1. Why is population growth slowing in United Kingdom?
Answer: In United Kingdom, population growth is slowing because of both
low death and low birth rates.
2. In what respects do different human beings differ?
Answer: People vary greatly in their age, sex, literacy level, health
condition, occupation and income level.
3. What is population density?
Answer: Population density is the number of people living in a unit area of
the earth’s surface. It is normally expressed as per square km.
4. Why do people move from the rural to urban areas?
Or
Why do people migrate from rural to urban areas?
Answer: Within countries large number of people may move from the rural
to urban areas in search of employment, education and health facilities.
5. How does climate affect the population distribution of an area?
Answer: People usually avoid extreme climates that are very hot or very
cold like Sahara desert, polar regions of Russia, Canada and Antarctica.
7. The world population has grown very rapidly. Why?
Answer: The main reason for this growth was that with better food supplies
and medicine, deaths were reducing, while the number of births still
remained fairly high.
8. Human resources are not equally distributed over the world. Why?
Answer: Human resources like other resources are not equally distributed
over the world. They differ in their educational levels, age and sex. Their
numbers and characteristics also keep changing.
9. What is the general trend of international migrations? Why?
Answer: The general trend of international migrations is from the less
developed nations to the more developed nations in search of better
employment opportunities.
10. Why are people considered a resource?
Answer: Nature’s bounty becomes significant only when people find it
useful. It is people with their demands and abilities that turn them into
‘resources’. Hence, human resource is the ultimate resource.
11. What is an age-sex pyramid?
Answer: A population pyramid, also called an “age-sex pyramid”, is a
graphical illustration that shows the distribution of various age groups in a
population, which forms the shape of a pyramid when the population is
growing.
12. How crowded a country is, has little to do with its level of
economic development. Explain with help of example.
Answer: How crowded a country is, has little to do with its level of
economic development. For example, both Bangladesh and Japan are very
densely populated but Japan is far more economically developed than
Bangladesh.
13. What are the factors affecting population change?
Or
What are the main causes of population change explain in brief?
Or
What are the main elements of population change?
Or
What are the main components of population change?
Answer: The major factors affecting population are birth, death and
migration. Birth rate is the number of live births per 1,000 people. Death
rate is the number of deaths per 1,000 people. Migration is the movement
of people in and out of an area.
14. Why some countries like Kenya have high population growth rates?
Answer: Some countries like Kenya have high population growth rates.
They had both high birth rates and death rates. Now, with improving health
care, death rates have fallen, but birth rates still remain high leading to high
growth rates.
15. What is meant by population composition?
Answer: Population composition refers to the structure of the population.
The composition of population helps us to know how many are males or
females, which age group they belong to, how educated they are and what
type of occupations they are employed in, what their income levels and
health conditions are.
Long Type Answer Questions
1. Why did world population rise from 1800 onwards?
Or
What was the main cause of population explosion?
Or
What has caused the population explosion?
Answer: In 1820, the world’s population reached one billion. A hundred
and fifty years later, in the early 1970s, the world’s population reached 3
billion. This is often called population explosion. In 1999, less than 30 years
later, the population doubled to 6 billion. The main reason for this growth
was that with better food supplies and medicine, deaths were reducing,
while the number of births still remained fairly high.
2. Discuss the role of any two factors influencing population change.
Answer: Birth rate and death rate are the natural causes of population
change. Birth rate is the number of live births per 1,000 people. Death rate
is the number of deaths per 1,000 people. When birth rate is more than
death rate, population increases. When birth rate and death rate are same,
population stays the same. When death rate is more than birth rate,
population decreases. Thus, birth rate and death rate affect the balance of
population.
3. Write a short note on distribution of population.
Answer: Distribution of population
• More than 90 per cent of the world’s population lives in about 10 per
cent of the land surface.
• The distribution of population in the world is extremely uneven. Some
areas are very crowded and some are sparely populated.
• Very few people live in high latitude areas, tropical deserts, high
mountains and areas of equatorial forests. Many more people live north
of the Equator than south of the Equator.
• Almost three-quarters of the world’s people live in two continents Asia
and Africa.
