Chapter 3 | Patterns of Population

Population distribution

Where people live in a geographic area

Climate

The long-term patterns of weather in a particular area

Temperate Climate

A climate with moderate temperatures and adequate precipitation amounts.

Landforms

The natural features of Earth’s surface

Human migration

The permanent movement of people from one place to another

Population density

The number of people occupying a unit of land

Arithmetic Density

The total number of people per unit area of land; also called crude density

Physiological density

The total number of people per unit of arable land

Arable land

Land that can be used to grow crops

Agricultural density

The total number of farmers per unit of arable land

Subsistence agriculture

An agricultural practice that provides crops or livestock for only the farmers’ families and close community

Carrying capacity

The maximum population size an environment can sustain

Dependency ratio

The number of people in a dependent age group (under age 15 or age 65 and older) divided by the number of people in the working-age group (age 15 to 64), multiplied by 100

Sex ratio

The proportion of males to females in a population

Demographics

Data about the structures and charactistics of human populations

Humans

The ability to produce children

Crude Birth Rate (CBR)

The number of births in a given year per 1,000 people in a given population

Total Fertility Rate (TFR)

The average number of children one woman in a given region will have during her child-bearing years (ages 15 to 49)

Mortality

Deaths as a component of population change

Crude Death Rate (CDR)

The number of deaths in a given year per 1,000 people in a given population

Infant Mortality Rate (IMR)

The number of deaths of children under the age of 1 per 1,000 live births

Life expectancy

The average number of years a person is expected to live

Population pyramid

A graph that shows the age-sex distribution of a given population