Geography samenvatting 1

Every country has a birth rate and a mortality rate, the birth is the number of live births per
thousand inhabitants per year. you calculate this by dividing the number of births by the
country’s total population, multiply the result by one thousand and round it off to one
decimal. You also have the Fertility rate, this is the number of live births per year per
thousand women aged 15-45. And ofcourse when people born people also die, we call that
the mortality rate, that is the number of people who die per year, per thousand habitants,
we calculate this the same as the birth rate. The difference between births and deaths is the
Natural population growth. If the birth rate in a country is higher than the mortality rate,
the population is growing. In that case there is an excess of births over deaths. If you know
the mortality rate and the birth rate, it is easy to calculate the excess of births over deaths:
birth rate – mortality rate= excess of births over death. If the mortality rate of a country is
higher than the birth rate, it means there is an negative birth balance or a death surplus.
Demography Is the study that investigates the number of people living in a country, the
number of people in a certain age group, and their ethnic backgrounds. As countries
develop, birth and mortality rates change. This is the demographic transition. It happens in
five phases:

Phase 1: in the first phase the mortality rate is high due to poor living conditions. Particularly
children often die young. At the same time people have many children. This keeps the size of
the population around the same level.
Phase 2: when a country develops, people will have access to clean drinking water and
health care will improve. As a result the mortality rate decreases and life expectancy
increases in this phase. But the birth rate remains high. The population grows rapidly
Phase 3: due to improved social services people no longer need children to care for them
when they are older. People want their children to spend a long time at school, but that is
expensive. This is why many people want to have fewer children, and contraceptives
(anticonceptiemiddelen) make it possible. The number of births decreases and so does the
mortality rate. The birth rate will remain higher than the mortality rate for some time. It
means the population is still growing
Phase 4: the mortality rate and birth rate are low in the fourth phase and do not decrease
any further. The population has stopped growing.
Phase 5: because the population grew in phases 2 and 3 there are many elderly people in
the fifth phase. The mortality rate increases again and the birth rate continues to drop. The
population may shrink.
Most countries are in the second or third phase. Prosperous countries are mainly in the
fourth phase. Conclusion: the more prosperous a country, the lower the excess of births over
deaths. In most countries the population tends to develop according to the five phases. Due
to religion and cultural regulations and poor social services it is also possible that the birth
6rate hardly drops. The mortality rate remains high in countries with wars, illness, poor
drinking water and poor health care. Not only economic development but also a government
has a major influence. Therefor it is not self-evident that countries will progress into the next
phase of demographic transition.

1.2

In a population diagram (picture) you can see the age distribution of the population of a region.
Each horizontal bar represents an age group. The bar width shows the percentage of the population
in that age group. There are significant differences between population diagrams of different
countries. For instance the bottom of diagram A in source 2 is quite wide. That means there are
many children, the top is narrow. Due to conditions in the country, people don’t grow old. In diagram
B the bottom is narrower than in A± the birth rate is lower. Because people are growing older, this
diagram is wider at the top than A. diagram B is the widest in the center: there are many people
between thirty and fifty. The birth rate used to be higher than today, which is why there are many
people in the center part. It belongs to a country in the fourth phase of the demographic transition.
There are a few young people in the country of diagram C. the birth rate is so low, that the
population barely grows or even shrinks. Because the birth rate is used to be higher and thanks to
good living conditions there are many elderly people. This shape belongs to a country at the end of
the fourth phase or the beginning of the fifth phase. All people in the diagram continue to grow
older. Therefor the bars gradually move up to the diagram. At the top they become narrower
because elderly people die. The width of these new bars depends on the birth rate.
The young dependency ratio is the ratio of the number of the young people relative to the number
of people aged 20 to 65
Number of people under 20

Number of people between 20 and 65

X100%= young dependency ratio

A high youth dependency is a feature of developing countries. In these countries people need
children to provide for their old age. The large number of children causes problems. Food and clothes
are expensive and therefor they are often unaffordable to the poor. Children leave school at an early
age to go to work in order to increase the family income.
The old- age dependency ratio is the relationship between the number of elderly people and the
number of people between 20 and 65

Number of people over 65

Number of people between 20 and 65

X100%= old-age dependency ratio

A high old-age dependency ratio belongs to the fourth and fifth phase of the demographic transition.

1.3
Emigration and immigration determine the size of the population of a country. Push factors are
factors that make people leave their countries in spite of all difficulties. Push factors can be divided
into four groups:
1. Political factors: political push factors could be war or lack of freedom.
2. Economic factors: these are related to people’s income.
3. Environment factors may also people to leave.
4. Some people leave duo to tensions between groups of people or duo the poor social status
of a particular group in a country.
Some people leave because of the positive aspects of the countries they to move to: pull factors
1. Political factors: stable government and safe
2. Economic factors: high salaries
3. Social pull factors: falling in love with someone
4. A clean environment, a lot of space and beautiful natural surroundings
Refugees are a special group of immigrants. They flee from difficult or dangerous situations in
their own countries. Push factors are therefor always more important to refugees than pull
factors. Only people who flee for political reasons have a chance of obtaining a residence permit
in EU countries.

1.5
Singapore is about half the size of the province of Utrecht with around 5 million inhabitants. This
means that it is one of the most densely populated states in the world. Singapore has the largest
harbour outside China. Life in Singapore is expensive. Many people think status, income and careers
are more important than a family, that’s why they have few or no children. Very often they do not
have children until a later age. Very often they do not have children until a later age. The old-age
dependency ratio in Singapore is quite high. The government even finances television programmers
and magazines to encourage people to have more children. Moreover there are tax benefits and
subsidies for people with more children. This is called Population politics.
The population in Indonesia increases annually by three to four million people. There are now around
243 million inhabitants on the island of Java. Indonesia is not a densely populated country. But the
population is spread very unevenly. There are the most densely populated island in the world. An
average family in Indonesia has at least four children, this is twice as many as an average family in
Singapore. Salaries are low in java and social services are poor. People need children to care for them
when they are older, moreover many children die at young age. But religious tradition is the main
reason why people have many children. It is a taboo for many people to use contraceptives or even
talk about them. Through population politics the government tries to make decide to have fewer
children. There are tv-spots, a website and free or cheap contraceptives.