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Population Geography
Four Key Issues of Population Geography:
1. Where is the world’s population located?
2. Where has the world’s population increased?
3. Why is population increasing at different rates
in different places?
4. Why might the world face an overpopulation
problem?
Population Geography
Three Crucial Reasons to Study Population:
1. More people are alive now than at any other time
in Earth’s history (6 1/2 billion)
2. Earth’s population increased at a faster rate from
1950 to 2000 than ever before in history
3. Virtually all global population growth is
concentrated in less developed countries
Demography: the scientific study of population
characteristics
Population Geography
Two-thirds of the World’s Population Clustered in Four
Regions:
1. East Asia
2. South Asia
3. Southeast Asia
4. Western Europe
(world cartogram)
World Cartogram
Population Geography
Similarities of People Living in These Four Regions:
Most people live near an ocean or near a river with easy
access to an ocean
-67% of world population live within 300 miles of
an ocean
-80% live within 500 miles of an ocean
Usually live in low-lying areas with fertile soil and
temperate climate
All clusters located in Northern Hemisphere between 10°
and 55° latitude
Over 50% of world population still live in rural areas,
although the trend is changing
Population Geography
East Asia:
-includes Eastern China, Japan, Korean peninsula,
and Taiwan
-20% of world’s population live in this region
Population Geography
China: world’s most populous country
-3rd largest area in land area, but most of its
interior is mountains and deserts
-sparsely populated
Population Geography
-most of the Chinese
population along east coast
-several fertile river valleys
-67% of Chinese live in
rural areas and work as
farmers
-China has 20 urban areas
with populations of more
than 2 million
-48 urban areas with over
one million people
Japan and Korea:
-more than 33% of these populations live in
Tokyo, Osaka, or Seoul
-this is about 3% of total land area
-more than 75% of Japanese and Koreans
live in urban areas and work in industrial
or service occupations
Population Geography
South Asia:
-includes India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka
-19 urban areas over 2 million
-20% of world’s total
-45 urban areas over one million
population lives in this area
India: world’s 2nd most
populous country
-most people in this area
live along Indus and Ganges
river valleys
-also along India’s eastern
and western coasts
-most people in this area are
farmers
Population Geography
Southeast Asia:
-includes the island
areas of Java,
Sumatra, Borneo,
Papua New Guinea,
and the Philippines
political
Population Geography
-over ½ billion people live in this area
Java: has over 100 million people
Indonesia: made up
of 13,677 islands,
including Java
Indochina: the
southeastern tip of
Asian mainland
-most people work as
farmers in rural areas
Population Geography
Together, these Asian clusters account for more than half of
the world’s total human population
-yet they make up less than 10% of the Earth’s total land
area
Ironically enough, 2000 years ago more than half of the
Earth’s population also lived in these same three Asian
cluster areas
Now that is
amazing!!
Population Geography
Other Population Clusters:
Northeast U.S./Southeast Canada
-about 2% of world’s population
-includes the cities of Boston, New York, Chicago,
and Toronto
-mostly urban (less than 5% farmers)
Population Geography
Western Africa
-about 2% of world’s
population
-along Atlantic coast
-includes Nigeria (Africa’s
most populous country)
-most West Africans are
farmers
-although 5 urban areas
with over 2 million people
-11 urban areas with over
one million people
Population Geography
Sparsely Populated Regions:
Ecumene: the portion of the Earth’s surface occupied by
permanent human settlement
-humans avoid certain areas (too wet, too cold, too dry, too
mountainous…)
-today, 75% of human population lives on 5% of land area
Over time, ecumene has increased
Population Geography
Dry Lands:
-areas too dry for farming
cover about 20% of the
Earth’s land area
-largest desert area extends
across Northern Africa east
into central China (Sahara to
Gobi)
-only a few crops and animals
can survive in the dry, desert
climates
-other natural resources found
in these areas (i.e.—oil)
attract people to settle
Population Geography
Wet Lands:
-rain forest areas
receive too much rain
and are too hot for
agriculture
-soil is quickly
depleted
-in some areas, a
majority of rainfall
comes seasonally
Southeast Asia: these
areas can grow enough
food to support a large
population
Population Geography
Cold Lands:
-polar areas covered
with ice or permafrost
(ground that has been
permanently frozen
for thousands of
years)
-receives less
precipitation than
many deserts
-but over thousands
of years, the snowfall
has frozen into thick
ice
Lookout
below!
Population Geography
High Lands:
-most people choose
not to live in highly
elevated areas
-exceptions found in
Latin America and
Aftica
-elevation in Mexico
and Peru often give
relif to high
temperatures found at
the lower elevations
Population Geography
Population Density: the number of people occupying an
area of land
-several ways to calculate this
Find density of a political unit
Find density per area unit
(More accurate)
Population Geography
World population density
Arithmetic density: total number of people divided by total
land area
-most frequently used density measure by geographers
The United States has a population of about 290 million people
and a land area of about 3 million square miles
-population density is about 78 persons per square mile as a
country
Bangladesh
has about
2640
persons per
square mile
India has
about 840
persons per
square mile
Canada has
about 8
persons per
square mile
Population Geography
Population density varies even more within a country
Population density does not accurately indicate rich and
poor economic areas
Areas of California have densities over 1000 per
square mile, while Loving County, Texas has 0.1
person per square mile
Egypt: has about 185 persons per
square mile
-however, this does not mean 185
people live in every square mile
-the Nile River valley has about 9000
people or more per square mile
-areas just a few miles from the Nile
have less than 26 per square mile
Arithmetic density allows geographers
to compare the number of people
trying to live on a given piece of land
in different regions of the world
Helps us to answer the where question
Egypt at Night
density?
Population Geography
Physiological Density: the number of people supported by an
area of arable land
arable land: land suited for agriculture
The United States has 404 persons per square mile of arable land
Egypt has 9073 persons per square mile of arable land
This means crops grown on an acre of land in Egypt must feed
more people than in the U.S.
The higher the physiological density, the greater the pressure
that people place on the land to produce food
-helps geographers learn about the relationship between
population size and availability of resources in a region
Population Geography
Geographers compare arithmetic and physiological
densities to understand the capacity of the land to yield
enough food for the needs of the people of that area
So what’s the Scoop:
The large discrepancy in Egypt
between arithmetic and
physiological densities indicate that
most of the country’s land is not
suitable for intensive agriculture
-95% of Egyptians live in the Nile
delta or valley
Population Geography
Agricultural density: the ratio of the number of farmers to
the amount of arable land
-helps to show economic differences
The United States has a low agricultural density (4 farmers per
square kilometer of arable land)
Egypt has 1401 farmers per square kilometer of arable land
More Developed Countries (MDC’s) have lower agricultural
densities because technology and finance allow a few people
to farm extensive areas of land and feed many people
-this means most people in MDC’s work in other
nonagricultural occupations
Population Geography
Bangladesh and the Netherlands both have very high
physiological densities
-but the Dutch have a much lower agricultural density
With this information, geographers conclude that both of
these countries put heavy pressure on their land to produce
food, but the Dutch use more efficient agricultural systems
which require far fewer farmers than the Bangladeshi system