Vocab.

Unit 2 Neal Smith

Population
Age distribution, Age structure, Population Composition: A model used in population geography that
describes the ages and number of males and females within a given population; also called a
population pyramid
Carrying capacity: the largest number of people that the environment of a particular area can support
Child Mortality Rate: Number of deaths per thousand children within the first five years of life
Cohort : a population group unified by a specific common characteristic, such as age, subsequently
treated as a statistical unit
Crude Birth Rate : The number of live births per year per 1,000 people
Crude Death Rate : The number of deaths per year per 1,000 people
Demographic equation : equation that summarizes the amount of growth or decline in a population
during a certain period of time, also taking into account net migration and natural increase
Demographic momentum : is the tendency for growing population to continue growing after a fertility
decline because their young age distribution.
Demographic Transition model know all stages : a sequence of demographic changes in which a
country moves from high birth and death rates to low birth and death rates through time
High Fluctuation or Stage 1: Birth rate and death rate are both high. Population growth is slow and
fluctuating. EX. All the least economically developed countries today
Early expanding or Stage 2: Birth rate remains high, as death rates fall. Population begins to rise
steadily EX Nigeria
Late Expanding or Stage 3: Birth rate starts to fall. Death rate continues to fall. Population rising. EX
China or Brazil
Low Fluctuation or Stage 4: Birth rate and death rate both low. Population steady. EX USA and Japan
Dependency ratio: Ratio of the number of people who are either too old or young to provide for
themselves to the number of people who must support them through their own labor
Doubling time formula, consequences : Time it takes for a country to double its population,
EQUATION: 70/ rate of natural increase
Ecumene : meeting place for the worlds religions and ideologies
Expansive Population policies: Government policies that encourage large families and raise the rate of
population growth, i.e Polices in Sweden and Norway
Restrictive Population policies: government polices to reduce the rate of natural increase, i.e family
planning policy in India
Infant mortality rate : The percentage of children who die before their first birthday within a particular
area or country
J-curve : the shape of a line graph of population graph when growth is exponential
Location and Characteristics of major population clusters

East Asia: Japan, China, South Korea

South Asia: India, Pakistan, Bangladesh

Europe: includes Russia

North America: mainly east coast

Locations
Total Fertility Rate (TFR) High: Uganda, Niger, Mali Low: Singapore, South Korea, Ukraine
Crude Birth Rate (CBR) High: Niger, Mali, Uganda Low: Japan. Singapore, Germany
Crude Death Rate (CDR) High: South Africa, Ukraine, Chad Low: Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia
Natural Increase Rate (NIR) High: Niger, Uganda, Ethiopia Low: Ukraine, Bulgaria, Serbia
Malthus, Thomas : British economist of the late 1700s considered the first to predict a population crisis
Natality : birth rate or CBR
Anti-natalist policies: aim to decrease the total fertility rate as well as the crude birth rate in order to
slow population growth, i.e Chinese One Child Policy
Pro-natalist policies: aim to increase population by attempting to raise the number of births, i.e Aryan
race during the Nazi regime
Neo-Malthusian : Advocacy of population control programs to ensure enough resources for current and
future population/ a group built on Malthus theory.
Overpopulation : A value judgment based on the notion that the resources of a particular area are not
great enough to support that areas current population
Population Density : A measurement of the number of persons per unit land area
Agricultural Density: The ratio of the number of farmers to the total amount of land suitable for
agriculture
Arithmetic Density: The total number of people divided by the total land area
Physiological Density: The number of the people per unit of area of arable land, which is land suitable
for agriculture
Population distributions : description of locations on Earths surface where populations live
Population projection : estimation of future population growth, by extrapolting from current trends and
known growth factors
Population pyramid : a model used in population geography to show the age and sex distribution of a
particular population
Rate of natural increase The percentage growth of a population in a year, computed as the crude birth
rate minus the crude death rate.
S-curve : the horizontal bending or leveling of a exponential or J curve
Sex ratio : the ratio of men to women
Zero population growth : proposal to end population growth through a variety of official and
nongovernmental family planning programs
Migration
Activity space : the area within which people move freely on their rounds of regular activity (space
where daily activity occurs)
Asylum : shelter and protection in one state for refugees from another country
Chain Migration : migration of people to a specific location because relatives or members of the same
nationality previously migrated their
Colonization : physical settlement in new territory of people from colonizing state

Distance decay : the effects of distance on interaction, generally the grater the distance the less
interaction; due to increase in technology
Forced migration : permanent movement compelled usually by cultural factors; refugees
Gravity model : spatial interaction is directly related to the populations and inversely related to the
distance between them
Internal migration : human movement within a nation-state
Intervening opportunity : the presence of a nearer opportunity that greatly diminishes the
attractiveness of sites farther away
Migration patterns

Intraregional Migration : permanent movement within one region of a country

Intercontinental : permanent movement from one continent to another

Interregional : permanent movement from one region of country to another
Rural-urban : permanent movement from an agrarian sparsely populated region to a densely
populated metropolitan area
Push Factors: factors that induce people to leave old residences
Pull factors : a factor that draws or attracts people to another location
Ravensteins 5 Laws of Migration
1. Net migration amounts to only a fraction of the gross migration between two places
2. The majority of migrants move short distances
3. Migrants who move longer distances tend to choose bug city destinations
4.

Urban residents are less migratory than people in rural areas

5.

Families are less likely to make international moves than young adults

Refugee : people who are forced to migrate from their home country and cannot return for the fear of
persecution due to their race, religion, nationality, membership in a social group, or political opinion
Remittances : money migrants send back to family and friends in their home countries, often in cash,
forming an important part of the economy in many poor countries
Step migration : migration to a distant destination that occurs in stages like from a farm to a nearby
village then onto a smaller town to a large city
Voluntary migration : permanent movement undertaken by choice
Brain Drain : large-scale emigration of talented peopleGuest Worker : citizen if a poor country who is
permitted to work in a country on a temporary basis, i.e for farm labor