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2.10: Key Terms Defined

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    Agricultural density: The number of farmers per unit area of arable land.

    Arithmetic density: The population of a country divided by its total land area.

    Carrying capacity: The maximum population size that the environment can sustain indefinitely.

    Cartogram: map in which some thematic mapping variable—such as population—is substituted for land area or distance.

    Cohort: A subset of a population, generally defined by an age range.

    Crude birth rate: Total number of live births per 1,000 of a population in a year.

    Crude death rate: Total number of deaths per 1,000 of a population in a year.

    Demographic transition: The transition from high birth and death rates to lower birth and death rates as a country or region develops.

    Dependency ratio: The ratio of those not in the labor force (generally ages 0 to 14 and 65+) and those in the labor force.

    Doubling time: The period of time required for a population to double in size.

    Ecological Fallacy: Characteristics about the nature of individuals are deduced from inference for the group to which those individuals belong.

    Ecumene: The Greek concept of the habitable part of the Earth

    Infant mortality rate: The number of infant deaths that occur for every 1,000 live births.

    Life expectancy: The number of years that one is expected to live as determined by statistics.

    Morbidity: The state of being diseased or unhealthy within a population.

    Mortality: The number of people who have died within a population.

    Overpopulation: A condition in which a place has outstripped its ability to provide for its own needs.

    Physiological density: The number of people per unit area of arable land.

    Population density: A measurement of population per areal unit, such as the world, a region, a country or other area.

    Population momentum: The tendency for population growth to continue due to high concentrations of people in the childbearing years.

    Population projection: An estimate of future population.

    Population pyramid: Graphical illustration that shows the distribution of various age groups in a population.

    Rate of natural increase: The crude birth rate minus the crude death rate. This rate excludes the effect of migration.

    Replacement level: The average number of children a woman needs to have to ensure the population replaces itself. The number is roughly 2.1.

    Total fertility rate: The average number of children that would be born to a woman over her lifetime.

    This page titled 2.10: Key Terms Defined is shared under a CC BY 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by David Dorrel & Joseph P. Henderson (University of North Georgia Press) via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform; a detailed edit history is available upon request.