HIST 101 Chapter Notes - Chapter 5: Thomas Robert Malthus, The Sequence, Total Fertility Rate
9/22/2017 Chapter 05 - Processes and Cycles of Population Change
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Chapter 05 - Processes and Cycles of Population Change
CHAPTER INTRODUCTION
Population does not increase in an even manner from country to country. The differences include age,
gender, life expectancy, and geographic distribution, and may be identified between countries but are
more significant internally. A country that has a large percentage of its population at 15 years of age or
below will have enormous needs for education, jobs, and housing in the years ahead. A country where
the population is "aging," such as the United States or France, can face shortages of younger workers
and problems with their retirement systems. The list goes on but you get the point: a population is far
more than mere numbers. This is an extremely important chapter, and when you have studied it, you will
have a much better understanding of the complex issues of world population.
Population Trends
Never before in human history have so many people filled the Earth's living space, and never has world
population grown as rapidly as it has during the past 100 years. The population explosion of the past 200
years has increased the world's population from under 1 billion to approximately 6 billion. It took from the
dawn of history to the year 1820 for the Earth's population to reach 1 billion. It now is taking only a
decade to add each new billion. It is still possible that there will be 10 billion human inhabitants on the
planet by the middle of the twenty-first century.
Population Growth Rates
Rapid population growth varies over time and space. Europe's rapid growth occurred during the
nineteenth century, the result of the Second Agricultural Revolution. At this time better farming methods
and improved organization resulted in increased food supplies, especially to cities and towns. This was
immediately followed by the Industrial Revolution, during which sanitation facilities made the towns and
cities safer from epidemics, and modern medical practices became wide spread. Disease prevention
through vaccination introduced a new era in public health. Death rates declined markedly—by 50 percent
between 1750 and 1850—while birth rates remained high. The change is especially spectacular when
viewed in the context of doubling time—the number of years it takes a population to double—which was
150 years in 1750 but only 35 years in 1850.
One effect of this increase in the rate of natural population growth was increased migration. Millions
of people left Europe to emigrate to other parts of the world—North and South America, Australia, South
Africa, and elsewhere. When European colonization began in earnest during the nineteenth century,
Europeans brought with them their newfound methods of sanitation and medical techniques and death
rates in Africa, India, and South America began to decline. Indigenous populations began to grow, and at
ever-increasing rates. Today, South America's growth rates have declined, but Africa's remain high. As
mentioned previously, the fastest-growing populations to-day are invariably taking place in those poorer
countries that have the greatest difficulties providing the basic amenities of life for their citizens.
Disease and famine were the major controllers of population for the world as a whole until the last
100 years. Diseases still kill millions of people each year, especially infants and children, but the overall
effects have been reduced, at least in many countries.
Reduction of Growth Rates
Document Summary
Home > chapter 05 - processes and cycles of population change. Population does not increase in an even manner from country to country. The differences include age, gender, life expectancy, and geographic distribution, and may be identified between countries but are more significant internally. A country that has a large percentage of its population at 15 years of age or below will have enormous needs for education, jobs, and housing in the years ahead. A country where the population is aging, such as the united states or france, can face shortages of younger workers and problems with their retirement systems. The list goes on but you get the point: a population is far more than mere numbers. This is an extremely important chapter, and when you have studied it, you will have a much better understanding of the complex issues of world population.
