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Flashcards about Human Population: A Global Perspective.

Push factor

Factors that induce people to leave old residences.

Refugees

People who have been forced to migrate from their homes and cannot return for fear of persecution because of their race, religion, nationality, membership in a social group, or political opinion.

Rust Belt

Parts of the northeastern and midwestern US that are characterized by declining industry, aging factories, and a falling population.

Sun Belt

A region of the United States generally considered to stretch across the Southeast and Southwest.

Total fertility rate

The average number of children that would be born to a woman over her lifetime if she were to experience the exact current age-specific fertility rates through her lifetime, and survive from birth to the end of her reproductive life.

Voluntary migration

Migration in which people relocate by free will.

Zero population growth

A condition of demographic balance where the number of people in a specified population neither grows nor declines.

Demography

The study of human populations.

Demographers

People who study population.

Doubling time

The time it will take for a population to double.

Child mortality rate

Number of deaths per thousand children within the first five years of life.

Cohort

A population group unified by a specific common characteristic, such as age, and subsequently treated as a statistical unit.

Cotton Belt

The term by which the American South used to be known, as cotton historically dominated the agricultural economy of the region. The same area is now known as the New South or Sun Belt because people have migrated here from older cities in the industrial north for a better climate and new job opportunities.

Crude birth rate

The number of live births per year per thousand people.

Crude death rate

The number of deaths per year per thousand people.

Demographic accounting equation

An equation that summarizes the amount of growth or decline in a population within a country during a particular time period, taking into account both natural increase and net migration.

Demographic transition model

A sequence of demographic changes in which a country moves from high birth and death rates to low birth and death rates through time.

Demography

The study of human populations, including their temporal and spatial dynamics.

Dependency ratio

The ratio of the number of people who are either too old or too young to provide for themselves to the number of people who must support them through their own labor.

Doubling time

Time period required for a population experiencing exponential growth to double in size completely.

Emigration

The process of moving out of a particular country, usually the individual person's country of origin.

Epidemiological transition

Sudden population growth as a result of improved food security and health care, followed by a plateau in growth because of subsequent declines in fertility rates.

Exponential growth

Growth that occurs when a fixed percentage of new people is added to a population each year. Exponential growth is compound because the fixed growth rate applies to an ever-increasing population.

Forced migration

The migration event in which individuals are forced to leave a country against their will.

Generation X

A term coined by artist and author Douglas Coupland to describe people born in the United States between the years 1965 and 1980. This post-baby boom generation will have to support the baby boom cohort as they head into their retirement years.

Geodemography

See population geography.

Immigration

The process of individuals moving into a new country with the intention of remaining there.

Infant mortality rate

The percentage of children who die before their first birthday.

Internal migration

The permanent or semipermanent movement of individuals within a particular country.

Intervening obstacles

Any forces or factors that may limit human migration.

Involuntary migration

See forced migration.

Life expectancy

The average age individuals are expected to live, which varies across space, between genders, and even between races.

Thomas Malthus

Author of Essay on the Principle of Population (1798) who claimed that population grows at an exponential rate while food production increases arithmetically, and thereby that, eventually, population growth would outpace food production.

Maternal mortality rate

Number of deaths per thousand of women giving birth.

Migration

A long-term move of a person from one political jurisdiction to another.

Natural increase rate

The difference between the number of births and number of deaths within a particular country.

Neo-Malthusian

Advocacy of population-control programs to ensure enough resources for current and future populations.

Overpopulation

A value judgment based on the notion that the resources of a particular area are not great enough to support that area's current population.

Physiologic density

A ratio of human population to the area of cropland, used in developed countries dominated by subsistence agriculture.

Population density

A measurement of the number of persons per unit of land area.

Population geography

A division of human geography concerned with spatial variations in distribution, composition, growth, and movements of population.

Population pyramid

A model used in population geography to show the age and sex distribution of a particular population.

Pull factors

Attractions that draw migrants to a certain place, such as a pleasant climate and employment or educational opportunities.

Push factors

Incentives for potential migrants to leave a place, such as a harsh climate, economic recession, or political turmoil.

Refugees

People who leave their home because they are forced out, but not because they are being officially relocated or enslaved.

Rust Belt

The northern industrial states of the United States, including Ohio, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, in which heavy industry was once the dominant economic activity. In the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, these states lost much of their economic base to economically attractive regions of the United States and to countries where labor was cheaper, leaving old machinery to rust in the moist northern climate.

Sun Belt

US region, mostly comprising southeastern and southwestern states, which has grown most dramatically since World War II.

Total fertility rate

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

Voluntary migration

Movement of an individual who consciously and voluntarily decides to locate to a new area—the opposite of forced migration.

Zero population growth

Proposal to end population growth through a variety of official and nongovern