CHAPTER INTRODUCTION
Population does not increase in an even manner from country to country. The differences include age, gender, life expectancy, and geographic distribution, and may be identified between countries but are more significant internally. A country that has a large percentage of its population at 15 years of age or below will have enormous needs for education, jobs, and housing in the years ahead. A country where the population is "aging," such as the United States or France, can face shortages of younger workers and problems with their retirement systems. The list goes on but you get the point: a population is far more than mere numbers. This is an extremely important chapter, and when you have studied it, you will have a much better understanding of the complex issues of world population.
Population Trends
Never before in human history have so many people filled the Earth's living space, and never has world population grown as rapidly as it has during the past 100 years. The population explosion of the past 200 years has increased the world's population from under 1 billion to approximately 6 billion. It took from the dawn of history to the year 1820 for the Earth's population to reach 1 billion. It now is taking only a decade to add each new billion. It is still possible that there will be 10 billion human inhabitants on the planet by the middle of the twenty-first century.
Population Growth Rates
Rapid population growth varies over time and space. Europe's rapid growth occurred during the nineteenth century, the result of the Second Agricultural Revolution. At this time better farming methods and improved organization resulted in increased food supplies, especially to cities and towns. This was immediately followed by the Industrial Revolution, during which sanitation facilities made the towns and cities safer from epidemics, and modern medical practices became wide spread. Disease prevention through vaccination introduced a new era in public health. Death rates declined markedly—by 50 percent between 1750 and 1850—while birth rates remained high. The change is especially spectacular when viewed in the context of doubling time—the number of years it takes a population to double—which was 150 years in 1750 but only 35 years in 1850.
One effect of this increase in the rate of natural population growth was increased migration. Millions of people left Europe to emigrate to other parts of the world—North and South America, Australia, South Africa, and elsewhere. When European colonization began in earnest during the nineteenth century, Europeans brought with them their newfound methods of sanitation and medical techniques and death rates in Africa, India, and South America began to decline. Indigenous populations began to grow, and at ever-increasing rates. Today, South America's growth rates have declined, but Africa's remain high. As mentioned previously, the fastest-growing populations to-day are invariably taking place in those poorer countries that have the greatest difficulties providing the basic amenities of life for their citizens.
Disease and famine were the major controllers of population for the world as a whole until the last 100 years. Diseases still kill millions of people each year, especially infants and children, but the overall effects have been reduced, at least in many countries.
Reduction of Growth Rates
Reducing population growth rates is a complicated and sensitive issue. In the richer, more developed countries, general modernization and education has resulted in lower growth rates. Therefore, these countries total populations do not approach those of the poorer countries. The benefits enjoy-ed by the wealthier, developed nations that have led to their slower rates of population have not been shared by much of the world. A key issue to the reduction of population growth rates is to improve the status of women and to secure their rights in society. In the Muslim countries of South- west Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, two of the regions with the highest rates of population growth, women often live in near-Medieval conditions or, at best, as second-class citizens. Tradition plays a powerful role, but the barrier to better education for women is the real key. In places where women's education levels have risen, there has been an accompanying decline in population growth rates; not to mention a general improvement in the well-being of the population.
The demographic transition model, which compares birth and death rates in a population over time, suggests that the world's population will stabilize in the twenty-first century, but the model may not be universally applicable. The sequence of stages of the demographic transition has been observed in several European countries, but what transpired economically and socially in Europe may not apply for the rest of the world. It may be unwise, therefore, to assume that the demographic cycles that have occurred in already-industrialized countries will eventually spread to the rest of the world.
CHAPTER QUIZ
MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS
1. At the present time, about million people are added to the world's population each year.
a. 150
b. 100
c. 90
d. 80
2. Today, Russia is experiencing a population growth rate.
a. rising
b. declining
c. negative
d. stable
3. Africa’s rate of natural increase in population is still high but its population faces the grim prospects of:
a. a decade or more of drought
b. increasing ethnic strife in all countries
c. the AIDS epidemic
d. increasing military conflict
4. The continent with the lowest birth rates is:
a. Europe
b. North America
c. Southeast Asia
d. Antarctica
5. The total fertility rate of a country measures the total number of:
a. women able to have children
b. children between 1 year old and age 10
c. women between 13 and 45
d. children born to women of childbearing age
6. Crude death rates are highest in:
a. tropical Africa
b. China
c. South Africa
d. South America
7. Which of the following did not have an effect on keeping population growth rates down before 1820.
a. the Little Ice Age
b. wars
c. plagues
d. advances in medicine
8. The actual demographic transition is represented by which two of the four stages of the demographic transition model.
a. 1 and 4
b. 2 and 3
c. 3 and 4
d. 2 and 4
9. It is thought by some that perhaps today's developing countries will of the demographic transition model.
a. not go through all four stages
b. have to go through all four stages
c. not follow any stages
d. only go through stages two and three
10. As a tool for development, the demographic transition model is most useful in one place.
a. United States
b. Europe
c. Japan
d. Canada
TRUE/FALSE QUESTIONS
1. Because of the world's falling population growth rate, there is no longer fear of a population explosion. (TF)
2. Population growth rates are rising in the Muslim countries of North Africa and Southwest Asia. (TF)
3. Not all of the countries with low birth rates are wealthy. (TF)
4. Thomas Malthus thought the world's population growth would be slowed by disease. (TF)
5. By 2030, people in Germany over age 65 will account for close to half the adult population. (TF)
6. Population geography is the spatial component of demography. (TF)
7. Japan’s population is projected to begin expanding rapidly in 2007. (TF)
8. Crude death rates decline more rapidly than birth rates. (TF)
9. In Between 1348 and 1350, almost half the population of England died from bubonic plague. (TF)
10. Most countries in the world are at the same stage of the demographic transition model. (TF)
STUDY QUESTIONS
1. Look at text Figure 5-1. Note where the high population growth rate countries are. Do you see a pattern?
2. Even though the world's overall population growth rate has slowed, why is there still concern about another population explosion? Explain exponential growth and why the base population is so important worldwide and by country. Use text Figure 5-2 to help you. What kinds of problems can you foresee for those countries that have a high rate of growth today?
3. Study text Figures 5-4 and 5-5. Explain what you can learn by looking at these age-sex pyramids.
4. Study the section under the heading Demographic Cycles. Write down all the terms and their definitions in this section.
5. After studying the demographic cycle, do you understand why the four stages might not apply to today's developing countries? How did European colonization affect these countries?
