Population PatternsChapter 2-3: Human

Geography

Section Objectives

• Explain why the world’s population is growing rapidly.

• Identify where most people in the world l ive.

• Discuss why more people are moving to cit ies.

Population Growth

• The world’s population is growing rapidly, and how and where people l ive are changing too.• World Population Growth in History

(2:15-7:32 - can fast forward)

• U.S. and World Population TODAY

• World Population (Constant Count w/Estimator)

PopulationGrowth (cont.)

• The world’s population continues to grow.

• The death rate, or the number who die out of 1,000, has gone down because of better health care and l iving condit ions.

• The birth rate, or the number of children born each year for every 1,000 people, is very high in some regions.

PopulationGrowth (cont.)

• Challenges from population growth (overpopulation) include:• Rapid use of natural resources• Strain on a country’s economy • Lack of food, or famine

• Experts are optimistic that, despite the high population growth, advances in technology and creativity wil l make it possible for population growth to be managed.

Where People Live• 30% of the earth is covered by land.

• 50% is uninhabitable because of ice, deserts, or high mountains. (15%)

• The world’s population is not distr ibuted evenly.

• People prefer to l ive in places with:

• Plentiful water • Good land • Favorable climate

Population Density• Population density is the average number of

people l iving in a square mile or square kilometer.

• To f igure population density, the total population is divided by the total land area.• US pop. = 318,710,000• Land area = 3,794,100 square miles• 318,710,000 divided by 3,794,100 = 84 people per square mile

in the U.S.

• Other country totals:• Canada = 9 per square mile • Mexico = 148 per square mile • China = 368 per square mile • India = 953 per square mile • Singapore = 18,513 per square mile

What if we drew the world based on population?

Population Density: NE

Population Movement• Nearly 50% of the world’s

people l ive in cit ies.

• Now, many people are leaving vil lages and farms and moving to cit ies to f ind work. This is called urbanization.

• Cities and their suburbs keep expanding outward, a situation called urban sprawl.

PopulationMovement (cont.)

• Some people emigrate, or leave the country in which they were born and move to another country. They do this to:• Find jobs in the richer nations • Flee their country because of

wars, food shortages, or to escape persecution or disaster.

• These people are known as refugees.

• Once in a new country, they are called immigrants.

ANY QUESTIONS???