Human Resources

Do you know?
The Government of
India has a Ministry
of Human Resource
Development.
The Ministry was
created in 1985
with an aim to
improve peoples
skills. This just
shows how
important people
are as a resource
for the country.

People are a nations greatest resource. Natures 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. Healthy, educated and motivated
people develop resources as per their requirements.
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.
There are 500
children in my
school.

How many
people do you
think, there are
in the whole
world?

My village
has 1,000
people.

There are
30 children
in my class.
6.6 billion people.

How do you
write that in
numbers?

Distribution

of

Population

The way in which people are

spread across the earth surface
is known as the pattern of
population distribution. More
than 90 per cent of the worlds
population lives in about 30 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.
The crowded areas are south and
south east Asia, Europe and north
eastern North America. 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 worlds people live in two
continents Asia and Africa.
Sixty per cent of the worlds
people stay in just 10 countries.
All of them have more than a 100
million people.

Of every 100 people in the world...

live in Asia

live in Central
and South
America

live in Europe

live in Africa

live in Northern live in Oceania

America
(Australia, New
Zealand and the
Pacific island)

Fig. 6.1: World population by continents

Activity
Study Fig. 6.1
and find out :
of the worlds total
population which
continent has
(a) only 5 per cent
(b) only 13 per cent
(c) only 1 per cent
(d) only 12 per cent

Fig. 6.2: Worlds most populous countries

Locate and label these countries on the outline map of the world.
Source: Census of India, 2011 Provisional Population Totals, Paper 1 of 2011 India Series 1

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67

Do you know?
Average density of
population in India
is 382 persons per
square km.

Density

of

Population

Population density is the number of people living in a

unit area of the earths surface. It is normally expressed
as per square km. The average density of population in
the whole world is 51 persons per square km. South
Central Asia has the highest density of population
followed by East and South East Asia

When all the 30 students are

present, our classroom seems
very crowded. But when the
same class is seated in the
school assembly hall, it seems
so open and empty. Why?

Because the size or area of the

hall is much larger than that of
the classroom. However, when
all the students of the school
come into the hall, the hall too
starts looking crowded.

Factors Affecting Distribution

of

Population

Geographical Factors
Activity
Look at Fig 6.2
and find out:
of these countries
how many are in
Asia? Colour them
on a world map.

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.
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and

Development

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.

Glossary
Life expectancy
It is the number
of years that an
average person can
expect to live.

Population Change
The population change refers to change in the number
of people during a specific time. The world population
has not been stable. It has increased manifold as seen
in the Fig 6.3. Why? This is actually due to changes in
the number of births and deaths. For an extremely long
period of human history, until the 1800s, the worlds
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.
In 1804, the worlds population reached one
billion. A hundred and fifty five years later, in 1959,
the worlds population reached 3 billion. This is often
called population explosion. In 1999, 40 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.
Births are usually measured using the birth rate i.e.
the number of live births per 1,000 people. Deaths are
usually measured using the death rate i.e. the number
of deaths per 1,000 people. Migrations is the movement
of people in and out of an area.
Births and deaths are the
natural causes of population
change. The difference between
the birth rate and the death
rate of a country is called the
natural growth rate.
The population increase in
the world is mainly due to rapid
Fig 6.3: World Population Growth
increase in natural growth rate.
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69

Population Steady

se

a
n Incre
pulatio

Popula

tion D
ecrea

Po

reas
ion Inc
olpulat

Death Rate

Polpulation steady
Birth Rate

Death Rate

Polpula
Birth Rate

Birth rate and death rate same:

population stays the same

tion de

crease

Death Rate

Birth Rate

Birth rate more than death

rate: population increase

se

Death rate more than birth

rate:population decreases

Fig 6.4: Balance of Population

Glossary
Immigration
When a person
enters a new
country.
Emigration
When a person
leaves a country.

Migration is another way by which population size

changes. People may move within a country or between
countries. Emigrants are people who leave a country;
Immigrants are those who arrive in a country.
Countries like the United States of America and
Australia have gained in-numbers by in-migration or
immigration. Sudan is an example of a country that
has experienced a loss in population numbers due to
out-migration or emigration.
The general trend of international migrations is
from the less developed nations to the more developed
nations in search of better employment opportunities.
Within countries large number of people may move
from the rural to urban areas in search of employment,
education and health facilities.

Patterns

of

Population Change

Rates of population growth vary across the world

(Fig 6.5). Although, the worlds total population is rising
rapidly, not all countries are experiencing this growth.
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.
In other countries like United Kingdom, population
growth is slowing because of both low death and low
birth rates.

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Development

Fig. 6.5: World: Differing rates of population growth

Population Composition
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.
I build
I tell stories
bridges.
to my
To understand the role of
grandchildren.
people as a resource, we need
to know more about their
qualities. People vary greatly
I take
in their age, sex, literacy
care of my
I sing at
home.
level,
health
condition,
weddings.
occupation and income level.
It is essential to understand
these
characteristics
of
I am researching
the
people.
Population
I am a
for medicines to
composition refers to the
farmer.
cure cancer.
structure of the population.
The
composition
of Think: Every human being is potential resource for the society.
population helps us to know What will be your contribution as a human resource?
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71

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.
An interesting way of studying the population
composition of a country is by looking at the population
pyramid, also called an age-sex pyramid.
A population pyramid shows
The total population divided into various age
groups, e.g., 5 to 9 years, 10 to 14 years.
The percentage of the total population, subdivided
into males and females, in each of those groups.
What is this triangular
looking diagram?
This is a
population
pyramid.

Fig. 6.6: Population Pyramid

Whats that?
It shows the
pre-sent number
of males and
females in a
country along
with their age
groups.

72 Resources

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Development

Can I play detective

and investigate
the population of a
country.

Sure, lets study

three countries.

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
Fig. 6.7: Population
and death rates bothe are high is broad at the base and
Pyramid of Kenya
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 typified by the
pyramid shown for Kenya
(Fig 6.7).
In
countries
where
death rates (especially
amongst the very young)
are decreasing, the pyramid
is broad in the younger
Fig. 6.8: Population Pyramid age groups, because
of India
more infants survive
to adulthood. This can be seen in the pyramid
for India (Fig 6.8). Such populations contain a
relatively large number of young people and which
means a strong and expanding labour force.
In countries like Japan, low birth rates make
the pyramid narrow at the base (Fig 6.9). Decreased
death rates allow numbers of people to reach
old age.
Skilled, spirited and hopeful young people
endowed with a positive outlook are the future of
any nation. We in India are fortunate to have such
a resource. They must be educated and provided
skills and opportunities to become able and
Fig. 6.9: Population Pyramid
productive.
of Japan

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73

Exercise
1. Answer the following questions.

(i) Why are people considered a resource?

(ii) What are the causes for the uneven distribution of population in
the world?

(iii) The world population has grown very rapidly. Why?

(iv) Discuss the role of any two factors influencing population change.

(v) What is meant by population composition?

(vi) What are population pyramids? How do they help in understanding

about the population of a country?

2. Tick the correct answer.

(i) Which does the term population distribution refer to?

(a) How population in a specified area changes over time.

(b) The number of people who die in relation to the number of people
born in a specified area.
(c) The way in which people are spread across a given area.

(ii) Which are three main factors that cause population change?

(a) Births, deaths and marriage

(b) Births, deaths and migration

(c) Births, deaths and life expectancy

(iii) In 1999, the world population reached

(a) 1 billion

(b) 3 billion

(c) 6 billion

(iv) What is a population pyramid?

(a) A graphical presentation of the age, sex composition of a

population.

(b) When the population density of an area is so high that people live
in tall buildings.

(c) Pattern of population distribution in large urban areas.

3. Complete the sentences below using some of the following words.

sparsely, favourable, fallow, artificial, fertile, natural, extreme, densely

When people are attracted to an area it becomes .......................

populated

Factors that influence this include ....................... climate; good

supplies of ....................... resources and ....................... land.

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Development

4. Activity
Discuss the characteristics of a society with too many under 15s and one
with too few under 15s.
Hint : need for schools; pension schemes, teachers, toys, wheel chairs, labour
supply, hospitals.

Some Internet Sources for More Information

www.ndmindia.nic.in
www.environmentdefense.org
www.freefoto.com
www.worldgame.org/worldmeters
www.cseindia.org
www.mnes.nic.in
www.undp.org/popin
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Notes