Fundamentals of Human Geography
This domain tests how human activity is distributed, organised and explained spatially, and how population data are used to compare places.
Core rules and concepts
Human geography studies the relationship between people and their environment and the spatial patterns that result. Its branches include population, economic, cultural, social and political geography.
- Density variants: arithmetic density = total population ÷ total area; physiological density = population ÷ cultivable land; agricultural density = agricultural population ÷ net sown area. Each answers a different question.
- Growth: natural increase = births − deaths; actual growth adds net migration. Doubling time follows from the annual growth rate, and the Demographic Transition Model links birth and death rates across stages.
- Development: HDI combines life expectancy, education (mean and expected years of schooling) and GNI per capita. It is a composite, not a single income measure.
- Activities: primary extract directly from nature; secondary transform; tertiary provide services; quaternary involve knowledge and decision-making.
- Settlements: compact, dispersed and linear forms; rural and urban functions differ.
Worked example
A district has 480,000 people, an area of 1,200 km² and 800 km² of cultivable land. Arithmetic density = 480,000 ÷ 1,200 = 400 persons/km². Physiological density = 480,000 ÷ 800 = 600 persons/km². The higher second figure shows heavier pressure on land that can actually be farmed, which arithmetic density hides.
Traps that cost marks
Mixing the three density measures; reporting absolute increase as a growth rate; listing only income for HDI; calling transport a primary activity; writing sex ratio as males per female, when it is females per 1,000 males.