Introduction to Human Geography (2nd Edition), 2019a

INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN GEOGRAPHY
POPULATION AND HEALTH
Stage Three is characterized by a falling birth rate as the society begins to
death rates and population continues to increase. This continuation of population
increase is known as population momentum. The end of Stage Three is characterized
by the general balance between births and deaths.
Stage Four shows a return to population stability, but at a much greater
number of people.
2.6 MEASURING THE IMPACT OF POPULATION
Remember the earlier comparison of Russia and Bangladesh? This is the section
put onto the land that they inhabit. You’ll recall that we began by looking simply
at people per country. This is a good way to start, but the limitations are fairly
obvious. Countries that are physically larger can hold more people. We need to use
a method that changes from a measure of overall population to some kind of per
capita measure. There are many of these and each has its merits.
Arithmetic density is the simplest one. It is simply the number of people
divided by the area of the country. The area is usually measured in square
Figure 2.17
Figure 2.17 | Arithmetic Density 2015 14
Author | David Dorrell
Source | Original Work
License | CC BY SA 4.0
Physiological density
Figure 2.18
deserts, lakes, mountaintops and similar places - are subtracted from the land
total. This is useful for demonstrating how much pressure is being put on the
Page | 33