Geography Ch- 6 Human Resources

 

Ch- 6 Human Resources

Meaning

*Human resource refers to the quantity and quality of human resources.

*Quantity means the number of the people living in a country and quality means skills and knowledge of the people living in the country.

Importance

*People are a nation’s greatest resource. Nature’s bounty becomes significant only when people find it useful.

*It is people with their demands and abilities that turn them into ‘resources’.

Hence, human resourceis the ultimate resource. Healthy, educated and motivated people develop resources as per their requirements.

Important Terms to understand Population

Birth Rate: Number of the live births per year per 1,000 of the population.

Death Rate: Number of deaths per year per1,000 of the population.

Infant Mortality: Number of deaths of children below 1 year of age per 1,000 of the population.

Life Expectancy: The average age at which people die. It does not mean the age at which most people die.

Migration: Migration is broadly defined as permanent or semi-permanent shifting of residence.

Population change

The population change refers to change in the number of people during a specific time.

*Births and deaths are the natural causes of population change. The difference between the birth rate and the death rate of a country is called the natural growth rate.

*Migration is another way by which population size changes. People may move within a country or between countries. Emigrants are people who leave a country; Immigrants are those who arrive in a country.

Population distribution.

*The way in which the people are spread across the world’s surface is called population distribution.

*Population is very unevenly distributed as 90% of the world’s population lives in just 10% of the land surface. *Many more people live in the northern hemisphere than in the southern hemisphere, and very few people live in high altitude areas, tropical deserts, high mountains and areas of equatorial forests.

*The most crowded areas are south and south east Asia, Europe and North America. Almost 3/4th of the world’s population lives in Asia and Africa continents. Thus, we see that the population distribution is highly uneven.

Population composition

Population composition refers to the structure of the population.

Population composition helps to know the number of males or female, their age-groups, literacy, their occupation, their income level and health conditions etc.

Emigration.

Movement of people to other countries is called Emigration.

Reasons of population growth

The reasons are growth in food supplies, improvement in medical facilities, reduced death rate while the birth rate remained the same. 

Density of Population

*Population density is the number of people living in a

unit area of the earth’s surface.

* It is normally expressed as per square km. The average density of population in the whole world is 51 persons per square km.

*South  Central Asia has the highest density of population  followed by East and South East Asia

* The density of population in India as per 2011 census is 382 persons  per square km.

* Bihar with 1102  people  per square km is the most densely populated state of India followed by West Bengal (1029) and Uttar Pradesh (828).

 

Factors affecting distribution of population

Geographical Factors

1.Topography:People always prefer to live on plains  rather than mountains and plateaus because these

areas are suitable for farming, manufacturing and service activities.

2.Climate:People usually avoid extreme climates that are  very hot or very cold like Sahara desert, polar regions of

Russia, Canada and Antarctica.

3.Soil:Fertile soils provide suitable land for agriculture.

4.Water:People prefer to live in the areas where fresh

water is easily available.

5.Minerals: Areas with mineral deposits are more  Populated.

 

Social, Cultural and Economic Factors

Social: Areas of better housing, education and health  facilities are more densely populated

Cultural: Places with religion or cultural significance  attract people. Varanasi, Jerusalem and Vatican city  are some examples.

Economic:  Industrial areas provide employment  opportunities. Large number of people are attracted to

these areas. Osaka in Japan and Mumbai in India are  two densely populated areas.

 

Population Pyramid and its Importance **