Population Essay

"The new threat to the planet is not too many people but too few." Was once written by Michael Mayer. He claimed that the global population will rise to a peak and then sharply decrease. As we know at the moment it seems like there are already too many people on the world, leading to starvation, scarce natural resources, poverty, war and global competition for jobs. And it seems like the amount of people are continually increasing, but will it really last and will it be a problem? In Japan in fact the population is already starting to decrease, where the total fertility rate is only 1.2. That means that a woman in Japan will have an average of 1.2 kids in her life. One of the problems in Japan is that it is difficult to live there as an immigrant. This is due to the hard language and very few Japanese people speak English well. So it's not really attractive to migrate to Japan. And the women see kids the result for Japan is what's called an 'ageing population', where there will be older people, than younger people in the future. The picture beneath shows the current populations pyramid of Japan. As you can see, the life expectancy in Japan is high, as there are quite some people in their 85's-89's. What we can conclude from this pyramid is by the trend in it. [Source: http://www.nurse.or.jp/jna/english/nursing/images/pyramid.jpg] The number of kids in the groups of 0-15

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  • Level: International Baccalaureate
  • Subject: Geography
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Population in Brazil

Sasha Zouev Geography IB, 5/09/05 IB Case Study: Brazil Population, Distribution, Density Introduction: As one of the most commonly studied populous LEDC's in the world, Brazil certainly has very interesting features and patterns regarding its population and distribution. First of all, Brazil is the largest and most inhabited country in South America, and fifth in the world. Its 8,500,000 square kilometer land area borders countries such as Colombia, Venezuela and Bolivia. The aim of this case study is to examine, section by section, the different factors that affect Brazilian population growth and distribution by looking at areas such as geographical positioning, politics, history, and generate some sort of conclusion. Distribution: Brazil's population is mostly concentrated alongside the coast. Coastal states, with a sum area of about 35% of Brazil, in fact account for about 87% of the entire population. Brazil can often be divided into clear-cut social, geographical and economic regions (figure 1). Masking half of the country, the Northern area has the dense and tropical basin of the Amazon (largest rain forest and largest river in volume of water in the world). The northeast, which is the most economically handicapped region, relies heavily on agriculture as its main economic activity. The area that is the wealthiest, and contains half of Brazils total

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  • Level: International Baccalaureate
  • Subject: Geography
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Population Case Study - Japan

Sasha Zouev Geography IB, 13/09/05 IB Case Study: Japan (MEDC) Population, Distribution, Density Introduction: Japan is a great example of an MEDC with a particular population pattern and distribution. The country, located on the western edge of the Pacific Ocean lies to the east of Asia and is made up of about 3,000 smaller islands. There are several large main islands including, from top to bottom, Hokkaido, Honshu (the biggest), Shikoku and Kyushu. Japan is also interestingly rated 10th in the world by population count and has an area of about 377,835 km². The aim of this case study is to examine, section by section, the different factors that affect Brazilian population growth and distribution by looking at areas such as geographical positioning, politics, history, and generate some sort of conclusion Distribution: Japan's population is mostly concentrated alongside the south and west coast (figure 1). Japan's population density is ranked 18th in the world, and has assisted in advertising very expensive land prices. From the years 1980 to 1987, prices of land in the six largest cities nearly doubled. This prevents many poorer families from ever purchasing or renting housing in the central cities. Because of this, daily transportation for many workers became a real lengthy hassle. For example some daily commuters had to travel up to four hours total to reach

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  • Level: International Baccalaureate
  • Subject: Geography
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Pro-Natalist China's population policy

Introduction: China has the largest world population, and with most of its cities densely populated. It has a policy which is most recognizable globally, as it is the most rigid compared to any other countries, this policy admits only one child per couple, and due to this fact it is named as "One Child Policy." s Background information on the Population: What was the problem? Due to the high fertility rate, numerous disasters such as pressure on resources (water, food, medical care, and housing) and a virus such as SARS will not spread as fast if the population in China declines. Causes of High Fertility rate: Before 1949, before the communists came into power, china was at stage 1 of demographic transition model, and had between 5-8 children per family. By the time, birth rate, death rate, infant mortality rate were all relatively high, and with a low life expectancy. This shows that the population was increasing at an extremely slow rate. Consequently, large families were encouraged, as the government followed a pro-natalistic population policy. 0 years later in 1960, there was a dramatic increase in population with approximately 100 million people more; this determined a change in demographic transition model from first to second stage. In addition, as a result, there were improvements made in some medical services. Due to the death of Mao in 1976, the government

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  • Level: International Baccalaureate
  • Subject: Geography
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Mauritius - Case Study Focusing On Population.

Mauritius - Case Study Focusing On Population Mauritius is a small island in the Indian Ocean just off the east coast of Africa. The island was discovered by the Portuguese in 1505 and subsequently colonised by a number of European countries (Britain, France & Holland) before gaining independence in 1968. The European colonies started what is the major economy in Mauritius today - sugar. After the abolition of slavery in Britain (when the island was under British rule) workers were brought from India, which created a wealth of ethnic groups. At the beginning of the 20th century the growth of population in Mauritius was relatively slow. Between 1940-1970 the population exploded and nearly doubled. The main reasons for this are cited as being a sudden drop in the death rate after the eradication of malaria, and an increase in general healthcare. Normally countries with a good economy will have a drop in birth rates after a drop in death rates, but not in Mauritius for various reasons. For example the main religions on the island - Hinduism, Islam and Catholicism - both opposed the use of contraception. Also the average marriage age was extremely low, as this is also a part of Hindu tradition and it also ensures a high fertility rate. In the 1970's the fertility rate was an amazing 6.2 children per woman and the population growth rate was estimated to be 3%, and the mean

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  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Geography
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The demographic transition model accounts for the rise and fall in population, the birth rate, death rate, population size and growth.

Population growth is ultimately decided by the amount of births and deaths, and the balance of the main inputs and outputs of population, inputs to the population being births and immigrants, outputs being the deaths and emigrants. The proportion to which is what really matters. The demographic transition model accounts for the rise and fall in population, the birth rate, death rate, population size and growth. Different cultures, society's and geographical places have different reasons for being either under or over populated. For example, the Philippines, a mainly catholic country, is very overpopulated, because of the religion of the vast majority of the country, they don't use contraception or family planning, and so families can end up having many more children than is the 'norm' for say England, where the average number of children per household is 2, whereas, in the Philippines the average number of children per house is 5, and so the population rises. However, in places like Canada, where the population is around 33,000,000 people, so why does Canada have a low population density? It's because Canada is such a large country, the whole population is distributed very sparsely and there are only 3.4 people in a km 2. Canada is in stage four of the DTM, this means that: * The birth rate is falling * The death rate is low * There is no population growth * And the

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: Geography
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Factors affecting rates of population change across the world.

Alex Calloway Factors affecting rates of population change across the world Throughout the world today, ones can see huge differences in rates of population change, from massive population growth rates to a gradual decline in population. There are some countries in the world today, where the rate of population change is extremely low and such a situation can occur for a number of reasons. When one reads of population growth or decline, it is impossible to avoid discussion of China's one child policy. However, this policy is an extreme violation of human rights and is limited to just one country and so should not form the basis of a discussion of population growth rates or as an example of a country with low growth rates. Instead, it seems apt to concentrate on those countries where government influence is not so draconian or tyrannical. Italy is one country with a negative rate of population change and does provide an example of many reasons why this situation can occur. Following the Second World War, Italy experienced a rapid process of industrialisation, geographically concentrated in the North, given Italy's current level of development and its late beginnings, it is simple to imagine how quickly the process occurred, as this graph, taken from www.thetimes.co.uk, shows. This development gave the citizens of Italy much improved health care provision, which in turn

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  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Geography
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How Zoo's Avoid Inbreeding in a Limited Captive Population

HOW CAN A ZOO WITH A LIMITED CAPTIVE POPULATION AVOID INBREEDING? * Contents. * Introduction. * Implications of Inbreeding in Limited Captive Population. * Solutions on Avoiding Inbreeding. * Ethical Issues How can Zoos with limited Captive Population Avoid Inbreeding Introduction; Animal Inbreeding was a problem in the early 1900's. London Zoo was one of the first and largest zoo's open in the world, Zoo keepers and scientists were ignorant and animals were kept in iron cages and confined spaces. They were not aware of the problem that inbreeding caused to captive populations. By the 1990's studies in plants and animals indicated that 'inbreeding depression' and many other effects were taking place naturally and in captivity. One solution to this was made in 1988 European zoos formed European Community Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA), the countries involved were to keep detailed reports on animals which would be shared with other Zoos to keep breeding in the best possible interest of the animals. Implications of Inbreeding with limited Captive Population; Inbreeding is the term used when breeding within the family, close and distant in plants and animals, however, there are consequences of inbreeding, and bares illness and health problems within a population if continued over generations. Over generations more frequently recessive and deleterious traits can

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  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Science
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Outline the theories Malthus and Boserup on impacts of population growth.

Outline the theories Malthus and Boserup on impacts of population growth Thomas Robert Malthus and Ester Boserup had individual theories on population growth. Malthus Thomas Malthus was born in 1766 near London and worked as a clergyman along with being a professor. He also had strict religious views. He wrote an essay on 'The Principle of Population'. This essay was based on a theory of population growth. Thomas Malthus based his theory on two principles * In the absence of any checks, human population has the potential to row at a geometric rate (2, 4, 8, 16, 32, and so on). In other words, populations can double every 25 years * Even in the most favorable circumstances, agricultural production can only be expected to increase at an arithmetic rate (1, 2, 3, 4, and so on) These two principles together made Malthus notice that something had to be done to keep the population in check to prevent wholesale starvation. Malthus said that there were only two kinds of checks that limited population growth; Preventative Checks - these are to reduce birth rate. Positive Checks - these are to increase the death rate Malthus had several ways of doing this. Preventative checks, the ways of doing this were; Moral Restraint, the aim of this one was that if you had a smaller family then when wealth was distributed it would be in larger amounts for each family member

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  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Geography
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How Do Human and Natural Factors Affect the Global Population Distribution?

Population Distribution-Essay "How do human and natural factors affect the global population distribution?" There are many factors that can affect the way a population is spread over the earth's surface, these factors are what make the spread of the population un-even. The factors are split into two sub categories: human and physical factors, within each of these there are positive and negative factors. I am going to look at a wide range of factors that are thought to affect population distribution and see whether they are positive or negative affects or, they could have both affects. Areas such as Japan which are wealthy and industrial are densely populated, areas like Antarctica which are hostile environments are likely to be sparsely populated. The initial reason for people settling where they do is the resources that were originally available to them. A good example of somewhere which had resources readily available when people first settled there is the south east of England a good example being around London. People settled along the river Thames so there was water available, also the river could be used to transport goods up and down the river, there was `protection because the area was quite woody, the wood also provided fuel also being near to the coast there were good communication links. These basic factors that were there 100's of years ago influenced where

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  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Geography
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