Analysis:
For each question below, fully explain your answer.
| 1) View the introductory video under the tab of world population. How many people are on Earth currently? How many people are added to the world’s population each year? What percentage of growth is this each year? If the population continues at this rate will the planet be able to sustain us?
|
| 2) Proceed in the activity to the second video by clicking on the World population History tab. Around the year 1800 the population growth curve changed from linear to exponential. After watching the third and fourth video under the tab, Early Demographic Equilibrium and The Demographic Transition, can you explain how this demographic transition happened?
|
- At the end of the Demographic Transition video there is an interactive component. Click on each of the following world regions to find fertility (the average number of children a female has in her lifetime) and the percentage of child survival to 5 years of age.
| Region | Fertility (2015) | % survival to 5 years |
| North America | ||
| Latin America and the Caribbean | ||
| Europe | ||
| Asia | ||
| Africa | ||
| Oceania |
| 4) If the demographic transition is to be completed in the next 100 years, what is the predicted population of the world? Proceed to the Future World population video by clicking on that tab. What do we mean by replacement level fertility? How can the human population reach long term equilibrium? |
Look above the video tabs and click once again on Population Games. Click on The World Population and Me. Click “Lets Go” and follow the following directions to answer the questions. http://www.ined.fr/en/everything_about_population/world_population_me/
5a) Enter your age by sliding the bar to your age and see how the world’s population has changed since the year of your birth. Enter the appropriate information in the table below. On the same page, change the current age to the age of a parent and a grandparent and complete the table for each.
| Current Age | Parent | Grandparent | |
| Your Age | |||
| Population When You Were Born | |||
| The Current Population | |||
| Population Since Birth Multiplied By |
| 5b) Are you surprised by the changes in the world’s population since your birth? What about the changes since the year of birth of your parents or grandparents? |
6) Click on a continent on the map at the right and see how its population characteristics have changed over your lifetime. Complete the table below for your current age. Which region’s population changed the most of your life? Which one changed the least?
| Region | Multiplication Factor |
| North America | |
| Latin America and the Caribbean | |
| Europe | |
| Asia | |
| Africa | |
| Oceania |
7a) Advance to the next page by clicking the “My birth cohort” tab. Reset the continent to “world”. This page shows you how others born in your birth year are faring around the world. See the percentage of others born the year you were that are alive in the world and each region by clicking on the map. Enter the results in the table below.
| Region | % of your cohort alive today |
| World | |
| North America | |
| Latin America and the Caribbean | |
| Europe | |
| Asia | |
| Africa | |
| Oceania |
| 7b) Are you shocked by the percentage of individuals in some regions of your age that are already dead? Explain why or why not. |
8) Advance to the next page by clicking the “My place in the population” tab. Use the pull-down menu to set the geographical region to “world”. This page shows where you fall in the age distribution of the world and its regions. In other words, it shows what percentage of the population is older than you and what percentage is younger than you. Begin by seeing what percentage of the current population is younger than you for the world and each region – enter the results below.
| Region | % of population younger than you |
| World | |
| North America | |
| Latin America and the Caribbean | |
| Europe | |
| Asia | |
| Africa | |
| Oceania |
9) Reset the geographical region to “world” and use the slider bar to see how the percentage of the world’s population that is younger than you will change over your lifetime. Pick three years of significance in your coming life (such as turning 40 years old or retiring at age 65) and see how you fit into the world’s population in these years. Enter the results in the table below. Are you surprised by what you see? Why or why not?
| Year | % of population younger than you | Analysis | |
| Year: | Current | ||
| Year: | |||
| Year: | |||
| Year: |
