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Definitions of Population
– Population is total number of living things of a particular type or group who live in a particular area or environment.
– Population is the number of organisms of the same group or species, which live in a particular geographical area.
– Population refers to all the people or animals of a particular type or group that live in one country, area, or town.
Definitions of Human Population
– Human population is the number of people living in a particular area, from a village to the world as a whole.
– Human population is the whole number of people or inhabitants in a country or region
– Population refers to a collection of humans and their entire race.
– Human population is the numerical value of resident human being in an area/place.
– Population is the number of people in a city or town, region, country or world
– Human population is the total of individuals occupying an area or making up a whole
– Human population is the whole number of inhabitants occupying an area (such as a country or the world) and continually being modified by increases (births and immigrations) and losses (deaths and emigrations).
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| Population in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania |
Demography is the study of human populations – their size, composition and distribution across space, and the process through which populations change. Births, deaths and migration are the ‘big three’ of demography, jointly producing population stability or change.
Population is related to the development process and environment. This is because it is a reproductive resource that transform the environmental resources to bring development. as such population is both a means and goal of all development.
Thus it requires essential services like education, law and order. as a resource, it provides labour force, especially when skilled so as to be used in the production process in various sectors of the economy.
Population can have negative effects on development especially when there is low education and technology, overpopulation and under-population. over population leads to excessive utilisation of resources, poor housing, pollution and conflict over resources. Under-population leads to under utilisation of some resources.all this help the government to plan and implement effectively the process of providing social services.
Population is usually determined by a process called census (a process of collecting, analyzing, compiling and publishing data).
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| Population in Lagos, Nigeria |
Definition of Terms
1. Population Size. Is the total number of people living in the country; It is obtained through census.
2. Population Structure. is the composition of a given population in terms of age and sex at a particular time. Census, vital registration or sample survey is used to obtain information on age and sex of an individual person from the entire population.
3. Population Distribution refers to the way in which people are spread out across the earth’s surfaces. Also, it can defined as occurrence or non occurrence of people in certain geographical unit.
4. Population Composition. refers to the geographical make up of persons in a given locality which includes, sex, age, marital status, education, occupation, income level, religion, ethnic group and race.
5. Sex Ratio. This is the number of males per 1000 females in a given population.
6. Dependency Ratio. Is the part of the population that is not involved in productive activities. The dependency ratio can be categorized into two;
a) Youth dependency ratio: Includes those who are under 15 years.
b) Old age dependency ratio: Includes those who are above 65 years.
Characteristics of Population
1. It is unevenly distributed over the surface such that some areas have low density, others have medium density and some areas have high density population. Other areas have no population at all and are referred to as non-ecumene.
2. Population is dynamic in the sense that it is migratory as people move from one place to another either permanently or temporarily depending on the prevailing conditions.
3. Population has age-sex structure. This refers to the composition or proposition of population in terms of sex, age, occupation etc.
4. Population is characterized by variation in the level of development and technology. Some countries are more developed due to the use of advanced technology while other counties use low technology.
5. Population usually faces problems like diseases such as HIV/AIDS, environmental calamities like famine, floods, earthquakes and environmental pollutio
Importance of Studying Population
In studying population, population data are obtained through census, vital registration and sample survey. The data obtained are useful in different ways;
1. It can encourage intensification of agricultural activities as a result of the reduction in the size of arable land.
2. The information obtained during the National Census is used by the Government for Planning Public Services e.g Schools, Hospitals, Markets, etc.
3. Enable to know the age and sex in a country e.g: In Tanzania the number of female is higher than of male.
4. Enables the government to combat mortality rate which may lead to loss of man power if not well managed.
5. Migration can lead to the expansion of market for the local goods in the destination regions
6. Enables to know the number of manpower skilled and unskilled.
7. It can stimulate the diffusion of technology into the destination from other areas the people who migrate posses different skills of different environmental orientations.
8. It can stimulate the growth of towns (urbanisation) and the associated advantages.
