Agricultural density
The ratio of the number of farmers to the total amount of arable land.
Antinatalist policy
Government policy that supports lower birth rates.
Arable land
Land suited for agriculture.
Arithmetic density
The total number of people divided by the total land area.
Carrying capacity
The population size of a species that the environment can sustain indefinitely, given the available resources.
Census
A complete enumeration of a population.
Crude birth rate (CBR)
The total number of live births in a year for every 1,000 people alive in the society.
Crude death rate (CDR)
The total number of deaths in a year for every 1,000 people alive in the society.
Demographic transition
The process of change in a society’s population from a condition of high crude birth and death rates and low rate of natural increase to a condition of low crude birth and death rates, low rate of natural increase, and higher total population.
Demography
The scientific study of population characteristics.
Dependency ratio
The number of people under the age of 15 and over 64 compared to the number of people active in the labor force.
Doubling time
The number of years needed to double a population, assuming a constant rate of natural increase.
Ecumene
The portion of the Earth’s surface occupied by permanent human settlement.
Epidemic
A widespread occurrence of an infectious disease in a community at a particular time.
Epidemiological transition
The process of change in the distinctive causes of death in each stage of the demographic transition.
Epidemiology
The branch of medical science concerned with the incidence, distribution, and control of diseases that are prevalent among a population at a special time and are produced by some special causes not generally present in the affected locality.
Industrial Revolution
A series of improvements in industrial technology that transformed the process of manufacturing goods.
Infant mortality rate (IMR)
The total number of deaths in a year among infants under 1 year of age for every 1,000 live births in a society.
Life expectancy
The average number of years a person is expected to live, given current social, economic, and medical conditions. Life expectancy at birth is the number of years a newborn infant can expect to live.
Maternal mortality rate
The annual number of female deaths per 100,000 live births from any cause related to or aggravated by pregnancy or its management (excluding accidental or incidental causes).
Medical revolution
Medical technology invented in Europe and North America that has diffused to the poorer countries in Latin America, Asia, and Africa. Improved medical practices have eliminated many of the traditional causes of death in poorer countries and enabled more people to live longer and healthier lives.
Natural increase rate (NIR)
The percentage growth of a population in a year, computer as the crude birth rate minus the crude death rate.
Overpopulation
A situation in which the number of people in an area exceeds the capacity of the environment to support life at a decent standard of living.
Pandemic
An epidemic that occurs over a wide geographic area and affects a very high proportion of the population at the same time.
Physiological density
The number of people per unit of arable land.
Population pyramid
A bar graph that represents the distribution of population by age and sex.
Potential support ratio
The number of working age people (ages 15-64) divided by the number of persons 65 and older.
Pronatalist policy
Government policy that supports higher birth rates.
Sex ratio
The number of males per 100 females in the population.
Total fertility rate (TFR)
The average number of children a woman will have throughout her childbearing years.
Zero population growth
A decline of the total fertility rate to the point where the natural increase rate equals zero.