AP Human Geography Exhaustive Study Notes: Population, Migration, Industrialization, and Development

Population distribution

The pattern of human settlement highlighting the spread of people across the Earth.

Population density

A measure of the average number of people per square mile or square kilometer in a given area.

Arithmetic population density

A metric calculated by dividing a region's total population by its total land area.

Physiological population density

A metric calculated by dividing a region's population by its amount of arable land.

Agricultural population density

A metric comparing the number of farmers to the total area of arable land.

Carrying capacity

The maximum population size that an environment or region can support without experiencing significant environmental deterioration.

Crude birth rate

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

Total fertility rate

The average number of children a woman will give birth to during her childbearing years (ages 15 to 49).

Infant mortality rate

The number of deaths of children under one year of age per 1,000 live births.

Rate of natural increase

The percentage by which a population grows or declines annually, calculated by subtracting crude death rate from crude birth rate and dividing by 10.

Malthusian theory

The idea that human population grows exponentially while food supply increases arithmetically, leading to eventual widespread starvation and crisis.

Boserup theory

The proposition that population growth acts as an incentive for agricultural innovation and technological development, increasing food production.

Push factor

A negative condition or event in a person's home area that compels them to migrate elsewhere.

Pull factor

A positive condition or attribute of a location that attracts migrants to settle there.

Internally displaced person

Someone forced to flee their home due to conflict or disaster who remains within their country's borders.

Refugee

A person forced to leave their home country due to a well-founded fear of persecution, war, or violence who crosses an international border.

Remittances

Money transferred by foreign workers back to family or friends in their country of origin.

Primary sector

The portion of the economy focused on extracting natural resources directly from the Earth, such as agriculture, mining, and forestry.

Secondary sector

The portion of the economy that processes raw materials into manufactured goods and structures.

Tertiary sector

The portion of the economy centered on providing services and commercial activities to consumers and businesses.

Quaternary sector

The portion of the economy dedicated to managing, processing, and analyzing information, knowledge, and financial data.

Quinary sector

The portion of the economy involving top-level executive decisions, high-end research, and policy creation.

Least cost theory

Alfred Weber's economic model explaining that factories locate where they can minimize transportation and labor costs while maximizing agglomeration.

Bulk-reducing industry

An economic activity where the final product weighs less or takes up less volume than the raw inputs, leading factories to locate near resource sources.

Bulk-gaining industry

An economic activity where the final product is heavier or larger than the raw materials, driving factories to locate close to consumer markets.

Gross Domestic Product

The total dollar value of all final goods and services produced inside a nation's borders within a single year.

Human Development Index

A composite metric created by the UN combining life expectancy, education levels, and GNI per capita to gauge overall well-being.

Rostow's Stages of Economic Growth

A five-stage linear modernization model describing how societies transition from traditional agricultural foundations to high mass consumption.

Wallerstein's World Systems Theory

A dependency model dividing the global economy into core, semiperiphery, and periphery regions based on economic power and exploitation.

Outsourcing

The practice of contracting internal business processes or manufacturing operations to an external supplier or company.

Offshoring

Relocating business functions or factory production to a foreign country to reduce operational costs.

Export Processing Zone

A designated area within a country offering tax exemptions, reduced regulations, and infrastructure incentives to attract foreign manufacturing for export.

Stage 1 High Stationary

The demographic transition stage characterized by high birth rates and high, fluctuating death rates, resulting in very low overall population growth.

Stage 2 Early Expanding

The demographic transition stage characterized by high birth rates and rapidly declining death rates, causing rapid population growth due to improvements in nutrition, sanitation, and medicine.

Stage 3 Late Expanding

The demographic transition stage characterized by declining birth rates and slowly decreasing death rates, leading to slowing population growth as societies urbanize.

Stage 4 Low Stationary

The demographic transition stage characterized by low birth rates and low death rates, resulting in a stable or near-zero population growth rate.

Stage 5 Declining

The demographic transition stage characterized by birth rates falling below death rates, leading to an aging population and a net decrease in total population.