HGAP unit 2

module 2.7-2.17

Anthropocene

The period in which human activities

have had the dominant influence on the environment.

Demography

The statistical study of population and its change.

Population distribution

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

Eurasia

A massive piece of land on Earth that consists of Europe and Asia.

Metacity:

A city with more than 20 million residents.

Megacity:

A city with more than 10 million residents.

Developed (or industrialized) country.

A country with an advanced economy and a high standard of living

Developing (or industrializing) countries:

Countries that are of relatively low income or economically poorer than developed countries.

Snow Belt:

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

Sunbelt:

States in coastal areas and the South and Southwest.

Mean center of population:

The balancing point given the distribution of population.

Elevation:

The distance above sea level.

Population density

: The average number of people per unit of land area.

Arithmetic (crude) density

: The average number of people per unit of land

area (usually per square mile or kilometer).

Physiological density

: The average number of people per unit area (a square mile or kilometer) of arable land — that is, land suitable for cultivation.

Agricultural density: .

The number of farmers per unit of arable land

Carrying capacity:

The number of people a particular environment or Earth

as a whole can support on a sustainable basis.

Human well-being:

The state of being comfortable, healthy, or happy.

population composition

The makeup of the population by age and sex as well as by ethnic racial, income, and educational background

Dependency ratio:

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

Youth dependency ratio

: The number of young dependents in a population (usually people younger than 15 years of age) that every 100 working-age people must support.

Elderly dependency ratio

: The number of elderly dependents in a population (usually people older than 64 years of age) that every 100 working-age people must support.

Generations

: Groups of people who were born around the same time and share some common traits due to the cultural and societal influences they shared as they grew up.

Baby Boomers

: People born from 1946 to 1964 during the post–World War II uptick in birth rate. 

Generation X

: People born between 1965 and 1980 and are now in their prime working years.

Generation Y

: People who were born between 1981 and 2000; often referred to as millennials.

Generation Z

: People born after the turn of the twenty-first century. 

Sex ratio

Sex ratio: The ratio of the number of men to number of women in a population.

Androcentrism

: A phenomenon in which a culture demonstrates a marked preference for males.

Androcentrism:

A phenomenon in which a culture demonstrates a marked preference for males.

Infanticide

: The practice of killing infants.

Population pyramid

: A very useful graphic device for comparing age and sex structure.

Demographic equation

: The method for calculating total population of a country or place based on natural increase and migration over a period of time (usually a year).

Crude birth rate (CBR)

: The average number of births per 1000 people; the traditional way of measuring birth rates.

Low birth rate

: A crude birth rate between 10 and 20 births per 1000 people.

Transitional birth rate

: A crude birth rate between 20 and 30 per 1000 people.

High birth rate:

A crude birth rate of more than 30 per 1000 people

Total fertility rate (TFR):

The average number of children born per woman during her reproductive lifetime, considered to be from 15 to 49 years of age.

Replacement level fertility:

The average number of children needed to replace both parents and stabilize population over time.

• Gender roles

• : Culturally specific notions of what it means to be a man or woman.

Crude death rate (CDR) or mortality rate:

The number of deaths per year per 1000 people.

Infant mortality rate (IMR):

A measure of how many infants die within the first year of their life per 1000 live births.

Child mortality

: Deaths of children under five years of age.

Rate of natural increase (RNI):

The difference between the number of births and deaths in a given year, when expressed as a percentage of total population.

Zero population growth (ZPG):

When a country has the same number of births and deaths in a given year, its RNI is zero.

Doubling time

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

Rule of 70:

A tool for calculating the doubling time of a population by dividing 70 by a country’s rate of natural increase (RNI).

Demographic transition model (DTM)

: Conceptualizes how crude birth rate (CBR) and crude death rate (CDR) as well as the resulting rate of natural increase (RNI) change over time as countries go through industrialization and urbanization.

Epidemiology:

A branch of medicine that studies the distribution, determinants, and control of diseases and other health conditions, such as tobacco use and sedentary lifestyle.

Epidemiological transition theory

: Seeks to explain how changes in health services and living standards affect patterns of disease.

Degenerative disease:

A disease that causes deterioration over time, such as cancer, heart disease, and stroke.

Malthusian:

A term derived from the name Thomas Robert Malthus, an English economist and cleric, to mean either “of or relating to Malthus’s theory” or
“a follower of Malthus.”

Overpopulation:

Occurs when the human population exceeds the food supply.

Neo-Malthusians:

People who today subscribe to the Malthusian view of population (e.g., Paul Ehrlich).

Cornucopians or anti-Malthusians:

People who disagree with the Malthusian view of population and resources.

Boserup effect:

Increase in food production resulting from the use of new farming methods.

Antinatalist policies

: Designed to curtail population growth by reducing fertility rates.

Pronatalist policies

: Designed to boost fertility rates and ultimately population growth.

Women’s status:

The degree of equality between men and women with respect to access to and control over both physical and social resources in the family, community, or society at large.

Women’s empowerment:

The increased autonomy of women to make choices and shape their lives.

Aging population:

A population of a country or place that ages as the number or proportion of its elderly people increases.

Median age:

The age that divides a population into two halves so that one half is younger than this age and the other half older.

Life expectancy

: The number of years a person can expect to live from birth.

Spatial mobility

: All forms of geographical movement, including people’s everyday commuting and travels.

Social (upward) mobility

: Mobility that implies a change in social hierarchy.

Migrant or mover:

A person who migrates or moves.

Non-migrants or stayers

People who do not move.

Origin:

A person’s location before migration.

Destination:

The place where the migrant is going.

Emigration or out-migration:

The act of a migrant leaving their place (country) of origin.

Emigrants or out-migrants:

People who leave their country of origin.

Immigration or in-migration:

The act of a migrant arriving at their destination country.

Immigrants or in-migrants

: People who arrive at their destination country.

Migration stream:

The flow of all migrants from an origin to a destination.

Counterstream:

The flow of all migrants in the direction opposite a particular migration stream, from its destination back to the origin.

Net migration:

The difference between the number of in-migrants and out-migrants.

Net migration rate (NMR):

A gauge of the impact of migration on population change, determined by dividing a country’s net migration by its total population, then multiplying by 1000.

Migration age profile:

The relatively stable relationship between the odds of migration and age across different countries.

Brain drain:

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

vBrain gain:

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

Push-pull theory of migration:

Theory asserting that two contrasting sets of factors are at work in migration decisions.

Push factors:

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

Pull factors:

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

Intervening obstacles

: The complications that potential migrants will need to overcome to reach their destination.

Social networks

: People’s friends and relatives.

Intervening opportunity

: A nearby attractive locale where migrants may decide to settle instead of going to the intended destination farther away.

vVoluntary migration:

Migration that is done willingly

International migration:

When moves are made across national borders.

Guest worker:

A person with temporary permission to 

work in another country.

Transnational migration:

When migrants move back and forth between their home countries and those to which they have migrated.

Internal migration or interregional migration.

: When people move within the borders of a country

Great Migration:

The twentieth-century movement of 6 million African Americans from the rural southern states to the cities of the midwestern and northeastern states.

Rural-to-urban migration

: When people move from the countryside to cities.

Residential mobility

: Moves that occur within a metropolitan area.

Step (or stepwise) migration:

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

Chain migration:

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.

Return migration:

Migrants going back, or returning, to their previous place of residence or origin.

Black Belt:

Ethnic homeland in the U.S. South.

Seasonal migration:

Migration based on the time of year.

Transhumance:

A phenomenon where herders and their livestock move seasonally between their summer and winter pastures.