POPULATION AND POPULATION DENSITY

Population is the number of people that live in a place.

Population information is important to know and can be used to:

• Plan the country’s present and future requirements such as food, accommodation, employment, health
facilities, education facilities, water and transport.
• Check the movements of people withing or out of and into the country.
People in any given area of the world are distributed because of choice or necessity. The environment around the
world is not uniform and hence population distribution is not evenly spread around the world. Population
distribution is the pattern of where people live on Earth. It is usually shown using a dot map, where a dot
represents a specific number of people. It shows where there are high or low concentrations of people.

Dot map showing world population distribution

Dot map showing Australian population distribution

Population density is the average number of people per km² and it is used to estimate if an area is sparsely or
densely populated.

Eg: population of Zimbabwe = 14 860 000 = 38 people per km²

area of Zimbabwe in km² 390 757

Densely populated areas are areas which have large numbers of people per km².

Sparsely populated areas are areas which have small numbers of people per km².

Population density is usually shown using chloropleth maps (each unique data value gets a unique colour).

Chloropleth map showing world population density

Chloropleth map showing Australian population density

The reasons for the differences in population density can be divided into physical factors and human factors.
They can have positive factors because they encourage people to live in an area. Positive factors tend to create
densely populated areas. On the other hand, they can have negative factors which often discourage people from
living in a place. Negative factors are usually responsible for sparsely populated areas.

1) Physical/ Environmental Factors (form the natural part of the environment):

• Climate: The best climates for people to live in are areas where there is a steady climate, with enough
sunshine and rain for crops to grow. Places with climatic extremes, such as the Polar Regions or deserts
are too hot or cold for people to be able to easily adapt.

• Relief: People tend to concentrate around flat land, often in river valleys, as this is the easiest for building
and farming. The Ganges Valley in India is one example of a very densely populated river valley. Areas
with high mountains and steep slopes were far harder to utilize, hence the fact that the Himalayas and
Alps have a low population density.

• Altitude (height above sea-level): High plateau areas such as the Kenyan Highlands or Zimbabwe’s
Highveld attract settlements largely due to their favourable climates. Low altitude areas tend to be hot
and prone to tropical diseases such as malaria. However, some of the most densely populated areas of
the world are found along coastal areas and at ports. It is here that the exports and imports of a country
are handled. Ports have also become favourable locations for a variety of manufacturing industries since
they have easy access to imported raw materials and transport facilities.

• Water: Water (but not too much) is critical for domestic purposes (drinking, washing, cooking) as well
as most manufacturing and industrial processes. As a result, people tend to settle in areas where there is
easy access to water, for example coastal areas of Australia as compared to the center of Australia
(desert).

• Natural Resources: Areas with a wealth of natural resources such as oil, coal or minerals may have
higher population densities than areas which do not. It is important to remember that natural resources
may be found in otherwise harsh environments and that they may be traded and exported/used in areas
other than where they are extracted.

• Soil: Good, fertile soil was essential for early settlers, as they needed to establish agriculture to survive.
These areas were often the river valleys, where there was fertile alluvial soil. Poor quality soils may be
found in areas with steep slopes; areas with very high rainfall throughout the year which tends to leach
nutrients from the soil; cold areas of permafrost; areas experiencing soil degradation through human
management e.g. over-grazing/deforestation.

• Vegetation: Wood was an important fuel and building resource, so many people have concentrated near
forests. However, some like the Amazon Rainforest were far too thick/dense for people to really exploit
them and thus tend to have sparse populations.

• Accessibility: Early settlers travelled by boat, and so established settlements on the coasts of the
countries they landed in. Often these were far more accessible than the interior regions of the country.
Examples of cities established by settlers due to their coastal location include Sydney (Australia), New
York (United States).

• Natural Threats: These may affect population density as people may try to avoid areas where pests,
threatening animals and diseases are risks.
2) Human Factors (result from people’s activities):
• Economic Factors: People tend to concentrate around prosperous area. Most countries have experienced
massive rural to urban migration at some point in their development, as the farm-based workers have left
the rural areas to try their luck in the big cities. This move to urban areas has caused many problems that
will be explored in a later section. Transport improvements have allowed people to move to the
economically prosperous areas far easier.

• Political Factors: Countries with a stable government where people have no fear of persecution tend to
have a high population density. Many people have moved out of countries such as the republics of former
Yugoslavia due to the political upheavals there. In general, countries with stable governments tend to have
a high population density eg Singapore, while unstable countries tend to have lower population densities
as people will be migrating eg Afghanistan.

• Social Factors: Many cultural groups tend to group together, especially when they first enter a new
country. Examples include areas in London which are dominated by Muslims, Hindus and Jews. Others
prefer their own space, and live in isolation, such as the Eskimos in the Arctic.

• Conflict: Wars and conflicts can lead to significant movements of population and a simultaneous decrease
in density in some areas while others may increase.

CASE STUDY EXAMPLES

A densely populated country or area (at any scale from local to regional): Japan

• Location and background:

o Japan is located in East Asia.
o It had a population of 130 million and a population density of 336 people per km2 in 2015

• Causes:
o Sparsely populated rural areas: Very few people live on the mountainous slopes in the centre of
Honshu island and the south of Shikoku island, mainly because of the lack of flat land, acidic soils
and extreme climate.
o Densely populated rural areas: many people live on the flat valleys and gentle slopes of Honshu
and Kyushu islands because they have flat land with mild winters, good service provisions such as
universities and technologically advanced hospitals and healthcare facilities.

• Effects:
o Lack of jobs in areas due to the dense of population.
o Some people are forced to move out of their city / area.
A sparsely populated country or area (at any scale from local to regional): Canada

• Location and background:

o It is located in the northern part of North America.
o It has a population of 37 million in 2018 compared to its land area of 9.985 million km2
o It has a population density of 2.7 per km2 in 2011 which makes it a sparsely populated country.

• Causes
o Many mountainous areas e.g. Canadian Rockies close to the west coast
o Permafrost in the northern areas (high altitudes) so land is too cold for work or agriculture.
o Snow and ice make transport difficult especially in less developed areas (e.g. the inner provinces
of Canada).
o Most of the population of Canada is clustered in the southern areas because the cold arctic climate
makes cultivation impossible and better to live in cooler areas.
o Also, people live in the Eastern areas since the West has mountainous areas that are too steep to farm
on easily and challenging for construction and transport.

• Effects:
o Areas with lower population are not economically active / do not have recent technology.
o People in the areas with high population eventually have to move out of the country / area due to
job unavailability