The changing nature, rate and distribution of the world’s population
- The world’s population growth is slowing but not coming to a complete stop
- Families are having fewer children than they used to
- The population is changing at an averagely paced rate
- The bulk of population change is in Asia
- The UN has estimated the population will reach 10 billion by 2050
Population distribution
- The second-largest growth area is Africa but it is expected to take over Asia in the coming years
- Asian population makes up more than half of the world’s population
- The developing countries of the world hold 83% of the population
- Developing countries account for 98.5% of the world’s annual population increase
Demographic trends
- Ways to tell that the population is increasing or decreasing:
- Fertility rate
- Life expectancy
- Population under 15
Spatial patterns of fertility and mortality
Fertility rates
- The high people’s economic and social well-being is the less likely they are to have children
- Global births are at the lowest ever
- It is expected by the end of the 21st century that developing world fertility rates will fall below replacement level
- Factors contributing to the fall in fertility rates:
- Education for women
- Use of contraception
- Process of urbanisation
- Highest fertility rate is in Africa with 3.5 children per woman
- Developed areas of the world have an average of 1.7 children per woman
Factors that can affect fertility rates:
- Levels of economic and social wellbeing
- Infant mortality rates
- Importance of children as part of a labour force
- Education and employment for women
- Average age of marriage
- Cost of raising children
- Availability of contraception
- Availability of aged services and pension
- Family size preferences
Factors affecting mortality rates:
- Nutritional standards
- Standards of personal hygiene and sanitisation
- Access to safe drinking water and the incidence of infectious diseases
- Access to medical and public health technology
Population structure:
- An ageing population means that people are living for longer
- Europe by 2050 will have 28% of its population over the age of 65
- Africa by 2050 will have 7% of its population over the age of 65
Types volumes and directions of population movements
Internal movements:
- Movement within one country
Rural-urban migration
- Push factors - push someone out of an area
- Pull factors - pull someone to an area
- Urban living is increasing as cities are coming more appealing
- By 2050 more than 60% of the population is expected to live in cities
Counter urbanisation:
- People are choosing to leave the cities and head to rural locations
- May be related to the longer retirement people are having
- Working from home is also now more popular and public transport is better
- 45.5% of the world’s population lives in rural areas
Other movements:
- People move to where there is work available for them
- Manufacturing firms are moving to the outskirts of cities where it is less populated
- People who work in fruit picking, ski resorts or tourism tend to move as seasons change in order to be wherever the work is
International migration:
- International migration - the movement of persons away from their place of usual residence and across an international border to a country of which they are not nationals
- Many move for work or to escape a crisis such as war or natural disaster (Palestinians and Syrians)