Lecture Notes Review: Demography and Population

Vocabulary flashcards generated from lecture notes on key demographic and population concepts.

Anthropocene Period

A period in which human activities have had the dominant influence on the environment.

Demography

Statistical study of population and its change.

Ecumene

Portion of Earth's surface with permanent human settlement.

Metacities

Cities with more than 20 million residents.

Megacities

Cities with more than 10 million people.

Snow Belt

States located in the northern and Midwestern parts of the country.

Sun Belt

South and Southwest states, from California to Florida.

Mean Center of Population

The balancing point given the distribution of population.

Population Density

Average number of people per unit of land area.

Arithmetic (Crude) Density

Average number of people per unit of land area (usually per square mile or km).

Physiological Density

Average number of people per unit area (a square mile or km) of arable land.

Arable Land

Land suitable for cultivation.

Agricultural Density

Number of farmers per unit of arable land.

Carrying Capacity

Number of people a particular environment or Earth as a whole can support on a sustainable basis.

Population Composition

Makeup of the population by age and sex, as well as by ethnic, racial, income, and educational background.

Age Structure

Refers to the breakdown of a population into different age groups, or cohorts.