World pattern of population distribution

WORLD PATTERN OFPOPULATION DISTRIBUTION; A REGIONAL JAHIDUL ISLAM NAHID 5/19/15

GEOGRAPHY ANDENVIRONMENTAL

STUDIES

INSTITUTE OF DISASTER MANAGEMENT ANDVULNERABILITY STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF

DHAKA.

ASSIGNMENT TITLE: WORLD PATTERN OF POPULATIONDISTRIBUTION; A REGIONAL ANALYSIS.

SUBMITTED TO: PROF. REJWAN HOSSAIN BHUIYAN

COURSE TEACHER, GEOGRAPHY AND ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

SUBMITTED BY: JAHIDUL ISLAM NAHID

ROLL NO: JS-052-010

COURSE NO: 104

COURSE TITLE: GEOGRAPHY ANDENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

DATE OF SUBMISSION: 19/05/15

1 | P a g e

LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL

Date: 19 may 2015

Prof.rejwan Hossain bhuiyan,

Course teacher, geography and environmental studies,

Institute Of Disaster Management and Vulnerability Studies,

University Of Dhaka.

Subject: Submission of assignment on “world pattern of population distribution; a regional analysis.

Dear Sir,

Here is the assignment that I assigned on the topic as peryour advice. The assignment has been completed by theknowledge that i have gathered from internet and othersources. I am thankful to all those persons who provided meimportant information and gave me valuable advices. I would behappy if you read the report carefully. In this assignment Ihave focused on global population density in relation todemographic figures and environmental factors. It will attemptto establish a relationship between different variables andpopulation and to find patterns that exist on a global scale.

I have tried my label best to complete this assignmentmeaningfully. Thanking you.

Yours obediently,2 | P a g e

Jahidul Islam Nahid.

FOREWORDS

The world’s growing human population has passed the 6-billionmark, four times the number just one century ago. The rate ofoverall growth is declining, but the actual increase continuesat about 80 million per year. Reducing this annual incrementis an objective advocated vigorously by the wealthier, low-growth, Western countries. Improved living standards, theyargue, can be achieved only by controlling population growth.Some poorer countries, notably China, have adopted policiesdesigned to reduce their population growth rates. But a worldpopulation conference held by the United Nations in 1994revealed some deep disagreements among the participants. ManyIslamic countries argued that population control of the kindadvocated by Western nations violated Muslim precepts. (Theyfound support in the Vatican, also represented at theconference.) Other countries maintained that the high rate ofconsumption in the rich Western countries constitutes a largerproblem than rapid population growth in poorer regions. In alifetime, an American will consume 30 times as much of theworld’s food and other resources as, say, a Bangladeshi does.

3 | P a g e

So how serious a problem is population growth? Should loweringthe world’s population growth rate be a global objective atall?

Today the major areas of the world are at different stages ofthe demographic transition. Europe is well into the thirdstage of the transition and its population, which is alreadythe oldest in the world, is expected to age rapidly in theforeseeable future. Northern America and Australia/New Zealandalso find themselves in the third stage of the transition butbecause their fertility levels have not fallen as low as thoseof Europe, they are expected to experience a somewhat slowerageing process. Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean findthemselves in the second stage of the transition and are stillin time to benefit from the demographic bonus. However,because these two regions experienced on average fairly rapidfertility reductions, they are expected to age more rapidlythan Europe or Northern America did in the past. Lastly,Africa has only recently embarked on the second stage of thetransition and still has a very young population with highdependency levels. Furthermore, because Africa is the majorarea most affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic, its transition tolow mortality has been interrupted and it is not clear whetherthe incipient fertility reductions experienced by countries inthe region will accelerate or not over the short term.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

4 | P a g e

SERIAL NO TOPIC PAGE NO01. INTRODUCTION 05

02. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 06

03. KEY ISSUES IN POPULATION GEOGRAPHY

07

04. ELEMENTS OF POPULATION GEOGRAPHY

08

05. POPULATION DISTRIBUTIONAND DENSITY

09

06. MAJOR POPULATION CONCENTRATIONS,EAST ASIA

10

07. SOUTH ASIA ,EUROPE 11

08. NORTH AMERICA 12

09. OTHER REGIONS 13

11. CONCLUSION 16

12. REFERENCES 17

INTRODUCTION

5 | P a g e

In most countries of the world the geographic distribution of the population is not even with varying degrees of concentration of population giving rise to varying densities in the different parts of the world. The main factors determining population distribution are : climate, landforms, topography, soil, energy and mineral resources, accessibilitylike distance from sea coast, natural harbors, navigable rivers or canals, cultural factors, political boundaries, controls on migration and trade, government policies, types ofeconomic activities, technology including type of farming andtransportation facilities, social organization and but not theleast, demographic factors like changes in natural increase and migration.

Adverse physical conditions and lack of sufficientopportunities for means of livelihood have been mainlyresponsible for discouraging inhabitation in certain areas.Climatic conditions are perhaps the most important of all thegeographic influences on population distribution. Apart fromphysical factors several social, demographic, economic,political and historical factors affect populationdistribution. One of the major results of a population censusis the insight it provides into the patterns of populationsettlement across the country. Data on distribution ofpopulation among the administrative areas are useful forseveral purposes. They generally form the basis fordetermining the electoral constituencies. They are useful inconnection with social economic and administrative planningand provide basic data for making population projections.Population distribution is based on location while density isa ratio. Population distribution denotes the spatial patterndue to dispersal of population, formation of agglomeration,linear spread etc. Population density is the ratio of peopleto physical space. It shows the relationship between apopulation and the size of the area in which it lives.

6 | P a g e

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Population distribution has been long studied. There are noclear answers as to what the major influential factors thatdrive population density are. Using ArcGIS 9.1, this studyfocuses on global population distribution and its relationshipto selected biological and environmental factors. Using geoprocessing techniques such as reclassify, weighted overlay andmodel builder, models where created for both environmentalfactors and biological factors to determine which had greaterinfluence in population density on a global scale. Statisticswere then run on the fifteen countries with the highestpopulation density and lowest population density using boththe environmental weighted raster and biological weightedraster. Results showed that the chosen biological factors hada greater influence on population density when compared to theenvironmental factors used for this study.

7 | P a g e

KEY ISSUES IN POPULATION GEOGRAPHY

I addressed several fundamental issues in populationgeography. First, we should acquaint ourselves with the pre-sent distribution of population at several levels of scale. Wemay know the total current population of a country, but wherein that country are the people concentrated? A figure revealsthat about 90 percent of the people in the world’s mostpopulous country. Historic factors created the presentdistribution of population, but modern times often demandchange. Problems associated with population growth re- mainparamount in population geography. The Earth’s environments

8 | P a g e

and natural resources are strained by the needs of themushrooming population, which farms and erodes its soils,shes and depletes its oceans, mines and consumes its mineralsfi

and fuels, and cuts and destroys its forests. But, as we willsee, historically population growth has not been a linearprocess. Regional populations have grown and declined as aresult of epidemics and famines; only after the onset of theIndus- trial Revolution has growth been the dominant trend.Today, however, the populations of certain countries are againdeclining, not for reasons of health or food, but throughother causes. Some scholars suggest that population shrinkage,which has its own set of associated problems, will become amajor issue during the present century. They argue thatpopulation change, not only population growth, will challengethe world of the twenty- rst century.fi Another issue we addressis migration. Waves of human migration have changed—andcontinue to modify the demographic map of the world. Themovement of millions of people across international borders,mostly in search of jobs and a better life but sometimes toescape war or natural disaster, continues. Indeed, immigrationinto certain countries adds more to the total population thannatural population increase in those countries; governmentstry to stem the tide of migrants by closing borders orrefusing domicile to those who do manage to enter. Related tothe process of migration is the dislocation of millions ofpeople who become refugees, a topic i examine in some detail.Virtually all governments have population policies thatpromote national objectives, ranging from control overimmigration to internal relocation.

9 | P a g e

ELEMENTS OF POPULATION GEOGRAPHY

How can a geographic approach to issues such as those justdescribed improve our understanding of them? To begin with, weshould consider some of the spatial aspects of the humanworld. Not only does less than 30 percent of the Earth’ssurface consist of solid ground, but of that living space,only a fraction (at most, around one- third) is arable—thatis, able to produce crops and live- stock. Vast stretches ofland are desert, frigid, mountainous, or otherwiseagriculturally unproductive, or of such low productivity thatonly very small human populations can subsist there. Worldpopulation is uneven as some places are considered rural andare sparsely populated, while others are more urban and aredensely populated. Population geographers interested inpopulation distribution often study past distributions ofpeople to understand how and why specific areas have growninto large urban centers today. Usually, sparsely populatedareas are harsh places to live such as Canada's northernterritories, while densely populated areas like Europe or thecoastal United States are more hospitable.

Closely related to population distribution is populationdensity - another topic in population geography. Populationdensity studies the average number of people in an area bydividing the number of people present by total area.

10 | P a g e

Figure 4.1: world population distribution

POPULATION DISTRIBUTION AND DENSITY

To represent contrasts of the kind just discussed on maps,population geographers use measures of population distributionand density. The distribution of population describes thelocations on the Earth’s surface where individuals or groups(depending on the scale) live. It is represented mostef ciently by a so-called dot map. At the largest scale—forfiexample, part of a rural county in the United States— such amap can actually show the location of every individual, witheach dot representing one person. At a medium scale—say anentire country such as France— one dot would represent acluster of perhaps 5000 people, and the map would reveal wherethe population is concentrated and where the number of peoplein an area would not add up to 5000. At the smallest scale, a

11 | P a g e

world map of population density would use a single dot torepresent as many as 100,000 people. Maps of populationdistribution have many uses. Famine-relief campaigns, forexample, use them in their efforts to deliver supplies toremote areas more ef ciently. Closer to home, electoralfiredistricting maps can- not be drawn without data on wherevoters live. For such purposes, too, distribution maps areneeded. Population density is another matter. Here the mea-sure is of the number of people per unit area, such as asquare kilometer or square mile. The data in Resource B (pageR-10) provide the area, total population, and density persquare mile for every country (but see the box, “Reliabilityof Population Data”). Note, however, that no country has anevenly distributed population, so that the average derived bydi- viding the national area by the total number of people maynot have much practical meaning. The United States, forexample, with a territory of 3,717,425 square miles or9,629,167 square kilometers (including the surfaces of lakesand ponds and coastal waters up to three nautical miles fromshore) had a population of 285.4 million in 2002. This yieldsan average population density for the United States of justunder 77 per square mile (29.6 per square kilometer). Thisfigure is the country’s arithmetic population density, and ina very general way it emphasizes the contrasts between theUnited States and such nations as Bangladesh (2644 per squaremile), the Netherlands (1224), and Japan (875). But no countryhas an evenly distributed population, and arithmeticpopulation gures do not re ect the emptiness of most offi flAlaska and the sparseness of population in much of the West.In other cases it is actually quite misleading. Take theexample of Egypt which, with a population of 71.1 million in2002, has a seemingly moderate arithmetic population densityof 185 per square mile. Egypt’s territory of 284,300 squaremiles, however, is mostly desert, and the vast majority of thepopulation is crowded into the valley and delta of the NileRiver. It is estimated that 98 percent of all Egyptians liveon just 3 percent of the country’s land, so the arithmeticpopulation density gure is pretty well meaning- less here.fi

12 | P a g e

MAJOR POPULATION CONCENTRATIONS

Figures show patterns of distribution and density in the worldpopulation. Figure 4-1 displays distribution using the dotmethod, whereas Figure 4-2 illustrates density via theisopleth method. Both maps confirm that the world’s threelargest population concentrations are all found on the samelandmass: Eurasia. They also remind us that the overwhelmingmajority of the world’s population inhabits the NorthernHemisphere. The three Eurasian concentrations are in EastAsia, South Asia, and Europe. Each is associated with a majorcivilization: China, India, and Western Europe. The fourth-ranking concentration, North America, is centered in theUnited States and represents still another importantcivilization. In this section we explore some of thesigni cant differences among these leading populationficlusters.

13 | P a g e

Figure 4.2: population distribution.

East AsiaAlthough the distribution map (Fig. 4-1) requires no colorcontrasts, Figure 4-2 depicts population density throughshading: the darker the color, the larger the number of peopleper unit area. The most extensive area of dark shading lies inEast Asia, primarily in China but also in Korea and Japan.About one-quarter of the world’s population is concentratedhere—nearly 1.3 bil- lion people in China alone. The EastAsian population cluster adjoins the Paci c Ocean from Koreafito Vietnam; the number of people per unit area tends todecline from this coastal zone toward the interior. Alsovisible are several ribbon-like extensions of dense population(Fig. 4-2 A and B). These ex- tensions represent populationsthat are clustered in the basins and lowlands of China’s majorrivers. This serves to remind us that the great majority ofpeople 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 faroutnumbered by the farmers, who produce crops of wheat andrice to feed not only themselves but also those in the citiesand towns.

South Asia

The second major population concentration also lies in Asiaand is similar in many ways to that of East Asia. At the heartof this cluster lies India, but the concentration also extendsinto Pakistan and Bangladesh and onto the island of Sri Lanka.Again, note the riverine and coastal orientation of the mostdensely inhabited zones and the nger-like extension of densefipopulation on the plain of the Ganges River in northern India(Fig. 4-2 C). This is one of the greatest concentrations ofpeople on the Earth. There are about 1.5 billion people in theSouth Asia population cluster. Our map shows how sharply this

14 | P a g e

region is marked off by physical barriers: the HimalayaMountains to the north and the desert west of the Indus RiverValley in Pakistan. This is a con ned region with a rapidlyfigrowing population. The capacity of the region to support thispopulation has, by almost any estimate, already been exceeded.As in East Asia, the overwhelming majority of the people hereare farmers, but in South Asia the pressure on the land iseven greater. In Bangladesh, nearly 133 million people, almostall of them farmers, are crowded into an area about the sizeof Iowa. Over large parts of Bangladesh the rural populationdensity is between 3000 and 5000 people per square mile. Bycomparison, in 2002 the population of Iowa was about 3 millionpeople, and less than 40 percent lived on the land rather thanin cities and towns. The rural population density was under 30people per square mile.

Europe

Further inspection of Figures 4-1 and 4-2 reveals that thethird-ranking population cluster also lies in Eurasia—at theopposite end from China. An axis of dense population extendsfrom the British Isles into Russia and includes large parts ofGermany, Poland, Ukraine, and Belarus. It also includes theNetherlands 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—butthere the similarity ends. A comparison of the population andphysical maps indicates that in Europe terrain and environmentare not as closely related to population distribution as theyare in East and South Asia. For example, note that lengthyextension marked D in Figure 4-2, which protrudes far intoRussia. Unlike the Asian extensions, which re ect fertileflriver valleys, the European ex- tension re ects theflorientation of Europe’s coal- elds. If you look more closelyfiat the physical map, you will note that comparatively densepopulation occurs even in mountainous, rugged country, such asthe boundary zone between Poland and its neighbors to the

15 | P a g e

south. A much greater correspondence exists between coastaland river lowlands and high population density in Asia than inEurope generally. Another contrast can be seen in the numberof Europeans who live in cities and towns. The Europeanpopulation cluster includes numerous cities and towns, many ofwhich developed as a result of the Industrial Revolution. InGermany, 85 percent of the people live in such urban places;in the United Kingdom, over 90 percent; and in France, 74percent. With so many people concentrated in the cities, therural countryside is more open and sparsely populated than inEast and South Asia, where about 30 percent of the peoplereside in cities and towns. The three major populationconcentrations we have discussed—East Asia, South Asia, andEurope—account for over 4 billion of the total worldpopulation of approximately 6 billion people. Nowhere else onthe globe is there a population cluster even half as great asany of these. Look at the dimensions of the landmasses inFigure 7-1 and note that the populations of South America,Africa, and Australia combined barely exceed the population ofIndia alone.

16 | P a g e

Figure7.1: population distribution of Europe

North America

The population cluster comprising the east-central UnitedStates and southeastern Canada is only about one-quarter thesize of the smallest of the Eurasian concentrations. As Figure4-2 shows, the North American region does not have large,

17 | P a g e

contiguous high-density zones like those of Europe or East andSouth Asia. The North American population cluster outdoesEurope in some respects. As in the European region, much ofthe population is concentrated in major cities while ruralareas are relatively sparsely populated. The major focus ofthe North America cluster lies in the urban complex along theeastern seaboard from Boston to Washington, which includes NewYork, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. Urban geographers use theterm megalopolis to refer to such huge urban agglomerations,and predict that it is only a matter of time before theseagglomerations coalesce into an enormous megacity. Other majorfocal points of the North American population cluster areChicago, Detroit, and Cleveland, and with some interruptions,San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego. If you study Figure7-1 carefully, you will note other prominent North Americancities standing out as small areas of high-density population;they include Pitts- burgh, St. Louis, Minneapolis-St. Paul,and Seattle.

18 | P a g e

Figure: population distribution of north America.

Other Regions

Further examination of Figures 4-1 and 4-2 reveals substantialpopulation clusters in Southeast Asia. These are actuallydiscrete clusters rather than a contiguous populationconcentration. The largest of them is the Indonesian island ofJawa (Java), with more than 120 million in- habitants.Elsewhere in the region population’s cluster in the lowlandsof major rivers, such as the Mekong. Neither these rivervalleys nor the rural surroundings of the cities havepopulation concentrations comparable to those of either Chinaor India, and under normal circumstances Southeast Asia isable to export rice to its hungrier neighbors. Over manydecades of strife, however, the region has been disrupted tosuch a degree that its productive potential has not beenattained. South America, Africa, and Australia do not havepopulation concentrations comparable to those we haveconsidered so far. Sub-Saharan Africa’s nearly 650 millioninhabitants cluster in above-average densities in West Africa(where Nigeria has a population of some 130 mil- lion) and ina zone in the east extending from Ethiopia to South Africa.Only in North Africa is there an agglomeration comparable tothose found on the crowded riverine plains of Asia. Thiscluster is in the Nile Valley and delta, which has over 66million residents. Note that the pattern of the Nileagglomeration—not the dimensions— resembles the pattern seenin Asia. As in East and South Asia, the Nile Valley and deltateem with farmers who cultivate every foot of the rich andfertile soil. However, the lowlands of the Ganges, Chang Jiang(Yangtzi), and Huang He (Yellow) rivers contain far moreinhabitants. The large light-shaded spaces in South Americaand Australia, and the peripheral distribution of the modest

19 | P a g e

populations of these continents, suggest that there is somespace here for the world’s huge population. In- deed, SouthAmerica could probably sustain more than its present 360million people if reforms were made in patterns of landownership and use in the region. At pre- sent, while thepeople of South America as a whole are well fed, poverty andmalnutrition occur in some areas, such as northeast Brazil.This raises an issue that is central to any study ofpopulation density and the capacity of a country to sup- portits people: level of technology. You will note that Japan, asmall island country, has a population of over 127 million.Its population density is at least as great as that of partsof China and India, but its farmlands are quite limited, notonly by its small size but, as we noted, also by itsmountainous character. What makes such a large population inJapan possible is Japan’s technological prowess, industrialcapacity, and money-producing exports. Japan imports rawmaterials from all over the world, converts them into nishedfiproducts, and exports those products to most parts of theglobe. With the in- come brought in by these exports, Japancan buy the food that it cannot produce at home. Thus it isnot enough to say that a country cannot support more than aspeci c number of people. We should qualify this statement byfiobserving that under present economic, political, andtechnological conditions it can or cannot sup- port a givenpopulation, depending on its status in the world market. So,while Australia could not nd a place for tens of millions offiChinese farmers, if tens of millions of Japanese came toAustralia with their skills, technologies, factories, andinternational connections, Australia would be quite capable ofaccommodating them—and many more. Having examined thedistribution and general density of global and regionalpopulations, we now come to the crucial issue: populationgrowth—its history, dimensions, and spatial expression. Thenext chapter links the maps of distribution and density withthe dynamics of demographic change.

20 | P a g e

CONCLUSION

As of late 2006, the world population reached 6.5 billion. Inline with population projections, this figure continues togrow at rates that were unprecedented prior to the 20thcentury, although the rate of increase has almost halved sincegrowth rates reached their peak in 1963. Different regionshave different rates of population growth and differentpopulation densities. The 20th century saw the biggestincrease in the world's population in human history.

It is important to understand how and where the population isdistributed throughout the world since populations are notuniformly distributed on Earth’s landmass and neither arephysical environments. It is also important to understand theeffects of different changes in population on the world. It isuseful to understand spatially where the population is locatedpresently and where it may move in the future, since thefuture of population of the world is difficult to predict. Byunderstanding certain patterns and understanding which factorshave the heaviest impact on population density and totalpopulation, it is possible to predict the future growth orpossible decline in global population, and also locate themspatially throughout the world. Then it will be possible todevelop policies that can protect the environment, allow forsustainability of the planet, and allow the continued changeof global population. The results of the study did not go asexpected, as it was assumed that there would be a greatercorrelation between the distributions of population to thevariables of environmental factors

This analysis showed that the density of population and thevariables correlated with it are heavy factors in thedemography of countries. This project reinforces the idea thatdifferent social, biological, economic, political along withenvironmental factors are more likely to shape the differentsets of statistic regarding the population rather than justenvironmental factors itself, especially the size of the

21 | P a g e

population. Many of the different variables corresponded tothe other variables, as a lot of measures of human populationand trends are related to one another.

REFERENCES

Kapitza, S.P., Mathematical model of world population growth, Math. Model. 4 (1992), pp. 65– 79.

Population Reference Bureau. URL accessed on January 22, 2007.http://www.prb.org/datafind/datafinder7.htm.

PRB, 2004 PRB, World Population Data Sheet, Population Reference Bureau, Washington, DC (2004).

Rogerson, Peter A., The Future of Global Population Modeling, Futures. 29 (1997), pp. 381-392.

Severtsov, A.S., Human population dynamics from the viewpoint of population ecology, Bull. Moscow Soc. Investigators Nat. Biol. Dept. 97 (1992), pp. 3–17.

22 | P a g e

U.S. Bureau of the Census, Report WP/98, World Population Profile: 1998, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, 1999.

Population geography by john clerk

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_population.

World Population Prospects. URL accessed on January 22, 2007. http://esa.un.org/unpp/.

23 | P a g e