Module 8: Population, Health, and Migration

Physiological density

Population per unit of cultivatable land.

Fertility

A population’s natural capability of having children.

Fecundity

A biological term for the potential capability of having children. Refers to potential rather than actual number of live births.

Replacement-level fertility

The level of fertility at which a population exactly replaces itself from one generation to the next.

Population momentum

The tendency for population growth to continue beyond the time that replacement-level fertility has been reached because of tje relatively high number of people in the child-bearing years.

Limits to growth

A view that argues that both the world population and the world economy will collapse because of insufficient available natural resources.

Demographic transition

The historical shift of birth and death rates from high to low levels in a population. Mortality declines before fertility, resulting in population increase during the transition phase.

Infectious disease

A disease that spreads from human to human via bacteria or viruses

Degenerative diseases

A disease that is long-lasting and results from a gradual degeneration of the body

Epidemic

A rapid increase of relatively short duration in the number of cases of a disease within a population

Pandemic

An outbreak of disease that is of greater scope and scale (a whole country or region or even the world) than an epidemic.

Epidemiology

The study of incidence, distribution, and control of disease in human populations.

Epidemiological transition

A transition in the dominant causes of death in a population over time. Exemplified by a relative decline in infectious diseases and an increase in degenerative or chronic diseases.