NCERT Solutions For Class 12 Geography Chapter 6 The World Population Distribution, Density and Growth

(i). Birth Rate: The birth rate is the total number of live births per 1,000 of a population in a year.

Death Rate: Death rate is a measure of the number of deaths in a particular population, scaled to the size of that population, per unit of time.

(ii). Urban centres provide vast opportunity for employment, better living conditions, peace and stability, security of life and property and pleasant climate, etc. Thus, they pull people from the rural area. This is known as the pull factors. 

Unemployment, poor living conditions, political turmoil, unpleasant climate, natural disasters, epidemics and socio-economic backwardness, etc., push people from rural areas and are known as push factors.

(i). The geographical factors that influence the distribution of population are availability of water, landforms, climate, soil, etc.

(ii). Some areas like the North-Eastern part of U.S.A., North-Western part of Europe, South, South-East and East Asia, etc., have high density of population due to the fertile plains, suitable climate, availability of water, mineral resources, urbanization, industrialization,  political stability, etc.

(iii). Three components of population change are follows:

• births,
• deaths and
• migration.

(i) Factors influencing the distribution of population

• Geographical Factors
• Availability of water: Water is used for drinking, bathing and cooking – and also for cattle, crops, industries and navigation. It is because of this that river valleys are among the most densely populated areas of the world.
• Landforms: People prefer living in the plan areas, which are suitable for agriculture, industry and transports. Therefore, the Ganga plains are among the most densely populated areas of the world while the Himalayas are scarcely populated.
• Climate: Areas with a comfortable climate attract more people. Mediterranean regions were inhabited from early periods in history due to their pleasant climate.
• Soils: Areas which have fertile loamy soils have more people living on them as these can support intensive agriculture.
• Economic Factors
• Minerals: Mining and industrial activities generate employment. So, workers move to these areas and make them densely populated.
• Urbanisation: Cities, which offer better employment opportunities, educational and medical facilities, better means of transport and communication, leads to rural,urban migration and grow in size.
• Industrialisation: Industrial belts provide job opportunities and attract large numbers of people.
• Some social and cultural factors like religion, language, trade, transport, services, political stability, and government policies, etc., attract people to a great extent.

(ii) Demographic transition theory tells us that population of any region changes from high births and high deaths to low births and low deaths as society progresses from rural agrarian and illiterate to urban industrial and literate society. These changes occur in the following stages.

The first stage has high fertility and high mortality.  Life expectancy is low; people are mostly illiterate and have low levels of technology. The population growth is slow and most of the people are engaged in agriculture where large families are an asset.

In the beginning of second stage fertility remains high but it declines with time. Mortality rate also decline as the time passes. Improvements in sanitation and health conditions lead to decline in mortality; as a result the net addition to population is high.

In the third stage, both fertility and mortality decline considerably. The population becomes urbanised, literate and has high technical know how and deliberately controls the family size.

i. (a) Africa

ii. (b) South-east Asia

iii. (b) Medical/educational facilities

iv. (b) It took 100 years for the population to rise from 5 billion to 6 billion.