Physical Factors Physical factors refers to: • Relief • Climate


Relief


Relief of land has a major impact on the population distribution and population density. Areas of flat, low-lying land tending to have the highest population densities. Examples of this can be seen throughout the world. In your study of regional Geography you learned how the upland relief in the West of Ireland discourages settlement, while the lowlands of the east encourage settlement. This pattern is repeated in Europe, with the highest concentration of population occurring along the lowlands of the North European Plain and sparse populations existing along the Alpine Mountains. Outside of Europe, areas such as the Andes Mountains or the Himalayas have very low population densities as they have severe climate conditions and are too steep to build on.


Iceland


Population density Europe 2010–2011 2


Finland Norway Sweden Ireland


United Kingdom


Denmark Netherlands Belg. France Switzerland Portugal Spain Italy Malta


Germany Lux.


Poland Czech Rep. Slovakia


Austria Slovenia


Bosnia- Herzegovina Hungary Croatia Serbia Montenegro Kosovo Albania Greece Cyprus


: Fig. 1.4 The highest population densities of Europe are found along the North European Plain.


Today, over 80 per cent of the world’s population live at an altitude of less than 500 m, as the building of settlements and transport networks is much easier on flat land. The only exception to this is in hot, tropical, equatorial regions such as Brazil, where people prefer to live in mountainous regions as these areas are relatively cooler, e.g. Rio de Janeiro.


Bulgaria Macedonia Turkey Romania


Lithuania Latvia Estonia


Belarus


Ukraine Moldova


20–50


0–20 50–75


100–200 75–100


500–1,000 200–500


2,500–5,000 1,000–2,500


No values available


GEO NUMERACY


• Soils • Drainage.


• Resources


Population density is calculated by dividing the total population of the country/area by the total area of land (km2 country/area:


) in the


Population ––––––––– Area (km2


) Using Ireland as an example:


Ireland’s population: 4.7 million


Area of Ireland (km2 70,282 km2


):


4,757,976 –––––––– = 67.70 70,282


Rounded to the nearest person, this gives Ireland a population density of 68 per km2


. ACTIVE LEARNING


Inhabitants per km for two-digit postcodes


1. Define population density and give an example of a region with a high population density and a region with a low population density.


2. Why would Central Europe have a higher population density than areas such as the Sahara Desert?


3. Why does Ireland’s population density of 68 not give an accurate picture of population distribution in the country?


POPULATION CHANGE OVER TIME AND SPACE


5


1


9


Elective 5: Human CHAPTER 1


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