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HPG - Human Population Growth Module Overview

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Human Population Growth Module Overview

Earth's Capacity

For most of Earth’s history, humans have led lives as scavengers, hunters, and gatherers, and there were fewer than 10 million human beings on Earth at any one time. Today, many cities have more than 10 million inhabitants each, and the world's populations continue to skyrocket. Look at the dramatic growth of the human population over time on a global map and see how many might be on earth in the future. 

Currently, the world population is at 7.7 billion people. When will our global population peak? And how can we minimize our impact on the Earth’s resources? What will happen if we continue to grow at this rate?

Module Lessons Preview

In this module, we will study the following topics:

What is Population?

Demography

Demographic Transitions

Concerns with Population Growth

Key Terms

  • Birth rate - Number of births within a population during a specific time period.
  • Carrying Capacity - The number of species' individuals that can be sustained indefinitely in a specific space.
  • Death rate - Number of deaths within a population during a specific time period.
  • Demographic Transition- The transition from high birth and death rates to low birth and death rates as a country develops from a pre-industrial to an industrialized economic system.
  • Developed Country- Highly industrialized countries whose citizens have high average incomes.
  • Developing Country- Less industrialized countries whose citizens have low average incomes.
  • Emigration - Migration from a place.
  • Exponential Growth- Fixed rate growth pattern of a population that occurs when few resources are limited. Will appear as a J-shaped growth curve.
  • Growth rate - An increase in the number of people that reside in a country, state, county. The following formula is used: (birth rate + immigration) - (death rate + emigration).
  • Human Demography - Study of human populations.
  • Immigration - Migration into a place.
  • Logistic Growth - Growth pattern that occurs when growth rate levels off when a population reaches carrying capacity.
  • Overpopulation - Occurs when there are more members of a population than can be supported by its ecosystem.
  • Population - Group of organisms belonging to the same species that live in the same area and interact with one another.
  • Population Age Structure- Study of the distribution of a population in different age groups.
  • Population density - Number of individuals of the same species in a particular area.
  • Population dispersion - How individuals are spaced within a population, whether clumped or scattered.
  • Population Dynamics - The study of population sizes and the causes of these changes.
  • Population pyramid - Diagram used to represent population age structure.
  • Population size - Number of individuals of a population.

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