Class 8 Geography Chapter 1 Question Answers - Resources and Development

Q1: Why is population growth slowing in United Kingdom?
Ans: In United Kingdom, population growth is slowing because of both low death and low birth rates.

Q2: What is population density?
Ans: 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.

Q3: How does climate affect the population distribution of an area?
Ans: People usually avoid extreme climates that are very hot or very cold like Sahara desert, polar regions of Russia, Canada and Antarctica.

Q4: The world population has grown very rapidly. Why?
Ans: The main reason for this growth was that with better food supplies and medicine, deaths were reducing, while the number of births still remained fairly high.

Q5: What is the general trend of international migrations? Why?
Ans: The general trend of international migrations is from the less developed nations to the more developed nations in search of better employment opportunities.

Q6: What is an age-sex pyramid?
Ans:  A population pyramid, also called an “age-sex pyramid”, is a graphical illustration that shows the distribution of various age groups in a population, which forms the shape of a pyramid when the population is growing.

Q7: What are the factors affecting population change?
Ans: The major factors affecting population are birth, death and migration. Birth rate is the number of live births per 1,000 people. Death rate is the number of deaths per 1,000 people. Migration is the movement of people in and out of an area.

Q8: What is meant by population composition?
Ans: Population composition refers to the structure of the population. The composition of population helps us to know how many are males or females, which age group they belong to, how educated they are and what type of occupations they are employed in, what their income levels and health conditions are.

Q9: In what respects do different human beings differ?
Ans: People vary greatly in their age, sex, literacy level, health condition, occupation and income level.

Q10: Why do people move from the rural to urban areas?
Ans: Within countries large number of people may move from the rural to urban areas in search of employment, education and health facilities.

Q11: Human resources are not equally distributed over the world. Why?
Answer: Human resources like other resources are not equally distributed over the world. They differ in their educational levels, age and sex. Their numbers and characteristics also keep changing.

Q12: Why are people considered a resource?
Ans: 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 resource is the ultimate resource.

Q13: How crowded a country is, has little to do with its level of economic development. Explain with help of example.
Ans: How crowded a country is, has little to do with its level of economic development. For example, both Bangladesh and Japan are very densely populated but Japan is far more economically developed than Bangladesh.

Q14: Why some countries like Kenya have high population growth rates?
Ans:  Some countries like Kenya have high population growth rates. They had both high birth rates and death rates. Now, with improving health care, death rates have fallen, but birth rates still remain high leading to high growth rates.

Q15: What does the shape of a population pyramid of Japan indicate?
Ans: The shape of a population pyramid provides insights into the demographic structure of a country's population. In the case of Japan, if the population pyramid has a narrow base (indicating a smaller proportion of young people) and a broader top (indicating a larger proportion of elderly people), it signifies an aging population. This type of population pyramid suggests that the country has a lower birth rate and a higher life expectancy, leading to a larger elderly population relative to the younger population.