAn urban area that includes a central city and neighboring communities linked to it by continuous built-up areas or many communities.

19. Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA)One or more cities with an least 50,000 residents surrounded by densely populated countries. • central cityThe largest city within a metropolitan statistical area.

20. suburbAn urban area outside the political boundaries of a city. • nonmetropolitanGeographical areas beyond the political boundaries of a central city and its suburbs.