APHuG Unit 2

Arithmetic Density

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

Physiological Density

The number of people per unit area of arable land (land suited for agriculture).

Agricultural Density

the ratio of the number of farmers to the total amount of land suitable for agriculture.

Carrying Capacity

The population size of a species that the environment can sustain indefinitely, given the available resources, such as food and water.

Population Pyramid

A bar graph that displays the percentage of a place’s population  for each age and gender.

Demography

The scientific study of population statistics.

Total Fertility Rate (TFR)

The average number of children a woman will have throughout her childbearing years (ages 15-49). This is different from the CBR since it considers the number of children born to a woman over her lifetime rather than one year.

Dependency Ratio

The number of people who are too young or too old to work compared to the  number of people in their productive years. Dependents are normally classified as people under age 15 and over 65.

Crude Birth Rates

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

Life Expectancy

The average number of years an individual can be expected to live, given current social, economic, and medical conditions.

Population Doubling-Time

The number of years needed to double a population, assuming a constant rate of natural increase.

Rate of Natural Increase (Natural Increase Rate)

The NIR is the percentage by which a population grows in a year. This excludes migration.

Demographic Transition Model

The process of change in a society’s population from high crude birth rates, high death rates and a low natural increase rate, to a condition of low birth rates, low death rates and a changing natural increase rate. It consists of 5 stages.

Epidemiological Transition Model

Focuses on distinctive health threats in each stage of the demographic transition model. It accounts for epidemics (widespread occurrence of an infectious disease  in a community at a particular time) and a pandemic (an epidemic that occurs over a wide geographic area  and affects a very high proportion of the population at the same time) and degenerative diseases.

Malthusian Theory

Thomas Malthus  (1766-1834) wrote an essay and argued that the world’s rate of population increase was far outrunning the production of food supplies.  Population was growing exponentially and food production was rising at a linear rate, meaning the world would begin to starve. He did not consider innovations from the Industrial Revolution that would improve farming practices and productivity.

Infant Mortality Rate

The annual number of deaths of infants under one year of age, compared to total live births. Usually expressed as a number of deaths per 1,000 births rather than a percentage.

Pro-Natalist Policies

A government policy that supports high birth rates, by providing incentives for women to have children.

Anti-Natalist Policies

Restrictive government policy that discourages people from having children.

Contraception

the deliberate use of artificial methods or other techniques to prevent pregnancy

Ravenstein’s Laws of Migration

1. Includes 8 reasons for the migration patterns of people:

• Most people move short distances

• Migration occurs in steps

• Each migration creates a counter stream in the opposite direction (not always equal in size

• Economics is the main reason for most migration

• Migrants who move long distances end up in larger cities

• Young adults are more migratory than families

• Women are more migratory than males in shorter distances, male more likely in longer distances

• Urban residents are less migratory than rural settlement

Push Factors

A reason for migration that PUSHES people to leave their present location

Pull Factors

A reason for migration that PULLS people to move to a new location.

Intervening Opportunities

The presence of a nearer opportunity that greatly diminishes the attractiveness of sites further away.

Intervening Obstacles

An environmental or cultural feature of the landscape that hinders migration. 

Remittances

Migrants who find work in another country frequently send a portion of the wages they have earned to relatives back home. The transfer of money by a worker to people  in the country from which they emigrated is a remittance.

Emigration

Permanently leaving a country to move to a new location. (Exit a country)

Immigration

Permanently coming to a new country (Into a country).

Forced Migration

Permanent movement of people, compelled by social, political or environmental factors. It is not clear-cut from voluntary migration where people may move for better circumstances, but they have been explicitly compelled  to migrate due to the violent actions of others, or extreme weather or disasters.

Refugee

A person who has been forced to migrate to another country to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations for generalized violence, violations of human rights, or other disasters, and cannot return for fear of persecution because of race, religion, nationality, membership in a social group, or political opinion.

Internally Displaced Persons

A person has been forced to migrate for similar political reasons as a refugee but has not migrated across an international border.

Asylum Seekers

Someone who has migrated to another country with the hope of being recognized as a refugee.

Voluntary Migration

Migration where a person has chosen to move, usually for economic reasons, though sometimes for environmental or social factors.

Transnational Migration

A form of population movement in which a person regularly moves between two or more countries and forms a new cultural identity transcending a single geopolitical unit.

Transhumance

Seasonal migration of livestock between mountain and lowland pasture areas, which also includes the herding community that stay with the livestock as they move them back and forth.

Internal Migration

A permanent move within the same country. Internal migration is far higher than international migration. Can be divided into two types: Interregional migration which is movement from one region of the country to another, and Intraregional migration which is movement within one region.

Chain Migration

Migration of people to a specific location because relatives or members of the same nationality previously migrated there.

Step Migration

Migration that follows a path of a series of stages or steps toward a final destination.

Guest Worker

programs in Germany and other wealthy European countries in which people from poorer countries were allowed to immigrate temporarily to obtain jobs. Guest workers were expected to return to their countries of origin once their work was done. These programs operated mainly in the 1960s and 70s.