European Baccalaureate Geography key terms

A four- or five-stage framework describing how birth and death rates fall as a society urbanises and industrialises, moving from high stationary rates through rapid growth to low stationary rates and possible decline.

The number of live births per 1,000 inhabitants in a given year, used with death rate to measure how quickly a population grows or shrinks naturally.

The average number of children a woman would bear over her lifetime at current age-specific rates; roughly 2.1 signals replacement level in most societies.

The surplus of births over deaths in a population, expressed as a rate per 1,000; it excludes gains or losses caused by migration.

The difference between immigration into and emigration out of a territory over a period; a positive figure adds people, a negative figure removes them.

A paired horizontal bar chart showing the age and sex structure of a population, whose shape reveals past events, current dependency burdens and likely future needs.

The number of people too young or too old to work, expressed per 100 people of working age; a high value strains pensions, schools and health services.

A population in which the share of older people rises steadily because of low fertility and longer life expectancy, raising costs for pensions and care.

Conditions that drive people away from a place, such as conflict or unemployment, and conditions that attract them elsewhere, such as jobs or safety.

Money sent by a migrant worker back to family in the home country; it can form a large share of national income and is often more stable than aid.

The rising proportion of a population living in towns and cities, driven by rural-to-urban migration and by natural growth within urban areas.

The low-density outward expansion of a city into surrounding countryside, consuming farmland and increasing car dependence and infrastructure costs.

A city that is disproportionately larger than the second city of its country, concentrating political, economic and cultural functions to an unusual degree.

A metropolitan area with more than ten million inhabitants, typically formed by the merging of a core city with surrounding urban zones.

The process by which wealthier residents and investors move into a working-class neighbourhood, raising rents and often displacing the original inhabitants.

A zone of protected open land drawn around a city to limit sprawl and force development inward or beyond the ring; it can also push house prices up.

Gross domestic product: the total market value of goods and services produced in a country in a year, used as a broad measure of the size of its economy.

A country's GDP divided by its population, giving average output per person; it ignores income distribution and unpaid work.

An adjustment that converts incomes into a common currency at the rate that buys the same basket of goods, making living standards across countries comparable.

The Human Development Index combines life expectancy, mean and expected years of schooling, and income per head into a score between 0 and 1.

A measure of inequality from 0, where everyone has the same income, to 1, where one person has everything; higher values mean a more unequal distribution.

The broad gap in wealth and development between richer industrialised countries, mostly in the temperate north, and poorer countries, mostly in the tropics and southern hemisphere.

Indirect economic and political control exercised by powerful states or corporations over former colonies, for example through debt, trade rules or investment conditions.

The ratio between the average price of a country's exports and the average price of its imports; a falling ratio means it must export more to buy the same imports.

The principle that a country gains from specialising in goods it produces at a lower opportunity cost than its trading partners, even if it is less efficient in absolute terms.

The growing interconnection of economies and societies through trade, investment, migration and information flows, reducing the effect of distance on economic activity.

A firm that owns or controls production or services in more than one country, organising supply chains across borders to cut costs and reach markets.

Investment by a firm or individual in productive assets abroad, such as a factory or subsidiary, giving lasting control over the enterprise rather than merely holding shares.

A designated area within a country where tax, tariff and regulatory rules differ from the rest of the economy in order to attract export-oriented investment.

A city that acts as a command point in the world economy, concentrating finance, corporate headquarters, media and specialised services for international clients.

Development that meets present needs without preventing future generations from meeting theirs, balancing economic growth, social equity and environmental limits.

The area of land and water needed to supply a population with resources and absorb its waste, expressed in global hectares and compared with available biocapacity.

The maximum population or level of activity that an environment can support indefinitely without degrading the resource base on which it depends.

Energy from sources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale, such as wind, solar, hydro and biomass, as opposed to fossil fuels.

Long-term shifts in temperature and weather patterns, currently driven mainly by greenhouse gases released by burning fossil fuels and by land-use change.

The trapping of outgoing infrared radiation by gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and water vapour, which keeps the planet warmer than it would otherwise be.

Two responses to climate change: mitigation reduces the causes by cutting emissions, while adaptation adjusts systems to cope with impacts that can no longer be avoided.

The degradation of dryland ecosystems through drought, overgrazing, deforestation and poor irrigation, reducing their capacity to support farming and grazing.

A condition where demand for fresh water approaches or exceeds available supply, measured as withdrawals relative to renewable resources per person.