Key Issues 2.1: Population Distribution

One important feature of the world's population with the most significant future implications is that:

• the natural increase rate is larger every year.
• there are fewer people in the world now than at the peak of the 20th century.
• people are uniformly distributed across Earth.
• the most rapid growth is occurring in the less developed countries.

The most populous country in the world is:

• China.
• India.
• Russia.
• Indonesia.

Two-thirds of the world's population is clustered in 4 regions. Which of the following is NOT one of these 4 regions?

• South Asia
• Southeast Asia
• Europe
• Sub-Saharan Africa

Most people live in cities in which of these regions?

• South Asia
• Southeast Asia
• Europe
• Sub-Saharan Africa

Human beings avoid all but which of these regions?

• Warm lands
• Dry lands
• High lands
• Wet lands

Relatively few people live at high elevation, but there are significant exceptions, especially in:

• Latin America.
• Eastern Europe.
• North America.
• East Asia.

Physiological density is the number of:

• acres of farmland.
• people per area suitable for agriculture.
• farmers per area of farmland.
• farm animals per area suitable for agriculture.

A country with a large amount of arable land and a small number of farmers will have:

• high agricultural density.
• low agricultural density.
• high arithmetic density.
• low physiological density.

Land suited for agriculture is called:

• arid land.
• arable land.
• population density.
• cultural landscape.

If the physiological density is much higher than the arithmetic density, then a country has:

• inefficient farmers.
• a large number of farmers.
• a small percentage of land suitable for agriculture.
• too many people for the available resources.