Class 8 Geography Chapter 1 Question Answers - Resources and Development

Q1: Why did world population rise from 1800 onwards?
Ans: In 1820, the world’s population reached one billion. A hundred and fifty years later, in the early 1970s, the world’s population reached 3 billion. This is often called population explosion. In 1999, less than 30 years later, the population doubled to 6 billion. 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.

Q2: Discuss the role of any two factors influencing population change.
Ans: Birth rate and death rate are the natural causes of population change. Birth rate is the number of live births per 1,000 people. Death rate is the number of deaths per 1,000 people. When birth rate is more than death rate, population increases. When birth rate and death rate are same, population stays the same. When death rate is more than birth rate, population decreases. Thus, birth rate and death rate affect the balance of population.

Q3: What does the shape of a population pyramid of India indicate?
Ans: In countries where death rates (especially amongst the very young) are decreasing, the pyramid is broad in the younger age groups, because more infants survive to adulthood. This can be seen in the pyramid for India. Such populations contain a relatively large number of young people and which means a strong and expanding labour force.

Q4: Write a short note on distribution of population.
Ans: Distribution of population

• More than 90 per cent of the world’s population lives in about 10 per cent of the land surface.
• The distribution of population in the world is extremely uneven. Some areas are very crowded and some are sparely populated.
• Very few people live in high latitude areas, tropical deserts, high mountains and areas of equatorial forests. Many more people live north of the Equator than south of the Equator.
• Almost three-quarters of the world’s people live in two continents Asia and Africa.

Q5: Describe how various factors affect population distribution.
Ans:  Factors affecting distribution of population

Geographical Factors

• Topography: People always prefer to live on plains rather than mountains and plateaus because these areas are suitable for farming, manufacturing and service activities. The Ganga plains are the most densely populated areas of the world while mountains like Andes, Alps and Himalayas are sparsely populated.
• Climate: People usually avoid extreme climates that are very hot or very cold like Sahara desert, polar regions of Russia, Canada and Antarctica.
• Soil: Fertile soils provide suitable land for agriculture. Fertile plains such as Ganga and Brahmaputra in India, Hwang-He, Chang Jiang in China and the Nile in Egypt are densely populated.
• Water: People prefer to live in the areas where fresh water is easily available. The river valleys of the world are densely populated while deserts have spare population.
• Minerals: Areas with mineral deposits are more populated. Diamond mines of South Africa and discovery of oil in the Middle east lead to settling of people in these areas.

Social, Cultural and Economic Factors

• Social: Areas of better housing, education and health facilities are more densely populated e.g., Pune.
• 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.

Q6: ‘Until the 1800s, the world’s population grew steadily but slowly.’ Why?
Ans: For an extremely long period of human history, until the 1800s, the world’s population grew steadily but slowly. Large numbers of babies were born, but they died early too. This was as there were no proper health facilities. Sufficient food was not available for all the people. Farmers were not able to produce enough to meet the food requirements of all the people. As a result the total increase in population was very low.

Q7: Discuss the population pyramid of Kenya.
Ans: The population pyramid of a country in which birth and death rates both are high is broad at the base and rapidly narrows towards the top. This is because although, many children are born, a large percentage of them die in their infancy, relatively few become adults and there are very few old people. This situation is represented by the pyramid shown for Kenya.

Q8: What are the causes for the uneven distribution of population in the world?
Ans: The distribution of population in the world is extremely uneven. Some areas are very crowded and some are sparely populated. The causes for the uneven distribution of population in the world are:

• Geographical Factors: Favourable topography and climate, fertile soil, availability of water and deposits of minerals are some of the factors that affect distribution of population.
• Social and cultural factors: Areas of better housing, education and health facilities are more densely populated. Places with religion or cultural significance attract people.
• Economic factors: Industrial areas provide employment opportunities. Large numbers of people are attracted to these areas.

Q9: What are population pyramids? How do they help in understanding about the population of a country?
Ans: Population pyramid is a graphical representation of population composition of a country. The shape of the population pyramid tells the story of the people living in that particular country. The numbers of children (below 15 years) are shown at the bottom and reflect the level of births. The size of the top shows the numbers of aged people (above 65 years) and reflects the number of deaths. The population pyramid also tells us how many dependents there are in a country. There are two groups of dependents — young dependents (aged below 15 years) and elderly dependents (aged over 65 years). Those of the working age are the economically active. The population pyramid of a country in which birth and death rates both are high is broad at the base and rapidly narrows towards the top.