POPULATION GEOGRAPHY

Introduction

measuring population growth/decline.

Population Parameters

Demographic Accounting Equations Equation used for evaluating population

change on global and sub global levels. At the global level, the CBR and CDR are

the only two factors in the equation of change.

At the sub global level, immigration and emigration are taken into account.

Fecundity

The ability of a woman to conceive. Fecund years are generally 15 to 45. Affected by:

AGE!!!! Diet Economic factors Social-cultural factors

Total Fertility Rate (TFR)

Measure of the average number of children born to a women over her entire life.

General Fertility Rate (GFR)

Number of births per 1,000 women in the fecund years.

More specific than the CBR.

Infant Mortality Rate

Number of infant deaths per 1,000 live births.

Takes into account infants who die before their first birthday.

The infant mortality rate exceeds 10% in some less-developed countries.

Life Expectancy

The average length of someone’s life. Varies dramatically from place to place and

even within populations Anglo-American [74] and African-American

[66] in 1996 in the USA.

Crude Birth/Death Rate

Number of live births/deaths per 1000 people per year.

Crude Birth/Death Rate

Considered “crude” because they are general statistics since they are calculated based on entire populations. Do not

specifically look at the age groups most likely to either give birth or die.

Natural Increase Rate

Difference between CBR and CDR. (CBR-CDR)/10 Does not take into account

migrations.

Replacement-Level Fertility

Considered a TFR of 2.1

Economic Development

Education

Gender Empowerment

Healthcare

Cultural Traditions

Public Policy

Natural Disasters

War or Political Turmoil

What determines a population’s natural increase rate?

Economic Development

Has profound implications on the quality of: Available healthcare Employment opportunities Nutrition Many other factors that affect

population growth.

Generally, increases in economic development lead to decreases in fertility and growth rate.

Generally…

Economy based on agriculture= high growth rate

Economy based on industry or services= low growth rate or none.

Education

Affects every aspect of population growth, from: fertility rates prenatal care the use of contraception

Populations with better education tend to have lower fertility rates and lower rates of natural increase.

Gender Empowerment

Refers to the relative status and opportunities available to women in a given population.

When women have more economic and political access, power, and education, fertility rates inevitably drop.

Healthcare

Improved healthcare in the less-developed countries has decreased the infant mortality rate and increased the life expectancy, thus contributing to population growth.

Conversely, the same healthcare services are often effective at providing desperately needed contraception and family planning education.

Cultural Traditions

Many cultural traditions in parts of the world encourage high fertility rates by limiting women’s employment opportunities outside of the home, by elevating motherhood to a high post and deterring women from doing anything else, or by discouraging the use of contraception.

Public Policy

Can have important implications for population growth in places like China, where the “one couple, one child” program, iniated in 1979, provides economic incentives favoring families who have fewer child and legal penalties for those who have too many.

Natural Disasters

Can kill thousands of people at a time.

Earthquakes, tsunamis, tornadoes, blizzards, etc.

Famines and plagues.

What countries are least prepared to handle these situations?

War or Political Turmoil

Genocides.

Leads to refugees.

Tends to affect male sections of populations more adversely.

Countries that have low levels of economic development, education, and gender empowerment, as well as newly reduced infant mortality rates because of improved healthcare, cultural traditions favoring fertility, and little or no public policy limiting population growth tend to have high growth rates.

These countries are found mainly in sub-Saharan Africa, parts of the Middle East, and Latin America.