APHG Population: Distribution, Density, and Scale 2019

A. Distribution 1. Study the world population distribution maps below.

Describe world population distribution, including major population clusters and sparsely populated regions. (In describing distribution, you are looking for patterns, extremes, and anomalies.) Be sure to use the names of relevant world regions in your description.

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2. Analyze the world population distribution you have just described and complete the chart below with as many ideas as you can think of that identify the influence of physical and human factors on population distribution.

Influence of physical factors Influence of human factors

Distribution of population

APHG Population: Distribution, Density, and Scale 2019

B. Density 1. Arithmetic density = total number of people divided by total land area

a. Examples: from https://www.gapminder.org/data/

b. Various densities within countries: example Manhattan, NYC: 25,846/km²

2. Physiological density = number of people per area of arable land (land suitable for agriculture)

The higher the physiological density, the greater the pressure that people may place on the land to produce enough food.

3. Agricultural density = the ratio of the number of farmers to the amount of arable land

Country Arithmetic Density/sq. km.Canada 4.06Egypt 99.8Nigeria 213Rwanda 507Singapore 8270

APHG Population: Distribution, Density, and Scale 2019

Activity1. Analyze the following images, and describe the type of density pictured in the image and labeled in the box.

Image Description of population density

Agricultural:

Arithmetic:

Physiological:

Arithmetic:

APHG Population: Distribution, Density, and Scale 20192. Implications of Densities and Distributions

Country Arithmetic Density

Physiological Density

Agricultural Density

% Farmers % Arable Land

The Netherlands 507 1668 64 4 27

Egypt 99.8 3350 1401 40 2

What are the implications of the above data on density? economically? politically? socially? environmentally? for infrastructure? for urban services?