The World Population

About this unit

This unit studies the people of the world: where they live, how their numbers change, what their composition is, and how the idea of human development measures quality of life. People are the most important resource of a country, because they produce, consume and decide how other resources are used.

Key ideas

• Population distribution (where people live) differs from population density (people per unit area).
• Geographical, economic, and social-cultural factors explain uneven distribution.
• Population change depends on births, deaths and migration; migration is driven by push and pull factors.
• The demographic transition theory describes how birth and death rates fall as societies develop.
• Composition includes sex ratio, age structure (shown by age-sex pyramids), rural-urban split, literacy and occupation.
• Human development focuses on enlarging people's choices, measured by the Human Development Index.

How to prepare

Practise simple calculations of density, natural growth and sex ratio. Learn the three stages of demographic transition and the three shapes of age-sex pyramids. Remember the pillars and approaches of human development and the dimensions of the HDI.