Chapter 5. Chapter 5: Human Populations

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Chapter 5: Human Populations

Guiding Question 5.1

How and why has human population size and growth rate changed over time? What is the size and distribution of today's population?

Why You Should Care

There is an entire class of party games that all share a theme of degrees of separation: How many acquaintances are there between you and a celebrity, or how many links does it take to get from one unrelated topic to another on the Internet? Similar to those games is the fact that all major economic, political, and ecological problems in the world today can be related back to the rapid growth of the human population. There simply aren’t enough resources—natural, economic, or land—to be shared equitably by all of us. Although population growth seems to be slowing globally, time will tell if it is slowing enough to avoid catastrophe.

Infographic 5.1 Human Population Through History

Question Sequence

1.

Use the information from Infographic 5.1 to calculate the following time spans.

Rounding to the nearest thousand, about how many years after the Agricultural Revolution (roughly 9000 BCE) did it take for the human population to reach 1 billion people? years
How long did it take for the human population to grow from 1 to 2 billion people? years
From 2 to 3 billion people? years
From 3 to 4 billion people? years
From 4 to 5 billion people? years
From 5 to 6 billion people? years
From 6 to 7 billion people? years
999
Correct.
Try again. Tip: subtract the year at the beginning of the range from the year at the end: 1930-1800=130 years. For the first question, remember to round to the nearest thousand and to count dates BCE as negative numbers.
Incorrect.
Infographic 5.2 Population Distribution

10.

How big are the populations of these countries in terms of the world's population or the population of the world's most populous countries?

1) The population of the United States is roughly of the population of India.

2) The population of the United States is roughly of the world population.

3) The population of Canada is roughly of the population of China.

4) Together, China and India make up roughly of the world's population.

Rank the following countries from lowest (5) to highest (1) population size: China, India, Japan, Pakistan, United States:

China

India

Japan

Pakistan

United States

Using the information from the map, indicate which of the following continents has the smallest population?

Try again.
999
Correct.
Incorrect.

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