Population geography
Topic: Human Geography: Nature, Scope and Approaches · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 1 "Human Geography: Nature and Scope"
Meaning
Population geography is a field of human geography. Its sister discipline is demography, the study of population numbers. It studies how people are spread over the earth and how many live in each area, which is called density. It also studies population growth, sex ratio, migration and the kinds of work people do. It explains why some regions are crowded and others are nearly empty.
Example
The fertile Ganga plain of Uttar Pradesh is densely crowded. The steep, forested hills of Arunachal Pradesh in the north-east hold far fewer people. Population geography links this contrast to relief, soil, water and jobs.
Don't confuse with
- Demography: it measures births, deaths and population structure. Population geography maps these figures across space and asks why they differ from place to place.