Topic: Population growth and

distribution in the light of various

geographic conditions

Geography
Assignment
Submitted to: Prof. Dr. Asad Ali Khan

Submitted by: Amina Tariq

Roll no.01
 Population Geography

World population growth:-

The long stretch of early human history was characterized by deaths
cancelling out births in most part of the world. It would be a fallacy to
consider it as a matter of choice. High mortality necessitated high fertility
to assure survival of mankind.
The world’s population was estimated to be around 8 million at the
advent of agriculture around 800 B.C. Consequently, improvement in food
supply permitted the births to exceed he deaths by a modest margin. The
population continued to grow very slowly for q pretty long period. The
world population is supposed to have reached 8000 million by the dawn of
modern era, mid-18th century. Since then the population started recording
spectacular increases partly due to the man’s increasing control over
nature and partly due to the industrial revolution which enhance the
supporting capacity of the areas manifold.
Consequently, by the middle of the 20th century, the population of the
world tripled reaching 2.5 billion. By 1988, the population of the world
reached 5.0 billion mark. This shows that while it had taken the world
more than one million years to reach one billion mark in 1808, the next
billion was added in just 120 years (1928). The 3rd billion was added in 32
years (1960) and the 4th billion came just in 15 years. The 5th billion marks
was reached in 1988, just in 13 years. And 6th billion mark was reached on
12th October 1999, implying that the sixth billion was added in just less
than 12 years. According to the United Nations, world population reached
7 Billion on October 31, 2011. The current world population is 7.8 billion
as of May 2020 according to the most recent United Nations estimates
elaborated by Worldometer.

History of the population growth:-

Past population growth process can be divided in to following
three phases;
➢ Very slow growth of population has been observed up to
agricultural revolution of 8000 BC.
➢ Slow growth of population has been experienced up to industrial
revolution of 1750 AD.
➢ Accelerated growth started due to industrial revolution which
was further geared up due to medical revolution of 1950s.

Very slow growth:-

In the past the migratory mode of life. Migration is the permanent
factor. People in search of food and for better environmental
conditions. In the start of human life, the food resources are collecting
and gathering of wild resources, hunting of wild animals and birds and
fishing activities.

8000 B.C
In 8000 BC the agriculture originates.
In 8000 BC human population is 10 million.
Agriculture Revolution
• Agriculture revolution of 8000BC caused an increased in growth
rate of world population.
 • Migratory life changed into sedentary life (permanent
settlements).
• Domestication of animals and cultivation of crops start.
• More food produced.
1 A.D
• World population is 250 million.
• 240 million increases in 8000 B.C to 1 A.D
• New inventions occurs and food resources develop.

Slow Growth:-

1650
• The world population is 500 million (0.5 billion)
• Population growth rate increased because of industrial revolution.

Industrial Revolution
1750
• In 1750 the industrial revolution in Western Europe.
• Increased the efficiency of people and they become able to
produce more food as well as facilitate.
• This factor ultimately increased the rate of population growth.
• The range of practical activity of people extended.
1850

The world population is 1000 million or 1 billion.

1930

The world population in 1930 is 2 billion.

1975

In 1975 world population is 4 billion.

Accelerated Growth:-
Medical Revolution

After world war second, 1950 first three decades (i.e. 50s, 60s, 70s,) in
this time period exclusive population growth. Second half 20th century
is a time period of human history in which population much fastly
increased, due to agriculture, industrial and medical revolution.

1987

In 1987 world population is 5 billion.

When people started thinking and worried over such conditions due to
increase in population more rapidly. The resources are in stressed due
to increase in population.

People decided to observe the day of population. The world population

day is 11th July 1987.

Current world population:-

According to the world population data sheet 2018:-

• The world population is 7.6 billion in 2018.

• Projected share of world population ages 65+ is 9% in 2018, which
would be 16% in 2050.
• Birth rate is 2.4
• Death rate is 31
 • Projected share of world population ages <15 is 26% in 2018,
which would be 21% in 2050.

Changing age structure:-

• Projected world population in 2050.
• Projected number of 82 countries in 2050 with at least 20% of the
population ages 65+, vs. 13 countries in 2018.
• Share of married women in Senegal using modern family planning
methods 26% in 2017, up from 12% in 2011.
• Total fertility rate in southern Europe 1.4, the lowest rate of any
world region.
• Number of infant deaths 5.6 per 1,000 live births in the United
States, 49th lowest in the world.

Population data for the world regions:-

Population (millions) mid-2018
AFRICA 1,284
SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA 1,049
EASTERN AFRICA 432
MIDDLE AFRICA 169
SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA 66
AMERICAS 1,014
LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN 649
SIUTH AMERICA 427
SOUTH CENTRAL ASIA 0.3
SOUTH ASIA 0.2
SOUTHEAST ASIA 450
EAST ASIA 1,633
EUROPE 746
NOR THERN EUROPE 105
WESTERN EUROPE 195
OCEANIA 41
World population distribution:-
The distribution of population describes the locations on the Earth’s
surface where individuals or groups (depending on the scale) live. It is
represented most efficiently by a so-called dot map. At the largest scale
for example, part of a rural county in the United States such a map can
actually show the location of every individual, with each dot representing
one person. At a medium scale say an entire country such as France one
dot would represent a cluster of perhaps 5000 people, and the map
would reveal where the population is concentrated and where the
number of people in an area would not add up to 5000. At the smallest
scale, a world map of population density would use a single dot to
represent as many as 100,000 people.

Major population concentrations under the varied

geographic conditions:-
Following is the distribution and density in the world population.
Following figure displays distribution using the dot method, whereas the
next figure illustrates density via the isopleth method. Both maps
confirm that the world’s three largest population concentrations are all
found on the same landmass: Eurasia. They also remind us that the
overwhelming majority of the world’s population inhabits the Northern
Hemisphere. The three Eurasian concentrations are in East Asia, South
Asia, and Europe. Each is associated with a major civilization: China,
India, and Western Europe. The fourth-ranking concentration, North
America, is centered in the United States and represents still another
important civilization. In this section we explore some of the significant
differences among these leading population clusters.
East Asia:-
The distribution map depicts population density through shading: the
darker the color, the larger the number of people per unit area. The most
extensive area of dark shading lies in East Asia, primarily in China but also
in Korea and Japan. About one-quarter of the world’s population is
concentrated here nearly 1.3 billion people in China alone. The East Asian
population cluster adjoins the Pacific Ocean from Korea to Vietnam; the
number of people per unit area tends to decline from this coastal zone
toward the interior. Also visible are several ribbon-like extensions of
dense population. These extensions represent populations that are
clustered in the basins and lowlands of China’s major rivers. This serves
to remind us that the great majority of people in East Asia are farmers,
not city dwellers. True, China has large cities, such as Shanghai and
Beijing. However, the total population of these and other cities is far
outnumbered by the farmers, who produce crops of wheat and rice to
feed not only themselves but also those in the cities and towns .

South Asia:-
The second major population concentration also lies in Asia and is similar
in many ways to that of East Asia. At the heart of this cluster lies India,
but the concentration also extends into Pakistan and Bangladesh and
onto the island of Sri Lanka. The riverine and coastal orientation of the
most densely inhabited zones and the finger-like extension of dense
population on the plain of the Ganges River in northern India. This is one
of the greatest concentrations of people on the Earth. There are about
1.5 billion people in the South Asia population cluster.
 This region is marked off by physical barriers: the Himalaya Mountains to
the north and the desert west of the Indus River Valley in Pakistan. This is a
confined region with a rapidly growing population. The capacity of the
region to support this population has, by almost any estimate, already been
exceeded. As in East Asia, the overwhelming majority of the people here
are farmers, but in South Asia the pressure on the land is even greater. In
Bangladesh, nearly 133 million people, almost all of them farmers, are
crowded into an area about the size of Iowa. Over large parts of Bangladesh
the rural population density is between 3000 and 5000 people per square
mile.

Europe:-

The third-ranking population cluster also lies in Eurasia—at the opposite

end from China. An axis of dense population extends from the British Isles
into Russia and includes large parts of Germany, Poland, Ukraine, and
Belarus. It also includes the Netherlands and Belgium, parts of France, and
northern Italy. This European cluster contains about 700 million
inhabitants, which puts it in a class with the South Asia concentration but
there the similarity ends. A comparison of the population and physical maps
indicates that in Europe terrain and environment are not as closely related
to population distribution as they are in East and South Asia. Another
contrast can be seen in the number of Europeans who live in cities and
towns. The European population cluster includes numerous cities and
towns, many of which developed as a result of the Industrial Revolution.
The three major population concentrations East Asia, South Asia, and
Europe account for over 4 billion of the total world population of
approximately 6 billion people. The populations of South America, Africa,
and Australia combined barely exceed the population of India alone.
North America:-

The population cluster comprising the east-central United States and

southeastern Canada is only about one-quarter the size of the smallest
of the Eurasian concentrations. The North American region does not
have large, contiguous high-density zones like those of Europe or East
and South Asia.

The North American population cluster outdoes Europe in some

respects. As in the European region, much of the population is
concentrated in major cities while rural areas are relatively sparsely
populated. The major focus of the North America cluster lies in the
urban complex along the eastern seaboard from Boston to Washington,
which includes New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. Urban
geographers use the term megalopolis to refer to such huge urban
agglomerations, and predict that it is only a matter of time before these
agglomerations coalesce into an enormous megacity. Other major focal
points of the North American population cluster are Chicago, Detroit,
and Cleveland, and with some interruptions, San Francisco, Los Angeles,
and San Diego.

Other regions:-

The substantial population clusters in Southeast Asia are actually

discrete clusters rather than a contiguous population concentration. The
largest of them is the Indonesian island of Jawa (Java), with more than
120 million in- habitants. Elsewhere in the region population’s cluster in
the lowlands of major rivers, such as the Mekong. Neither these river
valleys nor the rural surroundings of the cities have population
concentrations comparable to those of either China or India, and under
normal circumstances Southeast Asia is able to export rice to its hungrier
neighbors.

South America, Africa, and Australia do not have population

concentrations comparable to those we have considered so far. Sub-
Saharan Africa’s nearly 650 million inhabitants cluster in above-average
densities in West Africa (where Nigeria has a population of some 130
million) and in a zone in the east extending from Ethiopia to South Africa.
Only in North Africa is there an agglomeration comparable to those
found on the crowded riverine plains of Asia. This cluster is in the Nile
Valley and delta, which has over 66 million residents
 The large light-shaded spaces in South America and Australia, and the
peripheral distribution of the modest populations of these continents,
suggest that there is some space here for the world’s huge population.
Indeed, South America could probably sustain more than its present 360
million people if reforms were made in patterns of land ownership and
use in the region. At present, while the people of South America as a
whole are well fed, poverty and malnutrition occur in some areas, such
as northeast Brazil.