Human Population Growth & Demography

30 vocabulary flashcards covering population theories, demographic measures, sustainability concepts, and reproductive health from the lecture notes.

Population Growth

Increase in the number of humans; currently ~2.5 additional people per second, 75 million per year at 1.1 % annual growth.

Carrying Capacity

Maximum population size an environment can sustain indefinitely without environmental degradation; estimated for Earth at 10–12 billion.

Malthusian Theory

Thomas Malthus’s idea (1798) that population grows geometrically while food supply grows arithmetically, eventually causing famine, disease, and societal stress.

Karl Marx’s Population View

Argues social injustice and exploitation—not sheer numbers—drive population growth; fair wealth distribution can allow simultaneous rises in population and food output.

Modern Mathematical Perspective

Joel E. Cohen’s use of mathematical models to analyze and predict human population dynamics and Earth’s carrying capacity.

IPAT Equation

I = P × A × T; environmental Impact equals Population size times Affluence (consumption per person) times Technology (efficiency factor).

Ecological Footprint

Measure, in global hectares (gha) per capita, of biologically productive land and water needed to supply resources consumed and absorb wastes produced.

Biocapacity

Amount of renewable resources and ecological services Earth can provide; compared with footprint to assess sustainability.

Overshoot

Condition in which a population’s ecological footprint exceeds biocapacity, degrading the environment and lowering future carrying capacity.

Ecological Debtor

Region or nation whose ecological footprint exceeds its biocapacity, creating an ecological deficit.

Ecological Creditor

Region or nation whose biocapacity exceeds its ecological footprint, leaving an ecological reserve.

Ester Boserup

Economist who argued population growth stimulates innovation, markets, and resource creation (e.g., Green Revolution), challenging Malthusian pessimism.

Ultimate Resource

Concept that people themselves—through ideas, labor, and innovation—are the most valuable resource for solving problems.

Fecundity

Biological ability of an individual or population to reproduce.

Fertility

Actual reproductive performance; typically measured by number of offspring produced.

Total Fertility Rate (TFR)

Average number of children a woman is expected to have over her lifetime; current global TFR ≈ 1.68.

Crude Birth Rate

Annual number of live births per 1,000 people in a population.

Crude Death Rate

Annual number of deaths per 1,000 people; >20/1,000 in some African nations, ~10/1,000 in wealthy nations.

Zero Population Growth (ZPG)

Condition in which births plus immigration equal deaths plus emigration, stabilizing population size.

Life Expectancy

Average age a newborn is expected to reach under current mortality conditions; global average rose from ~40 years to 67.2 years over past century.

Life Span

Maximum documented age reached by any individual of a species; for humans, 122 years (Jeanne Calment).

Pronatalist Pressures

Cultural, economic, or social factors that encourage people to have more children (e.g., elder support, status, religious norms).

Demographic Transition Model

Frank Notestein’s model (1945) describing the shift from high birth and death rates to lower rates as a nation industrializes and develops.

Family Planning

Ability of individuals or couples to control number and spacing of children through conscious decisions and access to reproductive methods.

Contraception

Methods or devices (e.g., IUDs, condoms, hormonal pills, vaccines) that prevent pregnancy; over 100 new options in development.

Green Revolution

20th-century surge in crop yields via scientific breeding, fertilizers, and irrigation, often cited by Boserup as evidence technology can outpace population pressure.

Affluence (in IPAT)

Average consumption rate per person, expressed in global hectares per capita; higher affluence increases environmental impact.

Technology (in IPAT)

Efficiency factor modifying impact; can either amplify or reduce environmental damage per unit of consumption.

Net Population Growth

Result of births minus deaths plus migration; currently ~2.5 additional humans every second.

Family-planning Methods

Strategies such as celibacy, delayed marriage, contraception, implantation prevention, and induced abortion that allow control over reproduction.

What determines if a nation is an Ecological Debtor or Creditor?

It depends on whether its ecological footprint exceeds its biocapacity (debtor) or its biocapacity exceeds its ecological footprint (creditor).

How do Malthusian Theory and Ester Boserup's views on population growth differ?

Malthus believed population growth would outstrip food supply, leading to crisis; Boserup argued that population growth stimulates innovation, markets, and resource creation, thereby averting crisis.

What factors improve population?

Navigation, Agriculture, Power Sources, Healthcare & Hygiene

What is population growth directly related to?

Poverty, Environmental Degradation, Social & Political Factors

Thomas Robert Malthus

Who Introduced the Malthusian Theory?

10 to 12 million

What is Earth’s carrying capacity?

6 to 7 per woman

In Tribal societies, due to food shortages, health problems, and cultural practices limit total fertility to how much?

Africa

Global fertility is decling everywhere except?

Jeanne Calment

Who is the oldest (documented) person?

122

What was Jeanne Calment’s age?

67.2 years

What is the global average life span?

Pronatalist Pressures

Factors that increase people’s desire to have babies

Fewer children

Higher education and personal freedom

Lower Fertility

Greater economic freedom

Baby Boom

Followed after WWII, as couples were reunited, and new families started.

Low Birthrates

Happened during the Great Depression (1930s)

Birth Spikes

Common during wartime.

Vaccines for Women

Prepare the immune system to reject the hormone chorionic gonadotropin

This is the hormone that rejects when Vaccines for Women (contraception) is used

Chorionic gonadtropin

Injections for men

This is focused on reducing sperm production

Celibacy, Delayed Marriage, Contraception, Implantation Prevention, Induced abortion

Family Planning Methods