Unit 3: Managing Human Population Practice Flashcards

Comprehensive Question and Answer flashcards for Unit 3: Managing Human Population, covering World Bank vs UN indicators, growth theories, density calculations, DTM stages, dependency ratios, aging population impacts, and case studies (Niger, Japan, South Korea, China).

How does the World Bank define Gross National Income (GNI) per capita?

The dollar value of a country's total income divided by its population.

What three income groups does the World Bank use to classify countries?

High-income countries (HICs), middle-income countries (MICs), and low-income countries (LICs).

Give one real-world example country for each of the World Bank's three income classifications.

HIC: United States (or Norway); MIC: Mexico (or Brazil); LIC: Niger (or Somalia).

What three dimensions and indicators are measured by the United Nations' Human Development Index (HDI)?

HDI measures a long and healthy life (life expectancy at birth), knowledge (expected and mean years of schooling), and a decent standard of living (GNI per capita).

Why do geographers argue that the Human Development Index (HDI) gives a fuller picture of country development than GNI per capita alone?

GNI per capita measures economic output alone, whereas HDI combines income with health (life expectancy) and education metrics, showing how economic resources translate into human quality of life.

What were the two major population growth spurts in human history, and what caused the second one?

1. The Agricultural Revolution about 10,000 years ago. 2. The Industrial Revolution in the 1700s, driven by advances in medicine, sanitation, and food production.

What is the current global human population, and at what size and time is it projected by the UN to peak?

The current world population is about $8.1\, \text{billion}$ people, and it is projected to peak at approximately $10.4\, \text{billion}$ around the year 2086 before beginning a slow decline.

What is the core premise of Thomas Malthus's population theory, and what is a Malthusian collapse?

Malthus argued that population grows exponentially while food production grows linearly; a Malthusian collapse occurs when population exceeds resource capacity, leading to natural checks like famine, war, and disease.

Why is Ester Boserup classified as a resource optimist?

Boserup posited that population pressure stimulates human ingenuity, innovation, and technological development, leading to higher land productivity and increased resource supply.

In the comparative model of population and food resources, how do Malthus and Boserup differ in their representation of food supply growth over time?

Malthus models food supply growth as a constant linear slope that gets overtaken by exponential population growth, whereas Boserup models food supply growth as a stepped curve that increases in response to population pressure.

What is the formula for calculating population density, and what are its standard units?

$\text{Population Density} = \frac{\text{Population}}{\text{Area}}$, expressed in $\text{people per km}^2$.

Calculate the population density of Nicaragua if it has a population of $6,000,000$ people and a land area of $130,370\, \text{km}^2$.

$\text{Population Density} = \frac{6,000,000}{130,370\, \text{km}^2} \approx 46.02\, \text{people per km}^2$.

What proportion of the global population lives on what percentage of Earth's land area, and where is the majority located?

About $90\%$ of the world's population lives on only about $10\%$ of the land area, with the vast majority located north of the equator.

What is the difference between push factors and pull factors in human migration?

Push factors are negative conditions (such as war, drought, poverty, or lack of jobs) that force people to leave a location, while pull factors are attractive conditions (such as job opportunities, safety, better healthcare, or education) that draw people to a new location.

Define Total Fertility Rate (TFR) and state current global and U.S. values.

TFR is the estimated average number of children a woman will have in her lifetime. Globally TFR is about $2.27$, and in the U.S. it is about $1.62$.

How does high infant mortality influence Total Fertility Rate (TFR) in LICs without biologically altering fertility?

High infant mortality creates a social dynamic where families have more children to ensure that some survive to adulthood to provide labor and elder care.

Why can Crude Death Rate (CDR) alone be a misleading indicator of a country's level of development?

HICs like Japan ($12.7$ per 1,000) or Germany ($12.4$ per 1,000) often have higher CDRs than LICs because they have much older populations, whereas infant mortality and birth rates better reflect underlying healthcare, sanitation, and living standards.

What do a wide-based pyramid, a rectangular pyramid, and a narrow-based pyramid indicate about population growth?

A wide-based pyramid indicates rapid population growth (high TFR); a rectangular pyramid indicates a stable population (low birth and death rates); a narrow-based pyramid indicates a declining and aging population.

What are the birth rate, death rate, and growth characteristics of Stage 1 (Pre-Industrial) in the DTM?

High birth rate and high death rate, resulting in very low/stable population growth, driven by high infant mortality, sporadic famine, disease, and reliance on subsistence farming.

What causes rapid population growth in Stage 2 (Industrializing / Early Expanding) of the DTM?

Death rates drop rapidly due to improved nutrition, healthcare, clean water, and sanitation, while birth rates remain high.

Why do birth rates begin to fall in Stage 3 (Mature Industrial / Late Expanding) of the DTM?

Birth rates fall due to expanded family planning, increased education and employment opportunities for women, urbanization, and a reduced need for child farm labor.

Contrast birth rates, death rates, and population trends between Stage 4 and Stage 5 of the DTM.

Stage 4 (Post-Industrial) has low birth and death rates with a stable population; Stage 5 (Natural Decrease) has birth rates falling below death rates, resulting in an aging and shrinking population.

State the formula used to calculate the Dependency Ratio.

$$\text{Dependency Ratio} = \frac{\% \text{ aged } 0\text{--}14 + \% \text{ aged } 65+}{\% \text{ aged } 15\text{--}64} \times 100$$

If a country has $14.9\%$ aged 0–14, $13.9\%$ aged 65+, and $71.2\%$ aged 15–64, calculate its dependency ratio.

$\text{Dependency Ratio} = \frac{14.9 + 13.9}{71.2} \times 100 = \frac{28.8}{71.2} \times 100 \approx 40.45$ dependents per 100 working-age people.

What are four critical economic and social impacts of an aging/declining population listed in the curriculum?

1. Lower tax revenues. 2. Higher pension spending. 3. Increased pressure on healthcare systems. 4. Government pressure to raise the retirement age.

Define pronatalist and anti-natalist population policies and give two example strategies for each.

Pronatalist policies encourage higher birth rates (e.g., paid parental leave, baby bonuses, subsidized daycare); anti-natalist policies encourage lower birth rates (e.g., subsidized contraception, family planning education, raising legal marriage age).

Describe the demographic profile of Niger and list three factors driving its high TFR ($6\text{--}7$ children per woman).

Niger is an LIC with over $70\%$ of its population under age 25; key drivers include early marriage (76% married before 18), low contraceptive access, limited educational/economic opportunities for women, and reliance on children for agricultural labor.

What demographic challenges does Japan face, and what policy responses has it implemented?

Japan faces a shrinking population (peaked at 128M in 2005) with 1 in 5 over age 60 and a TFR of $1.36$; policies include pension reforms, raising the retirement age from 65 to 70 (in 2021), and gradually expanding foreign worker immigration.

How did South Korea's TFR change between 1960 and 2023, and how effective were its pronatalist policies?

South Korea's anti-natalist campaign dropped TFR from $6.1$ in 1960 ($60\text{--}70$ infant deaths per 1,000) to $2.8$ by 1980; despite spending over $\$200\, \text{billion}$ on pronatalist incentives (subsidized childcare, parental leave, tax credits), TFR plummeted to a world-low $0.78$ in 2023.

What was China's demographic trajectory before and after the One-Child Policy (1979), and what is a key long-term social impact?

China's TFR dropped from $5.9$ (1960) to $2.9$ (1979) under the voluntary Late, Few, Long campaign before the One-Child Policy was imposed; policy impacts included severe gender imbalance ($32.5\, \text{million}$ more men than women aged 5–39 in 2020), workforce shrinkage, and a rapidly aging population.

In Cambridge exam questions, what is required for the command words Describe, Explain, and Evaluate?

Describe requires stating observable facts/patterns (what); Explain requires giving reasons/causes (why); Evaluate requires weighing pros/cons, assessing effectiveness, and forming a balanced judgment backed by evidence/case studies.