NCERT Class 12 Geography The World Population Distribution Density and Growth

The World Population Distribution, Density and Growth

The people of a country are its real wealth. It is they who make use of the country’s resources and decide its policies. Ultimately a country is known by its people.

It is important to know how many women and men a country has, how many children are born each year, how many people die and how? Whether they live in cities or villages, can they read or write and what work do they do? These are what you will study about in this unit. The world at the beginning of 21st century recorded the presence of over 6 billion population. We shall discuss the patterns of their distribution and density here. Why do people prefer to live in certain regions and not in others?

The population of the world is unevenly distributed. The remark of George B. Cressey about the population of Asia that “Asia has many places where people are few and few place where people are very many” is true about the pattern of population distribution of the world also.

PATTERNS OF POPULATION

DISTRIBUTION IN THE WORLD

Patterns of population distribution and density help us to understand the demographic characteristics of any area. The term population distribution refers to the way people are spaced over the earth’s surface. Broadly, 90 per cent of the world population lives in about 10 per cent of its land area.

The 10 most populous countries of the world contribute about 60 per cent of the world’s population. Of these 10 countries, 6 are located in Asia. Identify these six countries of Asia.

DENSITY OF POPULATION

Each unit of land has limited capacity to support people living on it. Hence, it is necessary to understand the ratio between the numbers of people to the size of land. This ratio is the density of population. It is usually measured in persons per sq km These are the densely populated parts of the world with more than 200 persons on every sq km. These are the North -Eastern part of U.S.A., North-Western part of Europe, South, South-East and East Asia.

Other areas like those near the North and South Poles, the hot and the cold deserts and high rainfall zones near the Equator have very low density of population. These are the sparsely populated regions of the world with less than 01 person per sq km. In between these two types are the areas of medium density. There are 11 to 50 persons per sq km in these areas. Western China, Southern India in Asia, Norway, Sweden in Europe are some examples.

FACTORS INFLUENCING THE

(i) Availability of water: It is the most important factor for life. So, people prefer to live in areas where fresh water is easily available. Water is used for drinking, bathing and cooking – and also for cattle, crops, industries and navigation. It is because of this that river valleys are among the most densely populated areas of the world.

(ii) Landforms: People prefer living on flat plains and gentle slopes. This is because such areas are favourable for the production of crops and to build roads and industries. The mountainous and hilly areas hinder the development of transport network and hence initially do not favour agricultural and industrial development. So, these areas tend to be less populated. The Ganga plains are among the most densely populated areas of the world while the mountains zones in the Himalayas are scarcely populated.

(iii) Climate: An extreme climate such as very hot or cold deserts are uncomfortable for human habitation. Areas with a comfortable climate, where there is not much seasonal variation attract more people. Areas with very heavy rainfall or extreme and harsh climates have low population. Mediterranean regions were inhabited from early periods in history due to their pleasant climate.

(iv) Soils: Fertile soils are important for agricultural and allied activities. Therefore, areas which have fertile loamy soils have more people living on them as these can support intensive agriculture. Can you name some areas in India which are thinly populated due to poor soils?

EXERCISES

1. Choose the right answer from the four alternatives given below.

    (i) Which one of the following continents has the highest growth of population?

            (a) Africa                                                             (c) Asia

            (b) South America                                                (d) North America

    (ii) Which one of the following is not an area of sparse population?

            (a) The Atacama                                                  (c) Equatorial region

            (b) South-east Asia                                              (d) Polar regions

    (iii) Which one of the following is not a push factor ?

            (a) Water shortage                                              (c) Unemployment

            (b) Medical/educational facilities                            (d) Epidemics

    (iv) Which one of the following is not a fact ?

            (a) Human population increased more than ten times during the past 500 years.

            (b) Nearly 80 million people are added to the world population each year.

            (c) It took 100 years for the population to rise from 5 billion to 6 billion.

            (d) Population growth is high in the first stage of demographic transition?

2. Answer the following questions in about 30 words.

    (i) Name three geographical factors that influence the distribution of population.

    (ii) There are a number of areas with high population density in the world. Why does this happen?

    (iii) What are the three components of population change?

3. Distinguish between:

    (i) Birth rate and death rate.

    (ii) Push factors and pull factors of migration.

4. Answer the following questions in about 150 words.

    (i) Discuss the factors influencing the distribution and density of population in the world.

    (ii) Discuss the three stages of demographic transition.

Please refer to attached file for NCERT Class 12 Geography The World Population - Distribution Density and Growth