Geography Case Studies - POPULATION

BACKGROUND

• 170 million people
• 920,000 square km
• 70% live on $1 a day

IMPACTS

• Housing shortages
• High crime rates
• Pollution - litter and no sewage system
• Food and water shortages
• Healthcare and education shortages
• Congested roads and horrific traffic

BACKGROUND

• 23 million people
• 7.7 million square km - 6th largest country

IMPACTS OF UNDER POPULATION

• Vast open spaces (whole centre of the country is empty)
• Foreign immigration requirements threaten native population
• Smaller army so weaker defence against attackers
• Desertification - fewer people to cultivate land
• Less workers (both skilled and unskilled)
• Public transport at threat
• Schools and hospitals at threat

BACKGROUND

• Niger is a landlocked (nosurrounding sea) LEDC in West Africa
• One of the world's poorest countries
• Population increased by 12 million in 50 years

CAUSES

• High birth rates - highest fertility rate
• Preference for male children - people will keep having children until they have a boy
• Lack of contraception, leading to lots of unplanned and unwanted babies
• Children required to work on farms
• Religious beliefs that abortion is wrong
• Decreasing death rates
• Increased life expectancy
• Clean water and improved diet
• More hospitals
• Government plans to increase family planning, educate women and religious leaders on its importance and to raise the marriage age

BACKGROUND

• Population expected to decline from 143 million to 111 million by 2050
• 17 million square km

CAUSES

• High death rate and low birth rate
• Low immigration
• Many emigrations (to Western Europe)
• Low life expectancy (65, lower for males due to alcoholism related issues
• Women don't want more children
• 1.1% of 15-49yr olds have AIDS (seems small, but it's more a=than 1 million people)
• 1.1 fertility rate

ADVANTAGES FOR THE UK

• Unwanted jobs filled
• They can be paid less and work longer hours

DISADVANTAGES FOR  THE UK

• Less jobs available
• Anti-immigration issues and racism
• Strain on public services

ADVANTAGES FOR POLAND

• More jobs available
• Money being sent in from the UK

DISADVANTAGES

• Family left behind
• Less workers

dependancy ratio - 86:100

CAUSES

• High number of people per doctor
• Short life expectancy & high infant mortality rate
• High birth rate and death rate
• Religious beliefs that contraception is wrong

IMPACTS

• Workers have to work harder to provide for everyone - 1 in 3 14yr olds have to work to support the family
• Overcrowding
• Lack of education and what is there is poor

WHAT IS BEING DONE?

• Contraception awareness
• Improvements to healthcare and education

BACKGROUND

• One of the most densely populated countried in the world
• Population density of 339/ square km

The distribution is extremely contrasting from place to place

Few people live in the low-density rural areas beacuse

• the land is not compatible for food growth and the soil is poor, aswell as extreme climates
• many areas are completely isolated and there is little  

Lots of people live in high-density rural areas because

• good soil and flat land, good climate
• not as isolated

Lots of people live in high-density urban areas because

• lots of flat land - easy to build everything a city needs
• coasts are very useful 

BACKGROUND

• LEDC in Africa
• Low GDP ($5200)
• Population density of 2.5 square km
• Hot, dry, desert-like climate
• Economy is dependant on the extraction and processing of minerals for export
• Mining employs only 3% of the population and the rest relies on subsistence agriculture
• There is a massive restricted area on the coast, landlocking the population