Population Vocab (AP Human Geo)

Ecumene

the permanently inhabited portion of the earth’s surface

Fertility rate

the number of children a woman can have

Agricultural Revolution

The slow change from hunter and gatherer societies to more agriculturally based ones through the gradual understanding of seeds, watering, and plant care

Hearth

the geographic origin or center where a particular cultural trait, innovation, or practice begins and then spreads to other areas.

CBR

Crude Birth Rate, the number of live births per year for each 1,000 people

CDR

the number of deaths per year for each 1,000 people

NIR

the percentage at which a country’s population is growing or declining, without the impact of migration (CBR-CDR and then divide by 10)

Doubling time

the time it takes a population to double in size

Life expectancy

the number of years a person is expected to live

Industrial Revolution

A period of rapid development of industry that started in Great Britain in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It was brought about by the introduction of machinery and technology, such as steam power, which resulted in the growth of factories and the mass production of goods.

Arithmetic density

most popular population equation, calculated by dividing the total population of a region by its total area

Demographic transition

a tool demographers use to categorize countries' population growth rates and economic structures. The model analyzes birth rates, death rates, and total population trends in a society at a given point of time

Distance decay

as the distance between two places increases, the interaction between those two places decreases

Infant mortality rate

the number of children who die before their first birthday

Agricultural density

measures the number of farmers per unit area of farmland

Medical revolution

Medical technology invented in Europe and North America that is diffused to the poorer countries of Latin America, Asia, and Africa

Dependency ratio

a value comparing the working to the nonworking parts of the population

Zero popluation growth (negative)

occurs when the number of people who die and emigrate out of a country equals the number of people who are born or immigrate into a country. This means that there is no net change, which means that the number of people born equals the number of people who have died

Thomas Malthus

British reverend who concluded that population was growing at a faster rate than productivity in the late 1700s; coined the term overpopulation.

Carrying capacity

the number of people a region can support without damaging the environment

Population pyramid

show the age and sex demographics of a particular country, city, or neighborhood

Neo-Malthusians

people that still accept Malthus’ fundamental premise as correct today

Sex ratio

the number of males per 100 females

Density

the measurement of how tightly clustered or packed together something is; population density: the number of people in an area together