AP Human Geography Unit 2: Populations and Migration Patterns and Processes

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering population distribution, density metrics, demographic models, Malthusian theories, and global migration patterns based on AP Human Geography Unit 2 lecture notes.

Demographics

Statistical data relating to the characteristics of human populations, including numbers such as age, gender, and birth or death rates.

Population Distribution

The spatial pattern of where people live across local, national, and global scales, influenced by environmental, economic, historical, and resource factors.

Population Density

The average number of people occupying a given unit of land area or space.

Arithmetic Density

The total number of people divided by the total land area in square miles; the most commonly used general measure of population density.

Physiological Density

The number of people divided by the area of arable land, indicating the capacity of farming land to support human food access.

Agricultural Density

The ratio of the number of farmers to the total amount of arable land, which often reflects a region's economic and technological development.

Carrying Capacity

The maximum population size of a species that a specific environment can sustainably support without undergoing environmental degradation or resource exhaustion.

Ecumene

The permanently inhabited portion of the Earth's surface where humans have built settlements and permanent structures, covering approximately $10\%\text{--}14\%$ of the planet.

Population Geography

The study of population growth, decline, distribution, and impacts on the Earth (geodemography), focusing on births, deaths, and life expectancy.

Doubling Time

The time required for a population to double in size at its current annual growth rate (calculated by dividing life expectancy of $75$ by the growth rate).

Crude Birth Rate (CBR)

The total number of live births occurring in a given year per $1{,}000$ people in a population.

Total Fertility Rate (TFR)

The average number of children a woman will bear during her childbearing years, typically measured between the ages of $15$ and $49$.

Crude Death Rate (CDR)

The total number of deaths occurring in a year per $1{,}000$ people in a population, influenced by healthcare, disease, war, and natural disasters.

Infant Mortality Rate (IMR)

The number of infant deaths under $1$ year of age occurring per $1{,}000$ live births within a given year.

Life Expectancy

The average number of years a newborn infant can expect to live based on current mortality levels in a society.

Natural Increase Rate (NIR)

The percentage by which a population grows or declines in a year, calculated as $\text{CBR} - \text{CDR} = \text{NIR}$, excluding the effects of migration.

Baby Boom

A significant demographic spike in births following World War II between $1945$ and $1960$, during which nearly $80\text{ million}$ babies were born in the United States.

Thomas Malthus

A British demographer who theorized in an essay in the late 1700s that population increases exponentially while food production increases arithmetically, leading to inevitable starvation and war without 'moral restraint.'

Neo-Malthusian

A contemporary school of thought arguing that rapid global population growth will inevitably exceed Earth's carrying capacity and cause catastrophic resource scarcity.

Demographic Transition Model (DTM)

A five-stage geographic model first proposed by Warren Thompson in the 1930s illustrating how countries transition from high birth and death rates to low birth and death rates as they industrialize.

Epidemiological Transition Model (ETM)

A model introduced in the 1970s that traces demographic shifts and population decline stages strictly through causes of death, disease patterns, and health care developments.

Antinatalist Policy

Government policies designed to discourage births and slow population growth, typically justified by concerns over finite resources and overpopulation.

Pronatalist Policy

Government policies intended to encourage childbearing and accelerate population growth to counter an aging population and a shrinking workforce.

One Child Policy

An antinatalist policy enacted in China in $1979$ that restricted families to a single child to slow rapid population growth, resulting in severe demographic imbalances before ending in $2015$.

Human Migration

The permanent movement of people from one geographical location to another.

Emigration

The permanent movement of people OUT of a specific location or country of origin.

Immigration

The permanent movement of people INTO a new destination location or country.

Net Migration

The mathematical difference between the number of immigrants entering an area and the number of emigrants leaving that area ($+/-$).

Ernst Ravenstein

A 19th-century demographer who developed foundational 'laws' of migration, identifying economic opportunity as the chief motivation for migration.

Gravity Model

A geographic model stating that economic opportunity is the primary factor attracting migrants to larger urban centers, followed by the factor of distance.

Push and Pull Factors

Forces that influence migration: push factors are unfavorable conditions driving people away from a location, while pull factors are favorable conditions attracting people toward a destination.

Voluntary Migration

Movement undertaken by migrants out of their own personal choice, such as Europeans moving in search of industrial employment.

Forced Migration

Involuntary movement imposed upon individuals by external authority, violence, or political power, such as the Atlantic slave trade.

Transnational Migration

A pattern of international migration in which migrants settle in a new country but actively maintain cultural, financial, and personal ties to their home country by returning to visit and sending money.

Internal Migration

Permanent relocation from one region to another within the national boundaries of the same country (e.g., the Great Migration of African Americans from the rural South to northern cities).

Chain Migration

A migration process where the movement of initial migrants prompts friends, relatives, and community members from the same origin to follow them to the same destination.

Step Migration

A migration process that occurs in a series of shorter stages or stops from an origin to a final destination rather than one direct journey.

Intervening Obstacle

An environmental, financial, or political barrier that prevents, hinders, or delays the successful progress of migration.

Guest Worker

A legal immigrant who receives temporary authorization to live and work in a foreign country for a designated period before returning home (e.g., the Bracero Program).

Circular Migration

The continuous, repetitive movement of a migrant back and forth between two or more places, typically driven by seasonal employment opportunities.

Refugee

An individual who is forced to leave their country of nationality to escape war, persecution, violence, or natural disaster without officially being resettled.

Asylum

Formal legal protection and assistance granted by a sovereign nation to an international migrant fleeing political violence or persecution in their homeland.

Internally Displaced Person (IDP)

A person who has been forced to abandon their home due to conflict, disaster, or persecution but remains within the borders of their home nation.

Repatriate

The formal act of returning a migrant, refugee, or displaced person back to their country of origin or birth.

Nativist

A domestic-born resident or citizen who strongly advocates for anti-immigrant legislation and policies to protect established societal interests.

Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)

The first major federal legislation in United States history enacted specifically to ban and restrict the immigration of a specific ethnic group.

Ellis Island

A federal inspection station located in New York Harbor that served as the primary gateway for millions of immigrants entering the United States.

Remittances

Transfers of money earned by migrant workers sent back across international borders directly to support families and economies in their country of origin.

Brain Drain

The large-scale emigration of highly educated, skilled, and specialized professionals (such as doctors and technology specialists) from developing nations to wealthier states.

Relocation Diffusion

The spatial spread of cultural practices, language, beliefs, or innovations that occurs when individuals physically migrate from one location to another.