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Population
*** Shopping-Tip: Population
:''For the use of the word ''population'' in statistics, see
statistical population.''
Image:Pop density.jpg thumb|Map of Population density in the world
Image:Takeshita street view.jpg population density.html" title="Meaning of thumb thumb|A crowded street in Japan. Japan has a high [[population density.html" title="Meaning of A crowded street in Japan. Japan has a high [[population density">thumb|A crowded street in Japan. Japan has a high [[population density">A crowded street in Japan. Japan has a high [[population density">thumb|A crowded street in Japan. Japan has a high [[population density
Image:Worldpopulationgrowth-billions.jpg thumb|Population growth showing projections for later this century
In
sociology and
biology, a '''population''' is the collection of
human beings people, or
organisms of a particular
species, living in a given
geography geographic area, or
space.
In biology, plant and animal populations are studied, in particular, in a branch of
ecology known as
population biology, and in
population genetics. In '''
population dynamics''', size, age and sex structure,
mortality,
reproduction reproductive behaviour, and growth of a population are studied. In biology, an ''isolated population'' denotes a breeding group whose members breed mostly or solely among themselves, usually as a result of physical isolation, although biologically they could breed with any members of the
species.
Metapopulation is a group of sub-populations in a given area, where the individuals of the various sub-populations are able to cross uninhabitable areas of the region. '''
Biological dispersal''' is one of the key elements affecting in such populations.
'''
Demography''' is the study of
human populations. Various aspects of human behavior in populations are studied in
sociology,
economics, and
geography. Study of populations is almost always governed by the laws of
probability, and the conclusions of the studies may thus not always be applicable to some individuals. This odd factor may be reduced by statistical means, but such a generalization may be too vague to imply anything. Demography is used extensively in
marketing, which relates to economic units, such as retailers, to potential customers. For example,
Starbucks, a
coffee shop company that wants to sell to a younger audience, looks at the demographics of an area to be able to appeal to this younger audience.
Population density
Image:Growthbydevelopedvslessdeveloped.jpg thumb|Population growth is higher in less developed countries (red) than developed countries (blue)
{{main|Population density}}
Population density is measured by dividing the number of individuals by the area of the region in which they live.
Some observers of
society human societies believe that the concept of carrying capacity also applies to the
human population of the
Earth, and that unchecked population growth can result in a "
Malthusian catastrophe." Others dispute this view. The graph to the right depicts
logistic growth of population.
Populate, as a verb, means the process of populating a
geography geographic area, as by
reproduction procreation or
immigration.
The countries with the
List of countries by population density highest population density are
microstates:
Monaco,
Singapore, the
Vatican City, and
Malta. Among larger-sized countries,
Japan and
Bangladesh have two of the highest population densities.
Population pyramid
Image:Population pyramid 1 (triangle).PNG Population_pyramid.html" title="Meaning of right right|thumb|250px|[[Population pyramid showing steady mortality in each age group..html" title="Meaning of thumb|250px|[[Population pyramid">right|thumb|250px|[[Population pyramid showing steady mortality in each age group.">thumb|250px|[[Population pyramid">right|thumb|250px|[[Population pyramid showing steady mortality in each age group.
The age and gender distribution of a population within a given nation or region is commonly represented by means of a
population pyramid. This is a triangular distribution with the portions of the population along the horizontal
Cartesian coordinate system X-axis and the 5-year age groups (cohorts) along the vertical
Cartesian coordinate system Y-axis. Male population is shown to the left of the vertical axis and female to the right.
This type of chart displays the development of a population over a period of time. Nations with low infant mortality and high longevity will display a more rectangular shape as a majority of the population living to old age. The converse will have a more pyramidal shape with a wide base, reflecting higher
infant mortality and greater risk of early death.
Underpopulation
{{main|Underpopulation}}
In biology, a rarely occurring situation in which a group of individuals of a species appear in a new, inhabitable area suitable for more individuals, and begin to populate it. This may also happen if individuals of a species have been transferred to new areas on purpose or by accident.
Ecological niches are usually populated, but
evolution of a species may enable it to overcome the difficulties encountered in an initially hostile environment.
Overpopulation
{{main|Overpopulation}}
Image:Africa crowd.jpg thumb|An African crowd
The world's human population is currently growing by more than 75 million people per year. About half the world lives in nations with sub-replacement fertility. Population growth in those countries is due to immigration. Overpopulation is a state where the number of people in a country is more than that country can sustain. This can result from increases in births and survival rates, or from an unsustainable use and depletion of resources. It follows that the threat of overpopulation can be reduced either by controlling the increase in birth rate, or by improving the resources available, probably by advances in technology which can increase the productivity of existing resources.
In biology, a classic example of an overpopulation is the
lemmings in
Lapland, which procreate over the years to such densities, that a great part of the population is forced to wander to inhospitable areas. Nowadays, this happens usually in less dramatic ways than in the past, one reason probably being that the food supply of lemmings is shared with an increased number of
reindeer in Lapland.
Population control
{{main|Population control}}
Population control is the practice of curtailing population increase, usually by reducing the birth rate. Surviving records from
Ancient Greece document the first known examples of population control. These include the colonization movement, which saw Greek outposts being built across the
Mediterranean and
Black Sea basins to accommodate the excess population of individual states. An important example of mandated population control is
People's Republic of China China's one-child policy, in which having more than one child is made extremely unattractive. This has led to allegations that practices like infanticide, forced abortions, and forced sterilization are used as a result of the policy.
In ecology, population control is on occasions considered to be done solely by
predators,
diseases,
parasites, and environmental factors. At many times human effects on animal and plant populations are also considered. See also [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunting#Wildlife_management].
Migrations of animals may be seen as a natural way of population control, for the food on land is more abundant on some
seasons. The area of the migrations' start is left to reproduce the food supply for large mass of animals next time around. See also
immigration.
Population decline
{{main|Population decline}}
Population decline is a fall in a region's population. It can be caused by sub-replacement fertility or heavy emigration, or more dramatically disease, famine, or war. Or most often by a combination of the factors. In the past population decline was mostly observed due to disease. In recent years, the population of
Russia and seventeen other ex-Communist countries has begun to decline (1995-2005). The
Black Death in
Europe or the arrival of
Old World diseases to the
Americas all caused massive population declines.
In biology, population decline of a species is usually described as a result of gradually worsening environmental factors, such as prolonged drought or loss of inhabitable areas for the studied species. These, or other factors, may lead to a
small population size small population, in which case
genetics genetical factors may become dominant in the survival, or
extinction of a population.
Population aging
{{main|Population aging}}
Population aging occurs when the fertility rate declines. This means that, for a period of time, the ratio of old to young will be higher than average. It also occurs due to increasing life expectancy.
Japan and
Western Europe are the two regions which are most confronted by severe population aging in the near future. The second largest expenditure of most governments is education and these expenses will fall with an aging population. However older people tend to be the section of the population most concerned about crime and most insistent on more (and more expensive) law and order.
Population transfer
{{main|Population transfer}}
''biological aspects, see
introduced species''
Population transfer is a term referring to a policy by which a state forces the movement of a large group of people out of a region, most frequently on the basis of their ethnicity or religion. This has occurred in
India and
Pakistan, between
Turkey and
Greece, and in
Eastern Europe after the
Second World War. Other movements in population are caused by immigration, such as the immigration from Europe to European colonies in the Americas,
Africa,
Australia and other places. People immigrate as there are political problems or other problems in their country. Another thing is that there is more than half of Quebec City's popualtion of people living in just Quebec alone. If you are wondering why there are quartor of the people in Quebec speak both English and French is because there are about 33.3% of Newfoundlands people visit Quebec every year and most of them do not know how to speak french. In most of Canada's schools there are english and french classes(mostly english though). Not only is there english and french people going too many different schools but there isn't that many people who know how to speak french either.
Population bomb
{{main|The Population Bomb}}
A best-selling work, ''
The Population Bomb'' (1968) by
Paul R. Ehrlich predicted disaster for humanity due to overpopulation and the "population explosion". The work used a similar argument to
Thomas Malthus's
An Essay on the Principle of Population (1798), that population is subject to
exponential growth and will outstrip
food supply resulting in
famine. However, a key difference was Ehrlich's introduction of the Impact formula:
'''I = PAT'''
(where I=Impact, PAT = Population x Affluence x Technology)
Hence, Ehrlich argues, affluent technological nations have a greater ''
per capita'' impact than poorer nations.
A "population bomb," as defined in the book, requires three things: a rapid rate of change; a limit of some sort; and delays in perceiving the limit. The book's specific
prediction that "in the 1970s and 1980s hundreds of millions of people will starve to death" did not come to pass, however, due for the most part to the efforts of
Norman Borlaug's "
Green Revolution" of the 1960s.
It was later shown by
Keith Greiner (1994) that Ehrlich's projections could not possibly have held the scrutiny of time, because Ehrlich applied the financial
compound interest formula to population growth. Using two sets of assumptions based on Ehrlich's hypothesis, it was shown that the theorized wild growth in population and subsequent scarcity of resources could not have occurred on Ehrlich's time schedule.
In 1972 the
Club of Rome more or less repeated the argument in
Limits to Growth.
World population
{{main|World population}}
According to estimates published by the
United States Census Bureau, the world population hit 6.5 billion (6,500,000,000) on February 25th, 2006, at 7:16 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. On October 18th, 2012 at 4:36 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, the Earth will be home to 7 billion people. The
United Nations Population Fund designated October 12, 1999 as the approximate day on which world population reached six billion. This was about 12 years after world population reached five billion, in 1987.
Countries by population
{{main|List of countries by population}}
About 4 billion of the world's nearly 6.5 billion people live in
Asia. Seven of the world's ten largest countries by population are in Asia (although Russia is also located in Europe).
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Rank || Country || Population{{mn|Population|1}} ||
List of countries by population density Density(
people/ km2)
|-
| — || '''
World population World''' || align="right" | '''6,499,973,411''' || align="right" | 43
|-
| 1 || {{country|flagcountry|China}} || align="right" | 1,306,313,812 || align="right" | 136
|-
| 2 || {{country|flagcountry|India}} || align="right" | 1,103,600,000 || align="right" | 328
|-
| 3 || {{country|flagcountry|United States}} || align="right" | 298,186,698 || align="right" | 30
|-
| 4 || {{country|flagcountry|Indonesia}} || align="right" | 241,973,879 || align="right" | 126
|-
| 5 || {{country|flagcountry|Brazil}} || align="right" | 186,112,794 || align="right" | 21
|-
| 6 || {{country|flagcountry|Pakistan}} || align="right" | 162,419,946 || align="right" | 202
|-
| 7 || {{country|flagcountry|Bangladesh}} || align="right" | 144,319,628 || align="right" | 1,002
|-
| 8 || {{country|flagcountry|Russia}} || align="right" | 143,420,309 || align="right" | 8
|-
| 9 || {{country|flagcountry|Nigeria}} || align="right" | 128,771,988 || align="right" | 139
|-
| 10 || {{country|flagcountry|Japan}} || align="right" | 127,417,244 || align="right" | 337
|-
|}
See also
*
1907 populations
*
Biological dispersal
*
Epidemiology
*Founder opopulation
*
Human geography
*
Idealised population
*
List of religious populations
*
List of selected cities by population density
*
Optimum population
*
Population bottleneck
*
Population coding
*
Population genetics
*
Population health
*
Population momentum
*
Population pyramid
*
Small population size
*
Stellar population
References
-
Proceedings of the United Nations Expert Meeting on World Population to 2300
External links
* Phishare.org (2005). ''[http://www.phishare.org Population and Health InfoShare].'' Retrieved February 13, 2005.
* ''[http://www.prb.org Population Reference Bureau]'' (2005). Retrieved February 13, 2005.
* Populationworld.com (2005). ''[http://www.populationworld.com/ Population World: Population of World].'' Retrieved February 13, 2004.
*
United Nations (2004). ''[http://www.un.org/esa/population/ Population Division], Department of Economic and Social Affairs.'' Retrieved February 13, 2004.
*
United States Census Bureau (2005). ''[http://www.census.gov/cgi-bin/ipc/idbrank.pl Census Bureau - Countries Ranked by Population].'' Retrieved February 13, 2005.
* PopulationData.net (2005). ''[http://www.populationdata.net PopulationData.net - Informations and maps about populations around the world].'' Retrieved March 4, 2005.
* World Population Clock (French) ''[http://www.worldpopclock.com WorldPopClock.com - World population clock].''
-
World Population Clock (English) - US Census
Category:Ecology
Category:Population
Category:Sociology
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an:Poblazión
ast:Población
be:Ð?аÑ?ельніцтва
bg:Ð?аÑ?еление
ca:Població mundial
cs:Obyvatelstvo
cv:Халăх йышě
cy:Poblogaeth
de:Bevölkerung
el:Πληθυσμός
es:Población
et:Rahvaarv
fi:Väkiluku
fr:Population
he:×?וכלוסייה
hr:Stanovništvo
hu:Populáció
id:Populasi dunia
is:Fólksfjöldi
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ja:人�
ka:მ�ს�ხლე�ბ�
ko:�구
lt:Populiacija
nl:Bevolking
no:Befolkning
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ru:Ð?аÑ?еление
simple:Population
sl:Prebivalstvo
sv:Befolkning
th:ประชา�ร
tl:Populasyon
tr:Dünya nüfusu
zh:人�
zh-min-nan:Jîn-kháu
A '''population''' is the collection of people—or
organisms of a particular
species—living in a given
geography geographic area.
{{catmore}}
Category:Human geographyCategory:DemographicsCategory:Population geneticsCategory:Futurology
be:КатÑ?горыÑ?:Ð?аÑ?ельніцтва
ko:분류:�구
nl:Categorie:Demografie
ja:Category:人�
ru:КатегориÑ?:Ð?аÑ?еление
th:Category:ประชา�ร
zh:Category:人�
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