Chapter 2 The World Population (Distribution, Density and Growth) Solutions
Question - 21 : - How did science and technology help in population growth?
Answer - 21 : -
Steam engine replaced human and animal energy and also provided mechanized energy from other sources and helped in increasing agricultural and industrial production. Improvement in medical facilities, inoculation against epidemics and sanitation helped in the decline of death rate.
Question - 22 : - What was Thomas Malthus’s theory?
Answer - 22 : -
Thomas Malthus in his theory (1793) stated that the number of people would increase faster than the food supply. Any further increase would result in population crash caused by disease, famine, and war. Preventive checks are better than physical checks. For future sustainability world population need to be controlled.
Question - 23 : - Which areas of the world have high density of population?
Answer - 23 : -
Fertile plains with favorable climate and highly industrialized and urbanized areas are densely populated. There are four areas where density is more than 200 persons per sq. km. They are:
- East Asia (China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan).
- South and .South-east Asia (India, Indonesia, Bangladesh and Pakistan).
- North-West Europe (UK, France and Germany).
- The Northeastern Coast of North America.
What is the trend in growth of population over the years in the world?
Answer - 24 : -
The world population attained its present strength over centuries. It grew very slowly in the early periods. About 8000 – 10000 years ago, after the introduction of agriculture the size of population was around 8 million.
In the 1st centuries it was below 300 million. The 16th and 17th centuries set the stage for growth of population with expanding trade. The 2nd most significant cultural change that impacted the growth of population came around the 1750 in the dawn of ‘Industrial Revolution’ with approx 550 million population. It exploded after the industrial revolution in the 18th century. The 3rd major cultural and technological change that influenced the population growth came in the 20th century through ‘Medical Revolution’ – which drastically brought down the ‘death rate’ with the introduction of several life saving drugs and improved medical facilities through better connectivity and paved the path for rapid population growth.
Question - 25 : - What is population change? What is the Spatial Rate of population change?
Answer - 25 : -
Difference in the birth, death and migration of an area between two points of time leads to the size of population thus resulting in change. Population growth is low in developed countries than the developing countries. Population growth and economic developments are negatively correlated. In a developing country with a large population, even a small annual growth rate will lead to a huge change in population. Even if the growth rate continues to decline, the total population grows each year.
Presently the population of the world is 7.033 billion and is increasing at an alarming rate with more than 8 crores being added every year. Though the developed nations have stabilized their growth, the developing nations are yet to reach that target. The population in the developing nations is bound to increase in the coming years as the proportion of their youthful population is high.
Question - 26 : - What is Demographic Transition? Explain the stages of demographic transition theory with examples.
Answer - 26 : -
The Demographic Transition Theory gives us the relationship between the level of economic development of a country and its demographic characteristics. It mentions the transition of a society from a phase of high fertility and mortality to a phase where both come down to low and the countries move from primitive agricultural, illiterate and rural economy to a modern industrial, literate and urban state. Initially, there were three stages of the theory—Underdeveloped stage, Developing stage and Developed stage.
Stage-1: Stage of slow population growth. This stage was marked by both high birth rate and high death rates. So population growth rate was very low. Agriculture oriented activities depended on the vagaries of nature leading to low productivity. Society was highly illiterate with poor technology. Large families with high birth rates were the norms as they had to compensate the high death rate. About a couple of centuries back all the economies were at this stage of demographic transition.
Stage-2: Stage of the beginning of Industrial Revolution. With betterment economic conditions and living standards, this stage started with improvement of medical facilities, sanitation and as a result death rate went down but birth rate remained high initially. This gave rise to a sudden increase in population which is common in a developing economy.
Though both of them were falling, the rate of fall in death rate was much faster than that of birth rate – creating a wide gap between them – which in turn gave rise to sharp increase in population, often termed as population explosion triggered by the better medical facilities and food supply. Stage-3: Stage of late Industrial Revolution and urban state.
Typically characterized by low and stable growth rate of population. This stage is marked with a decline in birth rate along with a steady decrease in death rate. The mortality rate gets very low and stabilizes. This Demographic Transition theory clearly shows how an economy changes from an agrarian, illiterate rural state with high birth rate, and Death rate to an industrial, literate and urban state with low Birth rate and Death rate through technological innovations and medical improverhents.
Question - 27 : - Why is there great variation among various regions in doubling their population?
Answer - 27 : -
Developed countries have controlled their growth rate due to expansion of educational facilities and advancement in medical facilities. Developed countries are taking more time to double their population. Developing countries are taking less time to double their population due to lack of educational and medical facilities.