Population Geography

1. Population Geography The study of the spatial variations in the distribution, composition, migration, and growth of populations and how they are related to the nature of places.

2. Population Growth • Birthrate: the number of births per 1,000 people in a given year • In 2000: highest 54/1000 in Niger and the lowest 8/1000 in Latvia, world average: 22/1000 • Death rate: the number of deaths per 1,000 people in a given year • If a country’s birthrate exceeds its death rate, the population will increase • If a country’s death rate exceeds its birthrate, the population will decrease

3. Stages of Population Growth • Low Growth: Birthrate and death rate are high but equal • As healthcare improves, the death rate declines • Ex. Ye long time ago • High Growth: Birthrate still high, but death rate declines causing rapid population growth • Ex. Started in Industrial Revolution • Many African countries are still here • Moderate Growth: The birthrate drops and most children live to adulthood • Family size decreases as children live longer • Ex. Developing countries, Mexico • Low Growth: Birthrate and death rate are low and relatively equal. • Some countries may experience zero growth • Ex. Most developed countries like US, Canada, Japan

4. Demographic Transition

5. Population Pyramids • A graphic device that shows sex and age distribution of a population. • Allows geographers to examine how events in society such as wars, famine, or epidemics affect the population of a country or region.

7. Population Pyramids for 4 Stages of Population Growth

10. Population Distribution • The world’s 6 billion people are not evenly distributed • 90% of the population live in the Northern Hemisphere • ¼ of the world’s people live in East Asia • ½ of the world’s people live in either East Asia or South Asia

11. Migration • Migration alters the distribution of population • Push Factors: reasons people leave their homeland and migrate to another region • Examples? • Pull Factors: draw or attract people to another location • Examples?

12. Population Density • Measures the number of people per square mile

16. This is a cartogram—they make us happy!!

17. Urban Geography The study of how people use space in cities

18. Urban Areas • Cities are not just areas of large population, they are also centers of business and culture. • Suburbs: built up area around cities, mainly residential. • Metropolitan area: area including a city and its surrounding suburbs and exurbs, linked economically. • A megalopolis is formed when several metropolitan areas grow together. • Urbanization: the dramatic rise in the number of cities and the changes in lifestyle that result

19. Megalopolis

21. Increasing number of urban populations… • 1800: 3% of people lived in cities • 1850: 6% of people lived in cities • 1900: 14% of people lived in cities • 1950: 30% of people lived in cities • 2000: 47% of people lived in cities • The population of urban settlements exceeded the population of rural settlements in 2008.

22. Urban Population

23. Large Cities

24. Location, Location, Location • Many cities around the world share common geographic characteristics • Good transportation (river, lakes, coasts) • Easy access to resources (Sacramento-gold) • Where goods shift from one mode of transportation to another (Chicago)

25. Impacts of Urbanization • Urban Sprawl: the rapid, often poorly planned spread of development from an urban area outward to rural areas • Squatter Settlements: an area within a city in a less developed country in which people illegally establish residences on land they do not won or rent and build homemade structures. • Latin America: barrios, barriadas, favelas • India:bustees • UN estimates175 million people live in squatter settlements in 2003

26. Squatter Settlements—Latin America

27. Squatter Settlements—Sao Paolo

28. Squatter Settlements—Mumbai