The Study of Human Geography

People impact the physical environment in which they live. As a result of this impact, humans are constantly changing the global geographical landscape. Human geography includes languages, religions, customs, and economic and political systems.

Around 7 billion people now live on earth More than two-thirds of the earth is covered by water. That only leaves one-third of the earth for all 7 billion people to occupy. Half of the remaining one-third (total land area), is unlivable.

People adapt to the environment around them. Example: Big, heavy clothes in cold areas to survive. Humans also force the physical landscape to adapt to human activities! Examples: cutting down trees, man-made lakes This is why in order to fully understand geography, we have to study human activity!

Population density is the average number of people living in a given area. Usually represented in square miles or square kilometers. Example: Tupelo, MS has a population density of 672.33 people per square mile, which is much higher than the state average of 61.27 people per square mile.

More people competing for fewer resources, making everything less available Food Clothing Shelter Water Medicine Etc.

Birthrate- the number of live births each year per 1,000 people. Death rate- the number of deaths each year per 1,000 people. Immigrants- people who move INTO a country Emigrants- people who EXIT the country to live in other places

Basically, population distribution means the patterns of where people live. World population distribution is very uneven. Densely populated places are located in areas with favorable environments for people to live in. Ex: United States, Europe Scarcely populated places tend to be in areas with harsh climates and extreme environmental conditions. Ex: Antarctica, Deserts People live where it is easiest to survive

Many people living in heavily populated areas live in metropolitan areas (large cities) Urbanization- the growth of city populations Rural- countryside populations, very scarcely populated areas. In many countries around the world, urban populations are growing twice as fast as rural populations.

 There are roughly 6,500 spoken

languages in the world today. Language Distribution, just like population distribution, is the distribution of different languages to different parts of the world.