CH. 2 – Population
Test Study Guide
Key Issue # 1 – “Where is the World’s Population Distributed?”
1. The systematic study of population is called ______.
2. What are the 4 most concentrated regions of the world in order of density?
3. What are the most highly populated countries within each region?
4. How is Europe different from the other three regions of high concentration?
5. What is the most troubling truth about most populated regions of the world?
6. What kinds of regions are least populated on the earth?
7. What is the difference between arithmetic density and physiological density?
8. Why is arithmetic density a misleading statistic?
9. How does urbanization affect arithmetic and physiological density?
10. What is agricultural density, and what kind of country would have a low agricultural density?
11. What is the ecumene?
12. ______of the earth’s population lives on ______% of the land.
Key Issue # 2 – “Where Has the World’s Population Increased?”
13. What continent has the highest crude birth rate?
14. How is a country’s Natural Increase Rate calculated?
15. In what three regions of the world are the highest crude birth rates found?
16. What region of the world contributes most to population growth?
17. What kinds of countries have the highest rates of natural increase? Lowest?
18. When a country’s birth rate equals the death rate it is said to have ______.
19. What impact does a country’s NIR have on its doubling time?
20. What is the current doubling time for the world’s population?
21. What is Total Fertility Rate, and at what point does a country reach replacement level?
22. What continent has the highest TFR?
23. What would explain why country’s like the U.S. and Great Britain would relatively high crude death rates even though they are MDCs?
24. Average Life Expectancy is lowest in what region of the world?
25. How does Infant Mortality Rate affect CBRs?
26. What do countries with high IMRs have in common?
27. What is the single greatest health disparity between MDCs and LDCs?
Key Issue #3 – “Why is Population Increasing at Different Rates in Different Countries?”
28. Why did the annual global population growth rate increase about 10,000 years ago?
29. Identify and explain the rate of population growth in each Stage of the Demographic Transition Model.
30. What effect did the Industrial Revolution have on the demographic transition of countries?
31. What was the medical revolution, and what effect did it have on the demographic transition of countries?
32. Statistically speaking, how do birth and death rates change between Stage 1 and Stage 4 of the DTM?
33. According to the DTM, how does urbanization affect a country?
34. At what Stage of the DTM does a rapid increase of a country’s life expectancy occur?
35. How are the demographic transitions of Great Britain and India different?
36. How did mass migration affect the demographic transition of European countries during the 18th and 19th centuries?
37. What is hidden momentum and how will it affect a country’s population?
38. What factors make up a country’s population pyramid?
39. What kind of countries will have population pyramids with a wide base and narrowing toward the top?
40. What kind of countries will have the narrowest population pyramids?
41. What would cause a country to have an inverted population pyramids with a narrower base than the top?
42. What characteristics of a national population can be determined by its population pyramid?
43. How does the shape of a country’s population pyramid correlate to its stage in the DTM?
44. What is Stage 5 of the DTM, and what are some countries that might be said to have entered it?
Key Issue #4 – “Why Might the World Face an Overpopulation Problem?”
45. According to Malthus’s J-curve, when did the human population experience a dramatic increase?
46. What caused the global population explosion after World War II?
47. What was Thomas Malthus’s theory on world population?
48. What did Malthus’s theory fail to recognize?
49. How was Malthus’s theory wrong about the last half century of population growth?
50. What is the S-curve and how is a homeostatic plateau achieved?
51. How did Ester Boserup and Simon Kuznets change the theory of population growth?
52. In what country have birth rates fallen the most in the last half century? Why?
53. What is anti-natalism, what country’s have effectively used it, and why is it controversial?
54. What is the connection between neo-Malthusians and anti-natalism?
55. What is pro-natalism, and what kind of country might use it?
56. What best explains the low rate of contraception use in Africa?
57. What affect do cultural factors play in lowering national birth rates? Examples?
58. What have geographers concluded to be the 2 most effective methods for reducing national birth and fertility rates? When and where was this finding made known?
59. In what stage of the epidemiological transition are diseases like cholera, dysentery, and tuberculosis the big killers?
60. What causes diseases of pestilence and parasites to decline in the epidemiological transition?
61. In what stage of the epidemiological transition do degenerative diseases like heart disease and cancer become the big killers?
62. What factors determine whether a country is overpopulated or not?
Free Response Questions
63. The demographic transition model has often been used to predict population change in regions experiencing economic development.
A. Diagram and explain the classic demographic transition model
B. Describe three characteristics of countries whose experience would support the usefulness of the demographic transition model for predicting population change.
C. Describe three characteristics of countries whose experience would not support the usefulness of the demographic transition model for projecting population change.
64. Discuss the paradox of population growth occurring in the world
a. What are the demographic problems created by these current patterns of population growth
b. What solution are necessary for addressing these problems
65. Discuss and explain the correlation between economic development and a country’s demographic condition. Provide as many examples as possible to explain your answer.
66. In many developing countries, population has occurred at a much faster rate than is assumed by the demographic transition model. In an effort to alleviate the Malthusian problems of overpopulation, different regions in the world have attempted different solutions to the problem.
A. Explain in terms of the demographic transition model what overpopulated areas must attempt to accomplish to reduce the rate of population growth.
B. Identify and discuss the results of some of the anti-natalist policies being used in the world.
C. Identify the main alternative to anti-natalist policies and explain why human geographers believe it to be more effective than the anti-natalist policies.
67. How are the 4 stages of the epidemiological transition different, and discuss what has caused some to believe that there may now be a Stage 5 of the epidemiological transition?