UNIT 7 POPULATION

Human population-is the number of people who live in the same geographical area,
town, region, country or the world as a whole.
Population distribution-is the way in which people are spread out across a
country/world or an area.
-is the description of the arrangement of where people live on earth.
-population is not equally distributed across the world.
-there are more people in the cities than towns and there more people in some
countries than others.

Population density-is the average number of people who live in a certain area of land
per square kilometer (km2).
-Population density is calculated by dividing the area of a country by the number of
people who live in that country.
Population density=population/area
-Population density vary from place to place for example mountainous areas have a
density of less than one person per square kilometer while cities like New York has a
population density of over 5000 people per square kilometer.
Characteristics of areas with high population density
 Landscape is flat and not too high above sea level
 The soils are deep and fertile
 A moderate climate with adequate rainfall for agriculture
 They are near the coast or beside rivers
 They have deposits of minerals or energy sources

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Characteristics of areas with low population density
 Landscape is hilly and may be high above sea level
 The soils are thin and poor
 The climate limits agriculture and settlement
 The site is inaccessible and often situated in far-off inland locations
 There are few economic developments and employment opportunities
 The vegetation is problematic
 Diseases and pests deter settlement
 Historical development
Factors affecting population distribution
1.Physical factors
 Climate-more people will settle where they can get water and right temperature
 Water-people need water to drink, cook, wash their bodies and farmers need
water for their animals or crops, so they will settle close to water sources
 Relief (the shape and the height of the land)-low and flat land has more
population than high land that is mountainous.
 Vegetation and soil-more people will settle in the areas with good vegetation
 Resources-areas rich in resources such as coal, oil, fish are more densely
populated than areas with no resources.
2.Human factors
 Political factors-countries with stable government have high population density
than countries with unstable government.
 Social factors-education-areas with proper schools, universities attract more
people than areas with no proper schools or universities
-health-areas with good health facilities attract more people than areas without
health facilities
 Economic-employment -good job opportunities attract more people and areas
with limited job opportunities attract less people
Overpopulation-when the number of people exceeds the available resources.
Environmental problems caused by overpopulation
 Pollution
 Overgrazing
 Deforestation
 Soil erosion
 Loss of biodiversity
 Exploitation of available resources
 Excessive water use

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  Land degradation
Economic consequences of overpopulation
 Pressure on resources
 Competition for land
 Unemployment increases
 Slums/squatter settlements spread
 No access to education, health, clean water
 Poverty increases
 Dependency ration worsen
 Low GDP/GNP/ low economic growth
 Pension funds/grants for orphans and vulnerable children increases
 Overdependence on agricultural sector

Social problems caused by overpopulation

 Prostitution
 High crime rate
 Spreading of diseases
 Traffic congestion
 Shortage of clean water

Suggest why governments of countries spend more money on urban population

than rural population
 More political pressure/politically active
 Industries and business activities needs services
 Water /sewage problems more serious in urban areas
 To encourage foreign investors/visitors/tourists
 Cheap to supply urban areas/rural areas are too widely spread out
 Ministers/politicians are in urban areas
 Skilled/educated people are in urban areas

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Trends in population growth
Population growth-is the increase in the number of people in a population.
The world population is growing faster than it has ever done before, increasing
population will place more stress on earth’s already burdened natural resources.

World population growth 1950-2050

How are the population statistics collected?

 Hospitals can supply data about the number of people hospitalized during census
 Civic affairs departments deaths with the registration of births and deaths, giving
them access to the number of people who were born and who died during a
specific period
 Refugee camps can provide data about the number of people from neighbouring
countries living in camps during certain period
 Midwives can give data about births in rural areas which are not registered with
departments of civic affairs
Statistics-is a science of collecting and analyzing numerical data/information collected
and expressed in the form of numbers.
Census-is the process of counting people in the country.
Why population statistics important?
 To know birth rates and death rates
 To determine the employment and unemployment
 To know the trends in emigration and immigration
 To plan for the use of resources

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  To make comparison with other countries over years
 To measure the well-being/the gap between rich and poor
 For the country to present itself internationally/planning/budgeting
 To provides amenities/services
 Warning of changes in natural environment to plan for action/plan for
emergencies
Birth rates/crude birth rates and death rates
Birth rates-is the number of live births per 1000 per year/the number of babies born live
each year per 1000.
Death rates-is the number of people out of every 1000 who die each year.

Why does population growth occur?

 People who are born are added to the existing population (birth rate)
 People who die are subtracted from the population figures (death rate)
Natural increase-is the difference between the number of live births and the number of
deaths during the year/ the difference between birth rate and death rate.
-Population will increase if birth rate is higher than death rate and population will
decrease if death rate is higher than birth rate.
-Population will remain the same if birth rate and death are equal.

How to calculate natural increase?

Birth rate – death rate =natural increase
Imagine the country which has:
 A birth rate of 35 (per 1000)
 A death rate of 15 (per 1000)
The natural increase is therefore 35-15=20.
NB This is an increase of 20 per 1000 people which is the same as 2 per 100 people or
2%.
Population growth rate
Is the speed at which the population is increasing.
How to calculate population growth rate?

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Total increase in population (birth rate-death rate)/total population x 100/1=population
growth rate
Example: the population was 5309 million in 1990 and increased to 8480million in
2020. The population growth rate was:
8480-5309/5309 x 100/1=60%

Explain why governments are concerned about world population growth?

-The country may run out of resources like food/land/space, etc.
- Economic growth swallowed by growing population, thus cannot provide
better/improved education/
health care/infrastructure, etc.
- Increased damage to the environment such as pollution/deforestation
- Pressure on services like water supply, electricity, etc.
- Unemployment which can lead to higher crime rate
- Overcrowded areas which lead to diseases, etc.

Population models
Two types of population models
-Population pyramids
-Demographic transition model

Population pyramids-is a diagram which shows the age and sex structure of the
population.
-Different countries of the world have different population structures, because there are
different number of people in different age groups.

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 Namibia population in 2017 (Developing country)

Population of Germany in 2017 (developed country)

Population pyramids of developing countries

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  They have a narrow top representing low life expectancy
 Wider base representing high birth rate

Population pyramids of developed countries

 Wider top representing high life expectancy
 Narrow base representing low birth rate
Females are always placed on the right of the pyramid while males are always placed
on the left of the pyramid.
Three important groups
 Children under the age of 15
 Working population/economically active group 15-65
 Old people over the age of 65 years
Why economically active group Is important?
 Earn enough money to look after their own needs
 Support the children and see that they are healthy, well-nourished and educated
 Look after the older people to meet their needs such as food, clothing, housing
etc.
Describe three possible consequences of the increased number of people over 65
years.
-More medical services to bigger number of old people
-More social services needed/more old age homes/more pension money
-Heavy work load on those of working age
-May lead to higher retirement age
-May lead to maltreatment of the elderly
What effects do a lot of old age people have on the economy of the country?
 More old age homes
 More pension pay out
 More free medical care
 More funeral services
Describe the shape of the population pyramids of developing countries
 Wider base representing low birth rate
 Narrow top representing low life expectancy

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Suggest reasons for the population structure of developing countries
-High birth rate/lack of family planning
- Low life expectancies /higher death rate
- Lack of health facilities/ services/ care
- Cultural/ traditional/ religious beliefs to have many children
- Lack of clean water
- Poor sanitation/ poor hygiene/ poor living conditions
- Lack of balanced diet/ poor diet

Describe the economic consequences of developing country’s population

structure
- Pressure on resources
- Competition for land
- Unemployment increases
- Slums and squatter settlements spread in cities
- Lack of access to education, health/ drinking water and sanitation/ more money is
spend on basics/ social
services
- Poverty increases
- Dependency ration worsens
- Low GNP or GDP/ low economic growth
- Pension funds/ grants for orphans or vulnerable children
- Overdependence on agricultural sector

Demographic transition model

Is a diagram that describes the population changes by looking at birth rate and death
rate over time.
What does the demographic transition model show?
It shows population changes by looking at birth rate and death rate over time.

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Study the Figure below which shows the stages of the demographic transition
model.

Four stages of the demographic transition model

Stage 1: high fluctuating-the birth rate and death rate are both high
Stage 2: early expanding-the birth rate remain high but the death rate has started to
drop rapidly. meaning the population begin to grow quickly
Stage 3: Late expanding-birth rate is dropping rapidly death rate remain low with a
slight drop
Stage 4: low fluctuating-birth rate and death rate are low

Table to summarise the above information

Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4
Birth rate high High with a Dropping Low
slight drop rapidly
Death rate high Dropping Low and Low
rapidly dropping

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Why high birth rate and high death rate in stage 1?
 No contraceptive and limited family planning
 Infant mortality is high; parents have many children to ensure some live
 Many people needed to work in agriculture
 Children are highly valued
 Some religious beliefs encourage large families and forbid the use of
contraceptives
-Diseases and plaque kills so many people
-Famine, poor food supplies and poor diet
-Poor hygiene and little medical care
Why death rate dropped rapidly in stage 2?
 Improved medical care
 Improved sanitation and water supplies
 Improved in food production/balance diet
 Reduction in infant mortality
Why birth rate dropped rapidly in stage 3?
 Family planning like sterilisation, abortion, and government incentives
 Change from agriculture to industries and services and improved in
mechanisation requires less manual labourers
 Emancipation of women, enabling them to have careers rather than being child
bearers
 Increased desire of material wealth and the rise in cost of living making child
rearing expensive
 Lower infant mortality reduces the need to have many children

Describe the structure of the population of a country in stage 2 of the

demographic transition model
 Many children under the age of 15 years/many young people
 Smaller number of adults
 Smaller number of old people

Describe what the demographic transition model shows about total population
-It shows a high birth rate and death rate in stage 1
- A slight decrease of birth rate and death rate in stage 2

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- A rapid decrease of birth rate and death rate in stage 3.
- A high but stable population in stage 4.

Different ways the government can help people to have smaller families
 Education-educated people are asset to the country and they tend to have
smaller families
 Primary health care-to improve health of the communities and fewer children will
die and no need to have more.
 Work and money-better job opportunities ensure more money for the people and
this will give them security for their old age
 Technology-appropriate technology helps people to improve their farming
production
 Housing-better housing ensure better living standard
 Equality for women-women tend to have jobs outside their homes and earn
money, educated women have smaller families
 Family planning programmes-to teach people methods of birth control to limit the
size of the family.
The objectives of national population policies
- The aim is to control high population growth.
Singapore population policies
-Singapore population grew by 0.1% in the year 2016.
-Following the post war baby boom, the government implemented family planning
programmes to reduce birth rate.
-During 21st century the population of Singapore has declined to the extent that in some
years it has been flat and in some years it has been negative population growth rate.
-The decline is the result of decreased fertility, decreased immigration and increased
emigration.
-Today Singapore government introduced the Have three or more campaign in an effort
to increase fertility rate and population growth rate. This campaign has had limited
success.
China population policies
China is one of the country with fastest growing populations. In 2022 the population of
China was 1.412 billion.
-China introduced one child policy in the 1980s.

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- it was an attempt to slow down population growth rate
They rewarded the couples who obeyed the policy of having one child by:
-additional maternity leave
-increased land for farmers
-free education for the child
-better housing subsidies
People who could not keep the policy were punished by:
-parents had to be sterilised or forced to terminate their unproved pregnancies
-parents were fined
-loss of land grant
-loss of free education and food
-loss of loans
Apart from birth rates policies there are other national population policies including
family planning and immigration policies.
Irrespective of all the punishments and programmes, the population of China continued
to increase and it was slowed down by educating people on the danger of
overpopulation.
The impact of HIV/AIDS on the population of Namibia
HIV-Human Immunodeficiency Virus
AIDS- Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome
How HIV/AIDS affects the economy of the country
 A lot of money will be spent on buying ARVs
 Government needs to train more doctors and nurses to take care of the sick
people
 Skilled people will die and force the government to bring in expatriates
 Sick people are less productive
 Government needs to build orphanage homes and take care of the orphans
 Government needs to build more hospitals and clinics to accommodate the sick
ones
 More money spent on campaign to prevent HIV/AIDS/ to provide condoms
How HIV/AIDS affect the health services

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The cost of treating the large number of people with HIV/AIDS reduces the amount of
money available for providing medical services to other patients.
How HIV/AIDS affect education
-Loss of education opportunities-children will miss school either because they are sick
or because they have to take care of the sick family members.
-Loss of educators-some teachers will die.
How to take care of an infected person?
 Remind them to take their medicine
 They must eat a balance diet
 Regular check-ups
 Do regular exercises
 Give moral support
 Not to drink alcohol or smoke

Check your progress

1 (a) Study the extract about population statistics

(i) What is meant by census?

[1]
(ii) Explain why it is important for a country to collect population statistics.
[5]
(b) Study Fig. 1, which shows a population pyramid.

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(i) What is a population pyramid?
[1]
(ii) Describe the shape of the population pyramid shown in Fig. 1.
[2]
(iii) Suggest reasons for the population structure of the country shown in Fig. 1.
[4]
(iv) Describe the economic consequences of the developing country’s population
structure.
[4]
2 Study Fig. 2 which is the demographic transition model.

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(a) (i) What does the demographic transition model show?
[1]
(ii) What is meant by birth rate?
[1]
(b) Describe what happens to the death rate in stage 2. Suggest reasons for the
change.
[4]
(c) Describe the structure of the population of a country in stage 2 of the demographic
transition model.
[3]
(d) Describe two effects of a high population growth rate on the environment.
[2]
(e) Describe the policy of a country you studied to reduce population growth.
[4]

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Compiled by: T.P.NDIPWASHIMWE

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