AP Human Geography key terms

The shrinking of the perceived distance between places as transportation and communication technologies speed up, so that distant locations feel closer and interact more often.

The tendency for interaction between two places to weaken as the distance between them increases, because movement and communication cost more effort over longer distances.

The measurable decline over time in the travel time or communication time separating two places, usually caused by faster transport or digital networks.

A predictive formula holding that the flow of people or goods between two places rises with their population sizes and falls with the distance separating them.

The study of how human societies adapt to and modify their natural surroundings, emphasizing the two-way relationship between people and environment.

The now-rejected idea that physical environment, especially climate, directly shapes human culture and economic development, leaving little room for human choice.

The view that the natural environment offers a range of options and limits, but human technology and culture decide which possibilities are actually used.

A thematic map that shades entire regions, such as counties or countries, in proportion to a value like population density, producing stepped patterns rather than smooth gradients.

A map in which the size of each areal unit is distorted so that it reflects a chosen variable, such as population, rather than true land area.

Computer software that stores, layers, and analyzes spatially referenced data so users can map patterns, overlay variables, and answer location-based questions.

Collecting information about Earth's surface from satellites, aircraft, or drones, allowing measurement of land cover, vegetation, and settlement without direct contact.

A four- or five-stage generalization describing how birth and death rates fall over time as a society industrializes, shifting population growth from rapid to slow.

A paired bar graph showing the number of males and females in each age group, revealing a population's age structure and hinting at its growth history.

The average number of children a woman would bear during her lifetime if current age-specific birth rates stayed constant.

The number of people too young or too old to work, divided by the working-age population, expressed as a proportion showing how many dependents each worker supports.

A government measure such as cash bonuses, paid leave, or subsidized childcare designed to raise birth rates and slow population decline.

A government program, such as China's former one-child rule, intended to lower birth rates by penalties, education, or limits on family size.

Conditions that drive people away from a home area, such as war or drought, and attractions that draw them toward a destination, such as jobs or safety.

A set of generalizations stating that most migrants move short distances, that long-distance movers favor big cities, and that migration flows generate return flows.

A person who has fled across an international border because of persecution, war, or violence and who is protected under international law.

A person who has left their country and formally requests protection in another, awaiting a legal decision on whether they qualify as a refugee.

The practice of judging a culture by its own standards and values rather than measuring it against the observer's culture.

Judging another culture by the standards of one's own, often treating one's own beliefs and practices as normal or superior.

The visible imprint of human activity on the land, including buildings, fields, roads, and sacred sites that reflect a group's values and history.

The blending of two or more cultures, especially through language and food, into a new hybrid form that differs from either parent culture.

A factor such as shared language, religion, or national identity that unites the people of a state and strengthens its cohesion.

A factor such as ethnic conflict, regional separatism, or uneven development that divides a state's people and can threaten its unity.

The transfer of power from a central government to regional or local bodies, sometimes creating autonomy within a state and sometimes feeding independence movements.

Drawing legislative district boundaries to favor one party or group, often by packing opponents into few districts or splitting their strongholds.

A portion of a country's territory that is separated from its main body by the land of another state.

A model predicting that farms around a market will arrange crops in rings, with perishable and costly-to-ship goods closest and bulky or long-lasting goods farther out.

The idea that land value and rent decline with distance from a central market, so different land uses outbid each other at different distances.

Farming that supports a dense rural population on small plots through heavy hand labor and high yields per hectare, common in monsoon Asia.

The mid-twentieth-century spread of high-yield crop varieties, fertilizers, and irrigation that sharply raised food output, especially in South Asia.

The idea that land value and rent decline with distance from a central market, so different land uses outbid each other at different distances.

A model of urban structure describing a city as rings of land use expanding outward from a central business district.

A model of urban structure in which land uses form wedge-shaped sectors radiating from the center, often following transport corridors and income groups.

The process by which wealthier residents and businesses move into a low-income neighborhood, raising rents and often displacing long-term residents.

A city that is far larger and more economically and politically dominant than any other city in its country, concentrating national functions.

The generalization that a country's nth-largest city has roughly one-nth the population of its largest city, describing a balanced urban hierarchy.

A place where goods are transferred between transport modes, such as a port where cargo leaves ships for trains, often attracting processing and manufacturing.

A model holding that factories locate where total costs of transporting raw materials and finished goods are minimized, balancing weight lost or gained in production.

A model describing development as a sequence of stages from traditional society through takeoff to high mass consumption, based on Western industrial history.

A model dividing the world economy into wealthy, powerful cores and poorer peripheries that supply labor and raw materials, with semiperipheries in between.

The shift of labor-intensive manufacturing from high-wage core countries to low-wage countries, fragmenting production across global supply chains.