Human Geography: Population, Settlement and Economic Activities
This section covers Human Geography: Population, Settlement and Economic Activities. The exam tests population density and growth, migration, demographic transition, rural and urban settlement, and the classification of primary to quaternary activities.
Core rules
- Arithmetic density = population ÷ total area. Physiological density = population ÷ cultivated area. Agricultural density = farm population ÷ cultivated area.
- Natural increase = births − deaths; net migration adds or subtracts. Doubling time is roughly 70 ÷ annual growth rate (%).
- Demographic transition moves from high birth and death rates to low birth and death rates through falling death rates first.
- Migration is pushed by poverty, flood and conflict and pulled by jobs, education and safety.
- Settlement site factors include water, defence, fertile land and route focus; situation refers to the settlement's wider regional position.
- Economic activities: primary (farming, mining, fishing), secondary (manufacturing), tertiary (services), quaternary (research, IT, decision-making).
Worked example
A district has 1.2 million people on 4,000 km², of which 3,000 km² is cultivated. Arithmetic density = 1,200,000 ÷ 4,000 = 300 persons/km². Physiological density = 1,200,000 ÷ 3,000 = 400 persons/km². The difference shows that 25% of the district is not cultivated; physiological density is the better measure of pressure on farmland.
Traps
- Confusing density with growth rate; a dense region can have slow growth.
- Mixing site and situation.
- Limiting primary activities to agriculture; mining and fishing are primary.
- Using population size alone to define urban; the census uses statutory and municipal criteria.