Core 1 • Section 1
Population and Economic Development Patterns
Where people live, why population is unevenly distributed, and how those patterns connect with economic development at global and national scales.
How population varies between places
Restored from the original AdornGeo Weebly page • syllabus order preserved • media embedded for classroom use
Population distribution
Physical and human factors affecting population distribution at the global scale, including two detailed and contrasting examples of uneven population distribution.
Population distribution describes where people live; population density measures how many people occupy a given area. The global pattern is strongly uneven rather than random.
As you work through the resources, separate the influences into physical factors such as relief, climate, water, soils and natural resources, and human factors such as employment, transport, political stability, historical settlement and access to services.
Watch: Population Distribution & Density
Watch: Human Population Through Time
Quizlet: Changing Population key terminology
Global patterns of economic development
Global patterns and classification of economic development: low-income countries, middle-income countries and emerging economies, and high-income countries.
Economic development is also uneven. Use more than one measure when comparing places: income measures such as GNI per capita show economic output, while composite indicators such as the Human Development Index add social dimensions.
Look for spatial clusters, exceptions and changes over time. The aim is not just to label countries, but to explain why simple categories can hide significant variation within and between places.
Watch: Hans Rosling: how many are rich and how many are poor?
Watch: Why some countries are poor and others rich
Population & development at the national scale
Population distribution and economic development at the national scale, including voluntary internal migration, core–periphery patterns and megacity growth.
Global averages can hide strong internal contrasts. At the national scale, people often move towards economic cores because jobs, universities, infrastructure and services are concentrated there. This can reinforce core–periphery patterns as investment and population interact.
The original AdornGeo page used national map evidence to move from description to explanation. Use the Thailand and USA maps below as visible starting points, then the original readings and map links for deeper case-study detail.
- Describe the main concentrations and sparsely populated areas.
- Suggest physical factors that help explain the pattern.
- Suggest human and economic factors that reinforce the pattern.
- Identify a likely core and periphery.
- Explain how voluntary internal migration could change the pattern over time.
Watch: Hans Rosling: Urbanization