Density of Population
Absolute numbers do not give any indication
of the impact of population on the land and its resources. The number of persons
living per unit of land areas gives a better picture. This is expressed in the form
of density of population per sq.km of land area.
Density of population = Total population
/ Total area of the country
It is obtained by dividing the total
land area by the total population, the quotient being the number of people per square
kilometre. Compared with simple arithmetic density, physiological or nutritional
density is a more refined method of calculating man-land ratios.
Physiological
or Nutritional density is
the ratio between total population and
total cropped area. The total arable land in the world is 13.3% and the nutritional density of the world is 325 per sq.km of land. The total percentage of arable land is 48.83 in India and its nutritional density is 753 per
sq.km of land. Singapore has the highest
nutritional density of population of 440,998
per sq.km of land the world. The areas
of density of population can be divided into three as follows:
Fertile plains with favourable climate
and highly industrialised and urbanised areas are generally densely populated. There
are four major areas of high density of population with more than 100 persons per sq.km. Areas include:
a. Eastern
Asia, including china, Japan and Republic of Korea.
b. Southern
Asia, comprising India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
c. North-Eastern
part of the United States of America.
d. Central and North-Western Europe.
Of the four regions given, the first
two i.e. Eastern Asia and South Asia have high density of population due to favourable
environmental conditions such as favourable climate, fertile soil and large areas
of plains which encourage the growth of agriculture. The plains and river valleys
of India and China are densely populated. In the last two groups i.e. North Eastern
United States of America and North – Western Europe which are densely populated
due to the concentration of manufacturing industries.
HOTS: Why has Singapore the highest physiological/nutritional
density of population in the world?
The areas of moderate density of population
have between 10 and 80 persons per sq.km.
The areas of moderate density of population include Central part of the United States
of America, Tropical Western Africa, Western blocks of Russia, Eastern Europe, Deccan
Plateau of India, Central China, Southern portion of the Plateau of Mexico, North
-Eastern Brazil and Central Chile, The above areas are characterised by the well
developed agricultural activities, favourable climate, fertile soils, fishing, etc,.
About half the area of the world has
population less than 10 persons per sq.km.
Certain vast areas remain completely uninhabited. The main areas are
a. Amazon
forest region of South America and Congo forest region of Africa.
b. Arctic
area of Canada, Greenland and the Polar regions.
c. Great
deserts of the world i.e. Sahara, Kalahari, Arabia, Great desert of Australia, Atacama
Desert of South America, desert regions of Western United States and Thar Desert
of India.
d. High mountainous
regions in all continents.
e. Antarctica.
Australia
with an average density of population of 2 persons per sq.km is one of the most sparsely populated countries
of the world. However, inhabitants of these areas have high standard of living.
The reasons for low density of population are:
a. Bad and unfavourable environment conditions
for human settlement.
b. Lack of economic activities.
c. Lack of transport and communication.
d. Government policy.
1. Population: A group of individuals of
the same species occupying a particular geographic area.
2. People: The members of a particular
nation, community, or ethnic group.
3. Crude Birth rate (Natality Rate): Number of live births per thousand people in a year.
4. Crude Death Rate (Mortality
Rate): Number
of deaths per thousand people in a year.
5. Net Migration Rate: the formula for net migration rate is simple:
N=1000 × (I–E)/P
N= net migration rate
E= number of people emigrating
out of the country
I= number of people immigrating
into the country
P= the estimated mid-year
population
6. Fertility Rate: is the number of live births
expected per 1000 women in their life times in a specified geographic area and for
a specific point in time, usually a calendar year. Niger has the highest fertility rate of 6.49 while Singapore has the lowest fertility rate of
0.83. Can you guess why there is variation between these countries?
7. Dependency ratio:
Number of dependents in a population divided by
the number of working age people. It’s a calculation which groups those aged under
15 with those over 65 years as the ‘dependants’ and classifying those aged 15-64
years as 'the working-age population'.
8. Growth Rate: = CBR – CDR +/- Net Migration
Rate/ 1000
South Sudan has the highest population growth rate of 3.83% in 2017.
9. Rate of Natural Increase (RNI) = CBR-CDR (No Migration)
CBR>CDR = ↑ population
RNI usually expressed as
%
e.g., 2% = 2/100 = 20/1000
RNI ≠ population growth
if migration significant
10. Adult Literacy Rate: The Adult literacy index
(ALI) is a statistical measure used to determine how many adults can read and write
in a certain area or nation. Adult literacy is one of the factors in measuring the
Human Development Index (HDI) of each nation, along with life expectancy, education,
and standard of living. Burkina faso has the lowest literacy rate of 21.8% ( 2015).
How does literacy rate affect the standard of living of a country?
11. Life expectancy rate: Life expectancy equals the average number of years a person born in a given country
is expected to live. As of 2015, the country with the highest life expectancy is
Monaco at 89.52 years; the country with the lowest is Chad at 49.81 years.
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