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Lesson 1 - Where in the world is the human population changing?
Lesson 2 - How is population change linked to economic development?
Lesson 3 - How does the social status and education of women affect a country's population?
Lesson 4 - How can countries work together to solve problems related to population and resources?
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Lesson 1 - Page 2 - How do geographers measure the causes and effects of population change in different places?How do geographers measure the causes and effects of population change in different places? Measuring population change is necessary to determine the impact of human activity on the Earth's surface. Population change can be described using words, statistics, and graphics. Two common statistical measures of population change are the Crude Birth Rate (CBR) and the Crude Death Rate (CDR). CBR and CDR are usually expressed as the number of births or deaths per 1000 people, which allows scientists to compare countries with different population sizes. The number of births and deaths per year in a country can be used to calculate the Rate of Natural Increase (RNI), which describes the percent annual growth of a population. For example, suppose a country has a total population of 250 million people, with four million births and one million deaths over a year-long period. The Rate of Natural Increase for this country would be: Formula: Births per year Death per year ________________ - _______________ * 100% = Rate of Natural Increase Total Population Total Population Example: 4,000,000 1,000,000 3,000,000 ___________ - ___________ = __________ * 100% = 1.2% 250,000,000 250,000,000 250,000,000 Given a RNI of 1.2%, we can predict that the population of this country will grow by 3,000,000 people in one year (250,000,000 x 1.2% = 3,000,000). Collaborative Learning Activity 1 - How are maps used to interpret population change?As you might imagine, comparing population trends and patterns using only statistics would be very difficult. Fortunately, there are ways to organize statistical data in ways that can quickly reveal meaningful information. Geographers use maps to display, analyze, and compare demographic data like CBR, CDR, and RNI in different places. In the next activity, your team will be asked to create choropleth maps to interpret population change in Bolivia, a country in South America. The activity will also illustrate some of the possible effects of population growth on the environment. Click
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for the procedures to follow.