AP Human Geography Chapter 2 Key Issue 3 & 4 – Flashcards

A process of change in a society's population from high crude birth and death rates and low rate of natural increase to a condition of low crude birth and death rates, low rate of natural increase, and higher total population. The process consists of four stages and every country is in one of them.

Very high birth and death rates produce virtually no long-term natural increase. Most of human history was spent in stage 1, but today no country remains in this stage. For most of this period, people depended on hunting and gathering food. When food easily obtained a region's population increased, but it declined when people were unable to locate enough animals or vegetation nearby.

Rapidly declining death rates and very high birth rates produce very high natural increase. Europe and North America entered stage 2 of the demographic transition after 1750, as a result of the Industrial Revolution. Asia, Africa and Latin America didn't enter into this stage until the medical revolution in the late twentieth century.

This was a conjunction of major improvements in manufacturing goods and delivering them to market. The result of this transformation was an unprecedented level of wealth, some of which was used to make communities healthier places to live.

Medical technology invented in Europe and North America diffused to developing countries. Improved medical practices have eliminated many of the traditional causes of death in developing countries and enabled more people to experience longer and healthier lives.

Birth rates rapidly decline, death rates continue to decline, and natural increase rates begin to moderate. A country moves from stage 2 to stage 3 when the CBR begins to drop sharply. The CDR contiunes to fall in stage 3 but at a much slower rate than in stage 2. The population continues to grow because the CBR is still greater than the CDR. But the rate of natural increase is more modest in countries in stage 3 than in those in stage 2 because the gap between the CBR and CDR narrows.

Very low birth and death rates produce virtually no long-term natural increase and possibly a decrease in population. A country reaches stage 4 when the CBR declines to the point where it equals the CDR and the NIR approaches zero. Increasingly, women in stage 4 societies enter the labor force rather than remain at home as full-time homemakers.

When the CBR declines to the point where it equals the CDR and NIR approaches zero. ZPG may occur when the CBR is still slightly higher than the CDR because some females die before reaching childbearing years, and the number of females in their childbearing years can vary. To account for these discrepancies, demographers more precisely define ZPG as the TFR that results in a lack of change in the total population over a long term. A TFR of approximately 2.1 produces ZPG.

(1) Lowering birth rates through education and health care. One approach to lowering birth rates emphasizes the importance of improving local economiuc conditions. A wealthier community has more momney to spend on education and health programs that promote lower birth rates. (2) Lowering birth rates through contraception. The other approach to lowering birth rates emphasizes

An English economist who was one of the first to argue that the world's rate of population increase was far outrunning the development of food supplies. Malthus claimed that the population was growing much more rapidly than the Earth's food supply because population increases exponentially and food supply increases arithmetically.

Neo-Malthusians argue that two characteristics of recent population growth make Malthus's thesis even more frightening (1) In Malthus's time only a few relatively wealthy countries had entered stage 2 of the demographic transition, characterized by a rapid population increase. Malthus failed to anticipate that relatively poor countries would have the most rapid population growth because of the transfer of medical technology (but not wealth) from developed countries. As a result, the gap between population growth and resources is wider in some places than even Malthus anticipated. (2) World population growth is outstripping a wide variety of resourcesm not just food production. Neo-Malthusians paint a frightening picture of a world where billion of people are engaged in a desperate search for food, water, and energy.

On a global scale, conditions during the past half-century have not supported Malthus's theory. Even though the human population has grown at is most rapid rate ever, world food production has consistently grown at a faster rate than the NIR since 1950. Malthus was fairly close to the mark on food production but much too pessimistic on population growth.

The two most populous countries in the country. They will heavily influence future prospects for global overpopulation. These tow countries--together encompassing more than one-third of the world's population--have adopted different family planning programs.

A country that has passed through the four stages of the demographic transition has in some ways completed a cycle--from little or no natural increase in stage 1 to little or no increase in stage 4. Two crucial demographic differences underlie this process (1) the total population of the country is much higher than in stage 4 than in stage 1 (2) at the beginning of the demographic transition, the CBRs and CDRs are high-35 to 40 per 1,000-whereas at the end of the process the rates are very low, approximately 10 per 1,000.

The branch of medical science concerned with the incidence, distribution, and control of diseases that are prevalent among a population at a special time and are produced by some special causes not generally present in the affected locality.

Focuses on distinctive health threats in each stage of the demographic transition. Epidemiologists rely heavily on geographic conceptssuch as sclae and connections because measures to control and prevent an epidemic derive from understanding its distinctive distribution and method of diffusion.

Infectious and parasitic diseases were principal causes of human deaths, along with accidents and attacks by animals and other humans.

Improved sanitation, nutrition, and medicine during the Industrial Revolution reduced the spread of infectious diseases.

The stage of the degenerative and human-created diseases, is characterized by a decrease in deaths from infectious diseases and an increase in chronic disorders associated with aging. The two especially important chronic disorders in stage 3 are cardiovascular diseases, such as heart attacks, and various forms of cancer.

The major degenerative causes of death-cardiovascular diseases and cancers linger, but the life expectancy of older people is extended through medical advances.

A pandemic is a disease that occurs over a wide geographic area and affects a very large portion of the population.

The annual number of deaths of infants under the age of one year, compared with total live births. As is the case with CBR and CDR, the IMR usually expressed as the number of deaths among infants per 1,000 birth rather than as a percentage.

At birth measures the average number of years a newborn infant can expect to live at current mortality rates discussed thus far, life expectancy is most favorable in the wealthy countries of Europe and least favorable in wealthy countries of sub-Saharan Africa.