Extinction caused by people converting natural ecosystems to managed agricultural ecosystem.

Degradation (erosion and desertification)

Destructive effect of exploiting natural resources such as Strip mining, oil spill, groundwater mining.

Size of the population- the larger the size of a population, the greater the demand on the resources of
the country

land area the people occupy-

degree of technological development-the people in highly developed countries consume huge

amounts of resources

statuses and desires of women in the culture-

lack of education- reduces options for women in cultures. By contrast, in much of the developed
world, women are educated, delay marriage, and have fewer children.

Government policies-

population growth rat - is the rate at which the number of individuals in a population increases in a
given time period, expressed as a fraction of the initial population. Specifically, population growth
rate refers to the change in population over a unit time period, often expressed as a percentage of
the number of individuals in the population at the beginning of that period.

Birth rate - (technically, births/population rate) is the total number of live births per 1,000 of a
population in a year.[1] The rate of births in a population is calculated in several ways: live births from
a universal registration system for births, deaths, and marriages; population counts from a census,
and estimation through specialized demographic techniques. The birth rate (along
with mortality and migration rate) are used to calculate population growth.

The term “demographic transition” refers to the secular shift in fertility and mortality from high
and sharply fluctuating levels to low and relatively stable ones. This historical process ranks as
one of the most important changes affecting human society in the past half millennium, on a
par with the spread of democratic government, the industrial revolution, the increase in
urbanization, and the progressive increases in educational levels of human populations. During
the transition, mortality typically begins to decline first, followed some decades later by fertility
decline, leading to a series of changes in population growth rates, size, and age distribution that
continues for many decades. This pivotal process started in many European countries and parts
of the Americas well over a century ago and is currently underway in most of the world. The
presumption is that it will eventually affect all countries.1 No country has completed this
process, since mortality decline will most likely continue, and population aging lies mainly in the
future even for countries like Japan that are farthest along this path. The transition transforms
the demography of societies from many children and few elderly to few children and many
elderly; from short life to long; from life-long demands on women to raise young children to the
concentration of these demands in a small part of adulthood; from horizontally rich kin
networks to vertically rich ones. The transition made possible the radical change in women’s
economic and social roles; the invention of retirement as the third stage of life; and a
demographic efficiency that fostered heavy investment in the human capital of fewer but
longer-lived children. Some of these implicat ions were visible soon after the transition began,
while others only became apparent much later. Some of these effects have been beneficial for
the societies involved while others are much less so. Some of the major challenges facing
societies today are a direct or indirect consequence of the demographic transition. From a
strictly demographic standpoint, the entire process of transition has generated four changes
that have deep and lasting effects for society. (1) As just mentioned, any long-term reduction in
fertility will lead to lasting changes in population age structures. Initially these changes affect
the relative weight of the very young in society and lead to an increase in the relative
importance of working-age populations, generating what has been called the first demographic
dividend. Further on, however, low fertility reduces the growth rate of the working-age
population and brings about a top-heavy age structure and rising old-age and total
dependency.2 The pace of population aging is particularly rapid whenever there are prolonged
declines in the aggregate number of births. The process of aging may be one of the most
important effects of the demographic transition as it has multiple and wide-ranging social and
economic implications for society. (2) Reductions in fertility coupled with increasing life
expectancy have a direct effect on kin groups: the overall size of the network surrounding any
given person shrinks, reducing its breadth and lengthening its generational depth. Mirroring the
population age distributions, before the demographic transition kin networks were bottom-
heavy, and more distant kin (cousins, uncles, aunts, etc.) played an essential role in family life.
Once fertility and mortality declined, family size diminished, the number of lateral kin declined
substantially, and parents, grandparents, and even great grandparents became increasingly
important for family life. (3) By definition, increasing reproductive efficiency leads to a dramatic
liberation in the time spent by mothers in bearing and rearing children. This fundamental
alteration in women’s lives leads to a host of changes influencing women and their role in
society, affecting their children and affecting men everywhere. (4) Substantially longer life
raises the return to investments in human capital and greatly expands the years spent at older
ages, where labor supply is diminished or there is outright retirement. The nature of the
demographic transition and the way it has been experienced does much to explain just how
human society got to where it is today. Differences in this process also help explain differences
around the world today. Because the transition is a global phenomenon, the fact that various
parts of the world are at different stages of the demographic transition helps us chart at least
part of the future course among the relative newcomers to it. Forecasting the future is always
risky and uncertain, but identifying the transition as a pathway to change enables us to
understand more clearly the contexts of change to come for many countries.

HUMAN POPULATION ISSUES

• Human population growth- a contributing factor in nearly all environmental
factors.
• Factors that affects the environment-Increasing number of people, political
unrest in areas with great disparities in availability of resources, environmental
degradation by poor agricultural practices, water and air pollution, extinction,
destructive effects of exploitation of natural resources.
• Several factors interact to determine the impact of society on the resources of
its country
1.Size of the population
2.The land area the people occupy
3.Degree of technological development
• Population density- the number of people per unit of land area.
• Factors that influence population growth
1. Biological Factors
2. Social Factors
3. Political Factors
 BIOLOGICAL FACTORS
 Demography- The scientific study of human population, their characteristics,
how these characteristics affect growth and the consequences of that growth.
 Total fertility rate- the number of children born per women in her lifetime.
 Replacement fertility- is known as a total fertility rate of 2:1.
 Zero population growth- when population is not growing, and the number of
births is equal to the number of deaths.
 Age distribution- the number of people of each age in the population.
 SOCIAL FACTORS
 Status and desires of women in the culture
 lack of education
 Factors the influence the number of children a couple would like to have
1. Religious
2. Traditional
3. Social
4. economic
 Political Factors
 1. Government Policies
2. Immigration
 Standard of living

-an abstract concept that attempts to quantify the quality of life of people.
-a difficult concept to quantify since various cultures have different attitudes
and feeling about what is desirable
 Gross National Income (GNI)
An index that measures the total goods and services generated within
a country as well as income earned by citizens of the country who are living
in other countries
 The relationship between the standard of living and the population growth
rate seems to be that counties with higher of living have the lowest
population growth rate and those with the lowest standard of living have
highest population growth rate. This led many people to suggest that
countries naturally through a series of stages called
Demographic Transition
 Four Stages in Demographic Transition
1. 1. Initially, countries have a stable population with a high birthrate
and a high death rate. Death rates often vary because of famine and
epidemic disease
2. Improved economic and social conditions (control of disease and
increased food availability) Bring about a period of rapid population
growth as death rates fall. Birthrates remain high.
3. As counties become industrialized the birthrates begin to drop
because people desire smaller families and use contraceptives
4. Eventually Birthrates and death rates again become balanced, with
low birthrates and low death rates.