AP Human Geography - Unit 2: Population Distribution, Composition, Dynamics, and Policies

Vocabulary flashcards covering Topic 2.1 (Population Distribution), Topic 2.3 (Population Composition), Topic 2.4 (Population Dynamics), and Topic 2.7 (Population Policies) from handwritten lecture notes.

Space

The physical gap or interval between two objects.

Spatial Distribution

Refers to how resources, activities, and human demographics or features of landscape are arranged across the earth.

Density

The frequency with which something occurs in space.

Concentration

The extent of a feature spread over space.

Pattern

The geometric or regular arrangement of objects in space.

Population Distribution

The arrangement of human settlement across Earth.

Population Density

Measures how clustered or dispersed a population is.

Ecumene

Describes the inhabited places on Earth that are habitable and not too hot or too cold.

Non-Ecumene

Places on Earth where humans cannot live.

Arithmetic Density

The total number of people divided by the total land area.

Physiological Density

The number of people per unit area of arable (farmable) land.

Agricultural Density

The ratio of the number of farmers to the total area of arable land.

Carrying Capacity

The population an area can support with its available resources and technology without significant environmental deterioration or breakdown.

Dependency Ratio

A demographic measure of the ratio of the number of dependents to the total working-age population (ages $15-64$) in a country or area.

Population Pyramid Shapes

Visual age-sex diagrams categorized into shapes such as 'The X-mas Tree' (rapid growth in less developed countries), 'The Box' (slow to zero growth in developing to more developed countries), and 'The Cup' (negative growth in more developed countries).

Demography

The scientific study of human populations and population characteristics.

Overpopulation

A condition occurring when the population of an area exceeds its carrying capacity.

Urbanization

The movement of people into cities, projected to account for $\frac{2}{3}$ of the world population in urban areas by $2050$.

Agglomeration

A mass or collection of things resulting in the clustering of industries, economies, and businesses in urban areas (such as downtown districts, LA, Hollywood films, or Silicon Valley).

Infant Mortality Rate (IMR)

The total number of deaths in a year among infants under $1$ year old for every $1,000$ live births in a society.

Child Mortality Rate (CMR)

The total number of deaths in a year among children between $1$ to $5$ years old.

Total Fertility Rate (TFR)

The average number of children born to women of child-bearing age.

Replacement Rate

The fertility rate required to replace the mother and father, defined as $2.1$ births per woman.

Natural Increase Rate (NIR/RNI)

The percentage by which a population grows in a year excluding migrations, calculated using the formula $\text{NIR} = \frac{\text{CBR} - \text{CDR}}{10}$.

Demographic Momentum

The tendency for growing populations to continue growing after a fertility decline because of their young age distribution.

Doubling Time

The number of years required for a population to double in size at its current growth rate, calculated as $\text{Doubling Time} = \frac{70}{\text{NIR}}$.

Life Expectancy

The average number of years an individual can expect to live, which tends to be higher in more developed countries.

Antinatalist Policy

Restrictive population policies implemented by governments aiming to control or limit population growth.

Pronatalist Policy

Population policies implemented by governments designed to expand or encourage population growth.

Subsidize

Government financial support that cuts some of the cost of a good or service to make it cheaper for the public.

One Child Policy

An antinatalist policy introduced in China in $1979$ and tightened in $1982$ to control population growth.

Dowries

Payments made by the bride's parents to the groom's family upon marriage.