POPULATION DISTRIBUTION & DENSITY
$100 QUESTION: What type of population density divides total population by total land area?
Arithmetic density.
$100 QUESTION: What does a broad base on a population pyramid usually indicate?
A large young population and relatively high birth rates.
$100 QUESTION: What is the average number of children a woman is expected to have during her childbearing years called?
Total fertility rate (TFR).
$100 QUESTION: What is a pronatalist policy?
A government policy designed to encourage births and increase fertility/population growth
$100 QUESTION: A country has a very young age structure. Is it more likely to be less developed or highly developed?
Less developed.
$200 QUESTION: Two countries have similar total populations. What land measure is needed to compare their physiological density?
Amount of arable land.
$200 QUESTION: What does the dependency ratio compare?
The dependent population (young and elderly) with the potential working-age population.
$200 QUESTION: What generally happens to birth rates as a country moves from DTM Stage 3 toward Stage 4?
Birth rates decline.
$200 QUESTION: What is an antinatalist policy?
A government policy designed to reduce births or fertility/population growth.
$200 QUESTION: Why can an aging country have a higher crude death rate than a younger, less-developed country?
A larger share of elderly people means more deaths per 1,000 even when healthcare and life expectancy are relatively high.
$300 QUESTION: Why is physiological density often more useful than arithmetic density for studying pressure on food-producing land?
It measures people per unit of arable land, so it shows how much population pressure is placed on land capable of producing food.
$300 QUESTION: A community pyramid has an unusually large 18–24 age cohort. What type of place could this represent?
A college/university town.
$300 QUESTION: Use the DTM graph. Which stage shows the largest gap between birth rate and death rate?
Stage 2 in this practice graph.
$300 QUESTION: According to Malthus, which grows faster: population or food supply?
Population grows faster; Malthus argued population grows exponentially while food supply grows arithmetically.
$300 QUESTION: Practice data: Country A BR 42, DR 13; Country B BR 15, DR 7; Country C BR 9, DR 12. Which country most resembles a rapidly growing early-DTM country?
Country A, because it has a very high birth rate and a large positive gap between births and deaths.
$400 QUESTION: A country has dense settlement along a river valley but very sparse settlement in deserts. Explain one physical factor causing this pattern
Access to water and fertile/arable land concentrates settlement in the river valley; arid conditions discourage settlement elsewhere.
$400 QUESTION: Use the Practice Population Pyramid. What feature suggests Community X may be a college town?
The unusually large 20–29 cohort compared with adjacent age groups.
$400 QUESTION: Explain one reason female education can lower birth rates as a country develops.
Greater education often expands employment opportunities, delays marriage/childbearing, and increases knowledge/access to family planning, lowering fertility.
$400 QUESTION: A wealthy country has very low fertility and a shrinking workforce. Describe one pronatalist policy it could adopt.
Examples: baby bonuses, paid parental leave, subsidized childcare, tax benefits, or other incentives for families to have children.
$400 QUESTION: Why might urban life expectancy be higher than a country's overall life expectancy?
Urban residents may have greater access to hospitals, doctors, sanitation, clean water, education, and other services that reduce mortality.
$500 QUESTION: Explain how a country can have a moderate arithmetic density but a very high physiological density.
A large total land area can lower arithmetic density, while limited arable land means many people depend on each unit of farmland, producing high physiological density.
$500 QUESTION: Explain one economic challenge created by a high elderly dependency ratio.
A smaller workforce/tax base may need to finance more pensions, healthcare, and elder-care services.
$500 QUESTION: A country has birth rate 9 per 1,000 and death rate 12 per 1,000. Describe the natural population trend and one likely long-term age-structure effect.
Negative natural increase; over time the population may age, with a larger share over 65 if low birth rates persist.
$500 QUESTION: Explain one criticism of Malthusian theory using ideas from the Unit 2 lessons.
Technological innovation and improved agriculture can increase food production; Boserup argues population pressure can stimulate innovation, so food supply is not fixed to Malthus's simple arithmetic pattern.
$500 QUESTION: Explain how persistently low birth rates can change the percentage of a country's population over age 65.
Fewer young people enter the population while existing cohorts age, so older adults make up a larger percentage of the total population.