AP Human Geography: Unit 2

Age cohort

a group of people born around the same time who are unified by a shared characteristic (most commonly age)

Agricultural density

number of farmers per arable land (farmers/farmable land)

Anti-natalism

government policies to reduce the rate of natural increase (discourage births)

Arithmetic density

number of people per square mile/km, divided by the population by the surface area (pop./land area)

Asylum-seeker

someone who has migrated to another country in the hope of being recognized as a refugee

Brain drain/gain

the loss or gain of highly educated and skilled workers to/from other countries

Carrying capacity

the maximum number of individuals or species that an environment can sustainably support without degrading its natural resources

Center of population

an area of land where people are most dense including East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Europe

Chain migration

migration to a specific destination because relatives or members of their community have already settled there

Cornucopianism

the belief that human ingenuity and technology can overcome limits on resources and sustain an ever-growing human population

Crude birth rate (CBR)

total number of live births in a year for every 1,000 people

Crude death rate (CDR)

total number of deaths per 1,000 people in a society

Demographic momentum

the tendency for a population to continue to grow even after fertility rates have fallen

Demographics

the statistical characteristics of human populations, such as age, income, race, and gender, used for market research and sociological analysis

Diaspora

the dispersion of people from their homeland

Doubling time

number of years needed to double a population

Dependency ratio

the number of people too young or too old to work compared to the number of working age people in a population

Epidemiological transition

the theory that says that there is a distinct cause of death in each stage of the DTM, helps explain how a country’s population changes in terms of death rates

Guest worker

a foreign laborer living and working temporarily in another country

Internal migration

permanent movement within the same country

Internally displaced person

a person who is forced to move from their home but remains within their country

International migration

the movement of people from one country to another, crossing international borders with the intent of permanent or temporary residence

Interregional migration

movement within a region

Intervening obstacle/opportunity

an environmental, social, or political barrier that hinders or prevents migration from one place to another

Intraregional migration

an environmental or cultural feature of the landscape that hinders migration

J-curve

a population of exponential growth, with a slow start followed by rapid acceleration due to abundant resources

Life expectancy

average number of years a person can expect to lvie

Malthusianism

the theory that population grows faster than food supply

Migration selectivity

only people exhibiting certain characteristics in a population choosing to migrate

Natural disaster

a catastrophic event caused by natural processes that causes significant disruption to human life, property, and the environment

Naturalization

the legal process by which a person from one country becomes a citizen of another

Neo-malthusianism

a belief that the world is characterized by scarcity and competition in which too many people fight for too few resources

Overpopulation

the number of people in an area exceeds the capacity of the environment to support life at a decent standard of living

Physiological density

number of people supported per unit of arable land potential for food production

Population aging

a demographic trend where the percentage of elderly people in a population increases, primarily due to declining birth rates and rising life expectancy

Population pyramid

a bar graph representing the distribution of population by age and sex

Pro-natalism

government policies to increase the rate of natural increase

push/pull factors 

the ESPN factors that can push or pull towards a country

Ravenstein’s laws

a set of 11 laws that can be organized into three groups: the reason why migrants move, the distance they typically move, and their characteristics

Redistricting

the process of redrawing the boundaries of electoral districts every 10 years after the census to reflect population shifts and ensure fair representation, can be used to manipulate political representation

Refugee

a person who has a well founded fear of being persecuted for reason of race religion nationality membership of a particular social group or political opinion

Replacement fertility

the average number of children a women must have to replace herself and her partner

S-curve

represents growth in a limited environment with resources that will eventually causes the growth to level off at the carrying capacity

Sex ratio

the number of males per 100 females in the population

Step migration

migration to a distant destination that occurs in stages

Total fertility rate (TFR)

the average number of children born to a woman during her childbearing years

Transhumance

the seasonal migration of livestock between mountains and lowland pastures

Undocumented migrant

someone who enters, stays, or works in a country without proper legal authorization

Zero-population growth

a decline of the TFR to the point where the RNI is zero

Ecumene

the permanently inhabited areas of land in contrast to the uninhabited or sparsely population regions, highlights where humans live, build cities, develop economies, encompassing places with favorable climates, available resources, and develop infrastructure