WORLD GEOGRAPHY
CHAPTER FIVE
“HUMAN GEOGRAPHY”

SOLs
WG.3b, WG.3c, WG.4, WG.5, WG.6

I. POPULATION GEOGRAPHY
A. Studying Population, why?
1. Decide where to build new schools
2. How to redraw political boundaries
3. Characteristics of populations include ...
a. Birth and death rates
b. Age distribution
c. Male/female distribution
d. Life expectancy
e. Infant mortality
f. Urban/rural ratio
g. Gross domestic product (GDP)
h. Ethnicity
i. Language
j. Religion
k. Education
B. Population Density
1. Average number of people living in an area
2. Reflects a country’s land size, its population, and its environmental
conditions
C. Population Distribution
1. People are spread unevenly across Earth
a. 90 percent live in the Northern Hemisphere; 2/3 of those live in the middle latitudes between 20° and 60° north
b. Many people live in lowland areas, particularly along
fertile river valleys near the edges of continents
2. Four areas of large population clusters
a. East Asia (China)
b. South Asia (India)
c. Europe
d. eastern North America (Boston - Washington, D.C.)
3. People are unevenly distributed because they tend to live in areas that are favorable for settlement such as ...
a. Available natural resources (oil, arable land, water)
b. Mild climate
c. Economically developed



d. Favorable government policies
e. Rural/urban settlement
f. Available capital resources (transportation, technology)
g. Free from conflicts
D. Population Change
1. Number of people in a place is result of three major factors
a. Birthrate (number of births each year for every 1000 people)
b. Death rate (number of deaths each year for every 1000
people)
c. Migration (process of moving from one place to another)
1. Emigrants (people who leave a country to live
somewhere else)
2. Immigrants (people who come to a new country)
3. Push factors (cause people to leave)
4. Pull factors (cause people to come)
5. Refugees (people who have been forced to leave
and cannot return to their homes)
6. Routes followed are influenced by physical geography
7. Influence cultural lanscapes, how?
a. Languages spoken
b. Religion and religious freedom
c. Customs/Traditions
2. Factors that influence growth rates include ...
a. Modern medicine and hygiene
b. Education
c. Industrialization and urbanization
d. Economic development
e. Government policy
f. Role of women in society
E. Natural Increase (based just on birth and death rates)
1. Subtract birthrate from the death rate
2. Highest rates are found in countries in Africa and Southwest Asia
3. Moderate rates are found in Central and South America and in
Southeast Asia
4. Lowest rates are found in most European and North American
countries, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan
5. Countries such as Italy and Russia have negative rates
II. CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY
A. Culture includes all the features of a people’s way of life
1. Learned and passed down from generation to generation through
teaching, example and imitation
2. Important parts include language, religion, architecture, clothing,
economics, family life, food and government, beliefs, institutions,
shared values, technologies, and skills

3. Regional landscapes reflect the cultural characteristics of their
inhabitants, how?
a. Religious buildings
b. Dwellings
c. Statues and monuments
B. Culture traits are activities and behaviors that people often take part in
C. Culture regions are areas in which people have many shared culture
traits; Sometimes ...
1. It is an entire country (Japan and Korea)
2. Countries include many culture regions such as African countries that have many ethnic groups (human population that shares a common culture or ancestry)
3. Borders divide culture regions and separate members of one ethnic group
4. It includes several countries
D. Culture Change
1. Brought about by modern transporation and communication
2. Acculuturation is the process when an individual or group adopts
some of the traits of another culture
3. Innovation (new ideas that a culture accepts)
4. Diffusion occurs when an idea or innovation spreads from one
person or group to another and is adopted
a. Physical barriers (i.e., mountains) may slow diffusion
b. Cultural similarities (i.e., language) may aid diffusion
E. Globalization
1. Communication networks such as the Internet and satellite TV are
spreading culture traits more quickly than ever before
2. Process in which connections around the world increase and
cultures become more alike
3. Today, it often has its roots in the United States
F. Traditionalism
1. Opposite of globalization
2. Following longtime practices and opposing many modern
technologies and ideas
3. Keeps cultures separate and distinct
G. Cultural similaries can link or divide regions
1. Language
2. Ethnic heritage
3. Religion
III. WORLD LANGUAGES AND RELIGIONS (worksheet)