NCERT Solutions for Class 12 Geography Ch 2 The World Population (Distribution, Density and Growth)
| Birth Rate | Death Rate |
| The number of live births per thousand of population in a year is called crude birth rate. | The number of deaths per thousand of population in a year is called crude birth rate. |
| It is calculated as: CBR = Bi/P ✖ 1000 Here, CBR = Crude Birth Rate; Bi = live births during the year; P=Mid year population of the area | It is calculated as: |
| Push factors of migration | Pull factors of migration |
| These factors cause people to move away from a place. | These factors cause people to come from outside places. |
| Push factors are due to unemployment, poor living conditions, political turmoil, unpleasant climate, natural disasters, epidemics and socio-economic backwardness | Pull factors are due to better job opportunities and living conditions, peace and stability, security of life and property and pleasant climate. |
Long Answer Type Questions
In the 1st centuries it was below 300 million. The 16th and 17th centuries set the stage for growth of population with expanding trade. The 2nd most significant cultural change that impacted the growth of population came around the 1750 in the dawn of ‘Industrial Revolution’ with approx 550 million population. It exploded after the industrial revolution in the 18th century. The 3rd major cultural and technological change that influenced the population growth came in the 20th century through ‘Medical Revolution’ – which drastically brought down the ‘death rate’ with the introduction of several life saving drugs and improved medical facilities through better connectivity and paved the path for rapid population growth.
Presently the population of the world is 7.033 billion and is increasing at an alarming rate with more than 8 crores being added every year. Though the developed nations have stabilized their growth, the developing nations are yet to reach that target. The population in the developing nations is bound to increase in the coming years as the proportion of their youthful population is high.
Stage-1: Stage of slow population growth. This stage was marked by both high birth rate and high death rates. So population growth rate was very low. Agriculture oriented activities depended on the vagaries of nature leading to low productivity. Society was highly illiterate with poor technology. Large families with high birth rates were the norms as they had to compensate the high death rate. About a couple of centuries back all the economies were at this stage of demographic transition.
Stage-2: Stage of the beginning of Industrial Revolution. With betterment economic conditions and living standards, this stage started with improvement of medical facilities, sanitation and as a result death rate went down but birth rate remained high initially. This gave rise to a sudden increase in population which is common in a developing economy.
Though both of them were falling, the rate of fall in death rate was much faster than that of birth rate – creating a wide gap between them – which in turn gave rise to sharp increase in population, often termed as population explosion triggered by the better medical facilities and food supply. Stage-3: Stage of late Industrial Revolution and urban state.
Typically characterized by low and stable growth rate of population. This stage is marked with a decline in birth rate along with a steady decrease in death rate. The mortality rate gets very low and stabilizes. This Demographic Transition theory clearly shows how an economy changes from an agrarian, illiterate rural state with high birth rate, and Death rate to an industrial, literate and urban state with low Birth rate and Death rate through technological innovations and medical improverhents.
Thomas Malthus in his theory (1793) stated that the number of people would increase faster than the food supply. Any further increase would result in population crash caused by disease, famine and war. Preventive checks are better than physical checks. For future sustainability world population need to be controlled.
Access to family planning measures is an important factor in controlling population. Propaganda, creating awareness, free availability of contraceptives, tax disincentives for large families are some of the measures which can be adopted for controlling population.
