Untitled Flashcard Set

What is the scientific study of population characteristics called?

Demography.

What is carrying capacity?

The maximum population size of a species that the environment can sustain indefinitely.

What occurs when the number of people exceeds the capacity of the environment to support life at a decent standard of living?

Overpopulation.

What is the term for the portion of Earth's surface occupied by permanent human settlement?

Ecumene.

Name the four major population clusters.

East Asia, South Asia, Europe, Southeast Asia.

What are the three measures of population density used by geographers?

Arithmetic density, physiological density, agricultural density.

What does the natural increase rate (NIR) represent?

The percentage by which the population grows in a year.

What is the crude birth rate (CBR)?

Live births per year divided by 1000 people.

What is the crude death rate (CDR)?

The total number of deaths per year for every 1000 people alive in the society.

What is the infant mortality rate (IMR)?

The annual number of deaths of infants under 1 year of age, compared to total live births, expressed per 1,000 live births.

What does life expectancy measure?

The average number of years an individual can expect to live, given current social, economic, and medical conditions.

What is the total fertility rate (TFR)?

The average number of children a woman will have throughout her childbearing years.

What is the demographic transition?

A process of change in a society's population from high crude birth and death rates and low rates of natural increase to low crude birth and death rates, low rates of natural increase, and a higher total population.

What characterizes Stage 2 of the demographic transition?

High birth rates and rapidly declining death rates, leading to very high natural increase.

What characterizes Stage 3 of the demographic transition?

Declining birth rates and continuously declining death rates, resulting in moderate natural increase.

What characterizes Stage 4 of the demographic transition?

Very low birth and death rates with virtually no natural increase, sometimes leading to zero population growth or even decline.

What is Zero Population Growth (ZPG)?

A condition in which the crude birth rate equals the crude death rate, and natural increase approaches zero; often found in Stage 4 of the Demographic Transition Model.

What does the dependency ratio compare?

The number of people who are too young or too old to work compared to the number of people in their productive years.

What does a population pyramid visually represent?

The distribution of various age groups (cohorts) in a population, broken down by sex.

What was the health threat during Stage 1 of the epidemiologic transition?

Pestilence and famine.