Human Population

Ch 35.3
How has human population
grown?
Slowly over time
Scarce food and incurable disease
Death rate high
Families had many childern
500 years ago
Raid growth
Why?
 Agriculture, industrial; revolution, better food supply, shipping
methods improved, improved sanitation, healthcare, improved
medicine
 Led to expanded human growth
Science Behind Human
Population
Thomas Malthus
English Economist
Human population cannont grow
exponentially
 Limits: Famine, disease, war
Demography
Scientific study of human population
Study a variety of social and economic
factors that effect human population
Examines characteristics of human
population and attempts to explain how
and why human population changes over
time
Things that help predict different
population growth rates
Birth rate
Death rate
Age structure
Hypothesis
These countries have completed a
“demographic transition”, a dramatic
change in birth and death rates
Historically: humans have high birth and
death rates
Now: High birth rate and LOW death rate
 Because of better conditions of living
 Demographic Transition
 Dramatic change in birth rates and death rates
 Low Death rate, High Birth rate
From 1760 to 1910
 Society modernizes
Increase level of education
Raise standars of living
Families have fewer children
 Birth rate decreases
 Population growth slows
 Demographic transition complete when:
Birth rate falls to meet death rate and population growth stops
Only complete in a few countries
 India and China high birth rate
Age Structure
Population depends partly on how many
people of different ages make up a
population
Age-structure diagrams
Population profiles used to predict future
population growth
Show population of a country broken down
by gender and age group
 Age structure in US
Equal # of people in each age group
Slow and steady growth rate for near future

Age Structure in Nigeria

• More young children than teenagers
• More teenagers than adults
• Population will double in 30 years
 Controlling Human
Population
India
Compulsory sterilization
China
Family planning program
 Benefits and bonuses
Forced abortions
Predicting Future Population
Growth
Many factors
Age structure of countries
Prevalence of life threatening diseases
By 2050
9 billion
Growth will level off or decrease if countries
growing rapidly go through demographic
transition
Lower growth rate means population growth is
slowing by it is STILL growing
How does this effect environment?
Ecologists predict that if this growth does not
slow even more there will be Serious damage to
 Environment
 Global economy
Other ecologists predict that science,
technology, and changes in society will control
those negative impacts on economy and
environment