Question

Scope of population geography

Answer 1

Population geography is a division of human geography. It is the study of the ways in which spatial variations in the distribution, composition, migration, and growth of populations are related to the nature of places. Population geography involves demography in a geographical perspective. It focuses on the characteristics of population distributions that change in a spatial context. Examples can be shown through population density maps. A few types of maps that show the spatial layout of population are choropleth, isoline, and dot maps. Population geography studies:

Demographic phenomena (natality, mortality, growth rates, etc.) through both space and timeIncrease or decrease in population numbersThe movements and mobility of populationsOccupational StructureThe way in which places in turn react to population phenomena e.g. immigration.Research topics of other geographic sub-disciplines, such as settlement geography, have also a population-geographic dimension.Grouping of people in settlementsThe way from the geographical character of places e.g. settlement patterns.All of the above are looked at over space and time.

Answer 2

One important area of study covers the components of population change or the factors responsible for change in the size of population. It must be understood that the population of any place at a specific time is a function of three types of events: births, deaths and migration.

There are four ways in which the number of people in any area can undergo change: (1) children may be born in that area; (2) the inhabitants of that area may die; (3) people from other areas may move into that area; and (4) inhabitants of that area may move out.

These components of population change, namely, births, deaths and migration are identified as fertility, mortality and migration respectively, and are known as demographic or population variables because the size, growth, structure and distribution of any population are determined by them. A study of any population is made through a study of these demographic variables.