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Welcome! Today we will explore how and why human populations grow, where people choose to live, and how we analyze these trends using cool visual tools.
People do not settle randomly. Human features like jobs and roads, along with physical features like fresh water and flat land, influence the size and distribution of our cities.
To see if a country's population is growing or shrinking, geographers analyze population pyramids. These graphs show the percentage of males and females in different age groups, with the youngest at the bottom.
World population growth has changed over time. For most of history, growth was slow, but global distribution is now highly concentrated in urban areas as people move to cities for better opportunities.
Imagine you are analyzing a country with a population pyramid that is very wide at the bottom and very skinny at the top. Let's explain what this shape tells us about the country's growth trend.
- Look at the wide base of the pyramid. A wide base means there is a very large percentage of young children and babies in the population.
- Look at the narrow top of the pyramid. The skinny top shows that very few people are living to old age.
- Connect these observations to find the growth trend. Because there are many children and fewer elderly people, the birth rate is high and the population is growing very rapidly.
- Conclude your explanation. This triangular shape represents a developing nation with rapid population growth.