Rural Demography

P.B. Dharmasena0777 - 613234, 0717 - 613234

dharmasenapb@ymail.com , dharmasenapb@gmail.com

RURAL DEVELOPMENTLesson 4: Rural Demography

Definitions

• Demography—The study of a population in its static and dynamic aspects

• Static aspects include characteristics at a point in time such as composition by:– Age;– Sex; – Race;– Marital status;– Economic characteristics

• Dynamic aspects are:– Fertility;– Mortality;– Nuptiality (marital status);– Migration;– Growth

Population Distribution

• Population is not distributed evenly because of several factors:– natural resources,– climate, – economic development, – government policy, – rural/urban settlement, – capital resources, and – conflicts.

World Population Distribution

World Population Distribution

Natural Resources

• People live closer to valuable resources such as oil, arable land, and fresh water. Most people in the world live near the coast or along a major waterway and they live on flat ground that is easy to farm.

• A good example of how natural resources affect population distribution is China. Western China is not heavily populated because it is mountainous or a desert.

China

Climate• There are parts of the earth

where people cannot live or it is very difficult to live because it is too cold. People don’t live in Antarctica and very few people live in the arctic.

• Few people live in hot climates such as deserts. Look at the Sahara and Gobi deserts.

• Wet climates can also be a problem such as tropical rainforests. The Amazon rainforest is sparsely populated because the soil is not very fertile.

Sahara in Africa

Gobi in China

Climate …….

• Wet climates can also be a problem such as tropical rainforests. The Amazon rainforest is sparsely populated because the soil is not very fertile.

Economic Development

• People don’t live in areas where there are no jobs. This is one reason why people migrate to other countries or to cities. We will discuss this in a later lesson.

Government Policy

• The Russian government forced thousands of people to move to Siberia in order to develop the natural resources and economy of the region.

Rural/Urban Settlement• The location of cities

affects population distribution. Think about the United States. Most of the major cities are on the coasts or near the Great Lakes. These are also the most heavily populated areas.

Orlando, Florida

Capital Resources

• Areas that have good transportation networks such as roads, trains, subways, or busses are more heavily populated.

Conflicts

• Wars have a major impact on population distribution because people flee areas that have conflicts. Some examples are the Sudan, Rwanda, and the Former Yugoslavia.

Population Density

• Population density is the number of people occupying an area of land. In this course we will use the number of people who live per square mile or kilometer. However, there are other ways of computing population density.

Population Growth• We know where

people live and why, and we also know where the population is denser. Now let’s talk about why populations grow quicker than others.

Population Growth

• China is the most populated country in the world.

• In the next 50 years India will have more people than China.

• Asia has over 1/3 of the earth’s population.

Population Growth

The factors that influence population growth are:

A. Modern medicine and hygieneB. EducationC. Industrialization and urbanizationD. Economic developmentE. Government policyF. Role of women in society

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Global Population Growth• Every second: about 4 children are born, while about 2 other people die

• Net gain: 2.3 humans added to the world population every second, 72

million added every year

Modern Medicine and Hygiene

Population will grow in countries with good hospitals and doctors because:

A. Babies get regular shotsB. People have regular

health careC. There are no epidemics

such as small pox, yellow fever, or cholera.

Education

Population will decrease in countries with many educated people because:

A. More people have careers so they decide not to have as many children

B. Fewer people are farming so they don’t want children

Industrialization

• Population growth will decrease as a country becomes more developed. Countries that are highly industrialized have low population growth rates.

Government Policy

• The government of China has a one child policy. Families can only have one child otherwise the population would grow too rapidly. If a family has more than one child they must pay a fine.

Role of Women in Society

A. Countries with low population growth rates have more women working in the labor force.

B. Countries where women are expected to stay at home and be housewives will have high population growth rates.

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Demographic Transition - Views

• Optimistic view - world population will stabilize during this century

• Pessimistic view - poorer countries of the world are caught in a "demographic trap" - helping poor countries will only further threaten the earth's

resources • Social justice view - overpopulation due to a lack of

justice, not resources

Demographics of Sri LankaPopulation of Sri Lanka

Year Pop. ±%1789 1,200,000 —    1827 889,584 −25.9%1871 2,400,380 +169.8%1881 2,759,738 +15.0%1891 3,007,789 +9.0%1901 3,565,954 +18.6%1911 4,106,350 +15.2%1921 4,498,605 +9.6%1931 5,306,871 +18.0%1946 6,657,339 +25.4%1953 8,097,895 +21.6%1963 10,582,064 +30.7%1971 12,689,897 +19.9%1981 14,846,750 +17.0%2012 20,359,439 +37.1%

Rural Population – Sri Lanka• Rural Population - People living in rural areas as defined by

national statistical offices. It is calculated as the difference between total population and urban population.

• In 2014 – 81.68 %

Population Statistics of Sri Lanka

  1990 2000 2010 2014Population density (people per sq. km)

264.8 304.6 329.3 329.1

Rural population (million)

14.17 16.10 17.53 16.86

Rural population growth (annual %)

1.5 0.4 1.0 0.7

Rural population (% of total population)

82.8 84.3 84.9 81.7

Urban population growth (annual %)

0.4 -0.7 1.0 0.9

Urban population(million) 

2.94 3.00 3.12 3.78

Urban population (% of total)

17.2 15.7 15.1 18.3

World Bank Indicators - Sri Lanka - DENSITY & URBANIZATION