Unit 2: Population & Migration Vocabulary

Population Density

The average number of people per unit of land area; the number of people in a space.

Arithmetic (Crude) Density

The average number of people per unit of land area (usually per square miles or kilometer).

Provides an average density with no additional information.

Physiological Density

The average number of people per unit of arable land (usually per square mile or kilometer).

Provides insight into whether people can sustain themselves. The greater the physiological density, the greater the pressure on the land and its resources.

Agricultural Density

The number of farmers per unit of arable land.

Reveals a country’s wealth. The lower the agricultural density, the wealthier a country.

Ecumene

The portion of Earth’s surface with permanent human settlement.

Settlement is influenced by human and physical characteristics.

Carrying Capacity

The number of people a particular environment can support on a sustainable basis; the relationship between the population size of an area and the area’s resources.

Population Pyramids

A pyramid that represents the breakdown of a population by age and sex at a given point in time.

Population Distribution

The pattern in which humans are spread out on Earth’s surface.

Population distribution relates to where people are located and how it affects cultural, political, economic, and environmental conditions in the area.

Sex Ratio

The number of males per 100 females in a population.

Demographics

The study of population

Fertility Rate

The total number of live births, regardless of the age of the mother, per 1,000 women of reproductive age (15-49 years of age).

Mortality Rate

The number of deaths in a population divided by the total population per unit of time.

Maternal Mortality Rate

The number of maternal deaths in an area per 100,000 resident live births.

Infant Mortality Rate

The number of infant deaths for every 1,000 live births.

Total Fertility Rate (TFR)

The average number of children born per woman during her reproductive lifetime (15-49 years of age).

A TFR of 2.1 will stabilize a population.

Crude Death Rate (CDR)

The number of deaths per year per 1,000 people in a population.

Crude Birth Rate (CBR)

The number of births per year per 1,000 people in a population.

Natural Increase Rate (NIR or RNI)

The difference between the number of births and deaths in a year, when expressed as a percentage of the total population; the percent by which a population grows in a year.

Pandemic

An outbreak of a disease that occurs over a wide geographic area and typically affects a significant portion of the population.

Migration

The permanent or semipermanent movement of people from one place to another.

Demographic Transition Model (DTM)

A model that represents how crude birth rate and crude death rate as well as the resulting rate of natural increase change over time as countries go through industrialization and urbanization.

Epidemiological Transitional Model (ETM)

A model that describes changes in fertility, mortality, life expectancy and population age distribution largely as the result of changes in cause of death.

Malthusian Theory

Malthus’ theory that population tends to increase at a faster rate than its means of sustenance and that, unless it is checked by moral restraint or disaster, widespread poverty and degradation inevitably result.

Pronatalist Policies

Policies designed to increase fertility rates and ultimately population growth.

Antinatalist Policies

Policies designed to curtain population growth by reducing fertility rates.

Ravenstein’s Laws of Migration

1. Migrants move only short distances.

2. Migration occurs in steps.

3. While women are more likely to migrate internally, most international migrants are young, single, adult males seeking employment.

4. Every migration flow has a counter flow.

5. Most migration throughout history and now is from rural areas to urban areas.

6. Long distance migrants move to urban areas.

7. Economic factors are the main cause of migration.

Dependency Ratio

The number of dependents in a population that each 100 working-age people (ages 15 to 64) must support.

Push Factors

Factors that cause people to be dissatisfied with their present location and want to move somewhere else.

Pull Factors

The attributes of other places that make them appealing to potential migrants.

Voluntary Migration

Migration that is done willingly by one’s own choice.

Forced Migration

Migration done unwillingly due to factors outside of one’s control that incite fears of violence and for one’s survival.

Involuntary/forced migration does NOT involve economic factors.

Transnational Migration

Migration from one country to another.

Transhumance Migration

Migration where herders and their livestock move between highland pastures in warm seasons and low pastures the rest of the year; nomadic migration; seasonal movement of livestock.

Chain Migration

Migration to a location based on cultural ties; the process by which some people’s migration to a new place leads their family members, friends, and others to move to the same place.

Step (Stepwise) Migration

Migration carried out in a series of small movements, usually from nearby to bigger and more distant places.

Guest Worker

International migrants with temporary permission to work in another country.

Brain Drain

A phenomenon where a country or place loses young, more educated and skilled people through migration.

Rural to Urban Migration

When people move from the countryside to cities.

Net Migration

The difference between the number of immigrants and emigrants of a country.

Net-In Migration

When more individuals immigrate to an area than emigrate from the area.

Positive net migration.

Net-Out Migration

When more individuals emigrate from an area than immigrate to the area.

Negative net migration.

Doubling Time

The number of years it takes for a population to double in size.

Immigration

The movement into an area.

Emigration

The movement out of an area.

Refugees

A person who is forced to leave their country because of fears of persecution, war or violence.

Internally Displaced Persons

Someone who is forced to flee their home but never crosses an international border.

Asylum Seekers

Someone who flees their country and seeks asylum in another country.

Asylum seekers must demonstrate that their fears of persecution in their country of origin are well-founded and must await a decision made on their asylum claim.

Quota Laws

Laws which control the number of non-citizens permitted to become legal citizens of a country every year.

Remittance

Money sent back to a migrant worker’s country of origin.

Intervening Obstacles

Barriers that hold migrants back and prevent migrants from reaching their destination.

Intervening Opportunities

Opportunities that cause migrants to voluntarily stop traveling.