Population Geography: Spatial Patterns and Demographic Dynamics

Geography of Population

Geography of Population studies the relationships established between people and space. It is the branch of Human Geography that studies the patterns or spatial structures of demographic phenomena in the human population and the processes of change in the same over time.

Structure

Analyzes the characteristics of a particular population, including the split:

• Sex / Age: We present average age pyramids, horizontal bar graphs representing: the x-axis (absolute figures or percentages of the total population, men and women) and the vertical axis (the different age groups, generally 5 to 5 years).
• Economic Activity: Distinction by economic sectors with the most basic division:
  • Primary: Livestock, agriculture, and fisheries, produce raw materials.
  • Secondary: Industry, mining, processing of raw materials.
  • Tertiary: Medical, education, services, and goods production.

Construction and trade are sometimes placed in the tertiary sector or separately. Some already consider a quaternary sector: persons who have an activity related to decision-making in other sectors. But politicians would not be in this sector but the tertiary. The sources from which all population data are obtained are the census (the state) and the pattern (the council).

Dynamics

Informs about the causes by which the population increases or decreases.

• Natural Movements: The difference between births and deaths:
  • Birth rate is the number of births during a year in a particular place.
  • Birth rate is the number of births in a year divided by the number of people in the population x 1000.
  • Mortality is the number of deaths in a place in the course of a year.
  • Mortality rate is the number of deaths in a year divided by the number of people in the population x 1000.
  • Fertility rate is the number of children per female between 15 and 45.

Demographic Transition

• Stable Demographics: Mid-18th century. Very high birth rate, very high fertility, very high mortality rate, very high infant mortality, and slow growth.
• Gradual Mortality Decline: From the mid-18th century to the 1960s. Decline in mortality, improvements in medicine and hygiene, better control of production, and rapid growth.
• Demographic Readjustment: 1960s to 1930s. Decline in birth rates, mortality rates are maintained although they decrease somewhat, slower growth, and expansion in all social classes.
• Demographic Equilibrium: From the mid-20th century onwards. Birth rates suffer fluctuations, mortality rates remain low, affected by the quality of life, and life expectancy is around 80 years.

The most significant consequence is the variations in the composition and age of the population, preferably school development and social and educational aspects.