AP Human Geography Exam

Units 1-7, Barron's 2025 AP Test Prep

AGLOMERATION

Grouping together of many firms in the same industry in a single area for collective or cooperative use of infrastructure and sharing of resources.

ANCILLARY ACTIVITIES/MULTIPLIER EFFECT

Economic activities that surround and support large-scale industries such as shipping and food service.

BACKWASH EFFECTS

The negative effects on one region that result from economic growth within another region.

BREAK-BULK POINT

A location where large shipments are broken up into smaller containers for delivery to local markets.

BRICK-AND-MORTAR BUSINESSES

Traditional businesses with actual stores in which trade or retail occurs; they do not exist solely on the internet.

BULK-GAINING INDUSTRIES

Industries whose products weigh more after assembly than they did previously in their constituent parts. Such industries tend to have production facilities close to their markets.

BULK-REDUCING INDUSTRIES

Industries whose final products weigh less than their constituent parts, and whose processing facilities tend to be located close to sources of raw materials.

COMMODITY DEPENDENCE

When peripheral economies rely too heavily on the export of raw materials, which places them on unequal terms of exchange with more-developed countries that export higher-value goods.

CONGLOMERATE CORPORATION

A firm comprising many smaller firms that serve several different functions.

CORE

National or global regions where economic power, in terms of wealth, innovation, and advanced technology, is concentrated.

CORE-PERIPHERY MODEL

A model of the spatial structure of development in which under-developed countries are defined by their dependence on a developed core region.

COTTAGE INDUSTRY

An industry in which the production of goods and services is based in homes, as opposed to factories.

DEGLOMERATION

The dispersal of an industry that formerly existed in an established agglomeration.

DEINDUSTRIALIZATION

Loss of industrial activity in a region.

DEVELOPMENT

The process of economic growth, expansion, or realization of regional resource potential.

E-COMMERCE

Web-based economic activities.

ECONOMIC BACKWATERS

Regions that fail to gain from national economic development.

ECOTOURISM

A form of tourism, based on the enjoyment of scenic areas or natural wonders, that aims to provide an experience of nature or culture in an environmentally sustainable way.

EXPORT-PROCESSING ZONE

Area where governments create favorable investment and trading conditions to attract export-oriented industries.

FAST WORLD

Areas of the world, usually the economic core, that experience greater levels of connection due to high-speed telecommunications and transportation technologies.

FOOTLOOSE FIRMS

Manufacturing activities in which the cost of transporting both raw materials and finished product is not important for determining the location of the firm.

FORDISM

System of standardized mass production attributed to Henry Ford.

FOREIGN INVESTMENTS

Overseas business investments made by private companies.

GENDER EQUITY

A measure of the opportunities given to women compared to men within a given country.

GLOBALIZATION

The idea that the world is becoming increasingly interconnected on a global scale such that smaller scales of political and economic life are becoming obsolete.

GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT

The total value of goods and services produced within the borders of a country during a specific time period, usually one year.

GROSS NATIONAL PRODUCT

The total value of goods and services, including income received from abroad, produced by the residents of a country within a specific time period, usually one year.

HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INDEX

Measure used by the United Nations that calculates development not in terms of money or productivity but in terms of human welfare. The HDI evaluates human welfare based on three parameters: life expectancy, education, and income.

INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

The rapid economic and social changes in manufacturing that resulted after the introduction of the factory system to the textile industry in England at the end of the 18th century.

INDUSTRIALIZATION

Process of industrial development in which countries evolve economically, from producing basic, primary goods to using modern factories for mass-producing goods. At the highest levels of development, national economies are geared mainly toward the delivery of services and exchange of information.

INDUSTRIALIZED COUNTRIES

Those countries, including Britain, France, the United States, Russia, Germany, and Japan, that were all at the forefront of industrial production and innovation through the middle of the 20th century.

LEAST-COST THEORY

A concept developed by Alfred Weber to describe the optimal location of a manufacturing establishment in relation to the costs of transport and labor, and the relative advantages of agglomeration or deglomeration.

LEAST-DEVELOPED COUNTRIES

Those countries, including countries in Africa (except for South Africa), parts of South America, and Asia, that usually have low levels of economic productivity, low per-capita incomes, and generally low standards of living.

MANUFACTURING REGION

A region in which manufacturing activities have clustered together. The major US industrial region has historically been in the Great Lakes, which includes the states of Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, New York, and Pennsylvania.

MAQUILADORAS

Cities where US firms have factories just outside the United States Mexican border in areas that have been specially designated by the Mexican government.

MICROLENDING

A provision of small loans to poorer people, typically women, to encourage the development of small businesses that are often community-oriented.

NET NATIONAL PRODUCT

A measure of all goods and services produced by a country in a year, including production from its investments abroad, minus the loss or degradation of natural resource capital as a result of productivity.

NONRENEWABLE RESOURCES

Natural resources, such as fossil fuels, that do not replenish themselves in a timeframe that is relevant for human consumption.

OFFSHORE FINANCIAL CENTERS

Areas that have been specially designed to promote business transactions, and thus have become centers for banking and finance.

OUTSOURCING

Sending industrial processes out for external production. The term outsourcing increasingly applies not only to traditional industrial functions but also to the contracting of service industry functions to companies to overseas locations, where operating costs remain relatively low.

PERIPHERY

Countries that usually have low levels of economic productivity, low per-capita incomes, and generally low standards of living. The world economic periphery includes Africa (except for South Africa), parts of South America, and Asia.

PRIMARY ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES

Economic activities in which natural resources are made available for use or further processing, including mining, agriculture, forestry, and fishing.

PRODUCTIVITY

A measure of the goods and services produced within a particular country.

PURCHASING-POWER PARITY

A monetary measurement of development that takes into account what money buys in different countries.

QUATERNARY ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES

Economic activities concerned with research, information gathering, and administration.

QUINARY ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES

The most advanced form of quaternary activities consisting of high-level decision-making for large corporations or high-level scientific research.

REGIONALIZATION

The process by which specific regions acquire characteristics that differentiate them from others within the same country. In economic geography, regionalization involves the development of dominant economic activities in particular regions.

RENEWABLE RESOURCES

Any natural resource that can replenish itself in a relatively short period of time, usually no longer than the length of a human life.

ROSTOW'S STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT (ECONOMIC GROWTH)

A model of economic development that describes a country's progression, which occurs in five stages, transforming them from least-developed to most-developed countries.

SECONDARY ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES

Economic activities concerned with the processing of raw materials, such as manufacturing, construction, and power generation.

SEMIPERIPHERY

Those newly industrialized countries with median standards of living, such as Chile, Brazil, India, China, and Indonesia. Semiperipheral countries offer their citizens relatively diverse economic opportunities but also have extreme gaps between rich and poor.

SERVICE-BASED ECONOMIES

Highly developed economies that focus on research and development, marketing, tourism, sales, and telecommunications.

SLOW WORLD

The developing world that does not experience the benefits of high-speed telecommunications and transportation technology.

SPATIALLY FIXED COSTS

An input cost in manufacturing that remains constant wherever production is located.

SPATIALLY VARIABLE COSTS

An input cost in manufacturing that changes significantly from place to place in its total amount and in its relative share of total costs.

SPECIALTY GOODS

Goods that are not mass-produced but rather assembled individually or in small quantities.

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

The idea that people living today should be able to meet their needs without prohibiting the ability of future generations to do the same.

TERTIARY ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES

Activities that provide the market exchange of goods and that bring together consumers and providers of services, such as retail, transportation, government, personal, and professional services.

TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATION

A firm that conducts business in at least two separate countries; also known as multinational corporations.

WORLD CITIES

A group of cities that form an interconnected, internationally dominant system of global control of finance and commerce.

WORLD-SYSTEMS THEORY

Theory developed by Immanuel Wallerstein that explains the emergence of a core, periphery, and semiperiphery in terms of economic and political connections first established at the beginning of exploration in the late 15th century and maintained through increased economic access until the present.

ABSOLUTE DISTANCE

A distance that can be measured with a standard unit of length, such as a mile or kilometer.

ABSOLUTE LOCATION

The exact position of an object or place, measured within the spatial coordinates of a grid system.

ACCESSIBILITY

The relative ease with which a destination may be reached from some other place.

AGGREGATION

To come together into a mass, sum, or whole.

AZIMUTHAL PROJECTION

A map projection in which the plane is the most developable surface.

BREAKING POINT

The outer edge of a city's sphere of influence, used in the law of retail gravitation to describe the area of a city's hinterlands that depend on that city for its retail supplies.

CARTOGRAMS

A type of thematic map that transforms space such that the political unit with the greatest value for some type of data is represented by the largest relative area.

CARTOGRAPHY

The theory and practice of making visual representations of Earth's surface in the form of maps.

CHOROPLETH MAP

A thematic map that uses tones or colors to represent spatial data as average values per unit area.

COGNITIVE MAP

An image of a portion of Earth's surface that an individual creates in his or her mind.

COMPLEMENTARITY

The actual or potential relationship between two places, usually referring to economic interactions.

CONNECTIVITY

The degree of economic, social, cultural, or political connection between two places.

CONTAGIOUS DIFFUSION

The spread of a disease, an innovation, or cultural traits through direct contact with another person or another place.

COORDINATE SYSTEM

A standard grid, composed of lines of latitude and longitude, used to determine the absolute location of any object, place, or feature on Earth's surface.

CULTURAL ECOLOGY

Also called nature-society geography, the study of the interactions between societies and the natural environments in which they live.

CULTURAL LANDSCAPE

The human-modified natural landscape specifically containing the imprint of a particular culture or society.

DISTANCE DECAY EFFECT

The decrease in interaction between two phenomena, places, or people as the distance between them increases.

DOT MAPS

Thematic maps that use points to show the precise locations of specific observations or occurrences, such as crimes, car accidents, or births.

ENVIRONMENTAL GEOGRAPHY

The intersection between human and physical geography, which explores the spatial impacts humans have on the physical environment and vice versa.

EXPANSION DIFFUSION

The spread of ideas, innovations, fashion, or other phenomena to surrounding areas through contact and exchange.

FORMAL REGION

Definition of regions based on common themes such as similarities in language, climate, land use, etc.

FRICTION OF DISTANCE

A measure of how much absolute distance affects the interaction between two places.

FULLER PROJECTION

A type of map projection that maintains the accurate size and shape of landmasses but completely rearranges direction such that the four cardinal directions-north, south, east, and west-no longer have any meaning.

FUNCTIONAL REGION

Definition of regions based on common interaction (or function)-for example, a boundary line drawn around the circulation of a particular newspaper.

GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS (GIS)

A set of computer tools used to capture, store, transform, analyze, and display geographic data.

GEOGRAPHIC SCALE

The scale at which a geographer analyzes a particular phenomenon-for example, global, national, census tract, neighborhood, etc.

GLOBAL POSITIONING SYSTEM (GPS)

A set of satellites used to help determine location anywhere on Earth's surface with a portable electronic device.

GRAVITY MODEL

A mathematical formula that describes the level of interaction between two places, based on the size of their populations and their distance from each other.

HIERARCHICAL DIFFUSION

A type of diffusion in which something is transmitted between places because of a physical or cultural community between those places.

HUMAN GEOGRAPHY

The study of the spatial variation in the patterns and processes related to human activity.

INTERNATIONAL DATE LINE

The line of longitude that marks where each new day begins, centered on the 180th meridian.

INTERVENING OPPORTUNITY

If one place has a demand for some good or service and two places have a supply of equal price and quality, the supplier closer to the buyer will represent an intervening opportunity, thereby blocking the third from being able to share its supply of goods or services.

ISOLINE

A map line that connects points of equal or very similar values.

LARGE SCALE

A relatively small ratio between map units and ground units. Large-scale maps usually have higher resolution and cover much smaller regions than small-scale maps.

LATITUDE

The angular distance north or south of the equator, defined by lines of latitude or parallels.

LAW OF RETAIL GRAVITATION

A law stating that people will be drawn to larger cities to conduct their business since larger cities have a wider influence on the surrounding hinterlands.

LOCATION CHART

On a map, a chart or graph that gives specific statistical information about a particular political unit or jurisdiction.

LONGITUDE

The angular distance east or west of the prime meridian, defined by lines of longitude, or meridians.

MAP PROJECTION

A mathematical method that involves transferring Earth's sphere onto a flat surface. This term can also be used to describe the type of map that results from the process of projecting.