Population Geography as a field of study

By Nafiu Zakari (11209393)

M.A Geography

content
Definition.

History of the population Geography.

Population as a discipline of study & contributors to

the field in Geography. Population geography & Demography. Population geography & other social sciences view of population studies. Conclusion.

Definition

Population geography is the study of spatial

variation, density, composition and growth of human numbers on Earth and their relationship with physical, cultural and economic phenomena.

History of population geography

Like most disciplines, what we today known as population geography has had a pre-scientific stage as long as human being have always felt curiosity to know; who their neighbors. how they were organized. what they could expect or to fear from them.

Cont.
As the time passed the observation and the study

of diversity of populations that occupy the earth and their peculiar way of being organized to live and exploit their territory has give rise to multitude of scientific disciplines and, among them, to Human geography.

Cont.
In 1882,Ratzel published the first volume of his

work Anthropogeography or Geography of human which considered as the first modern treatise on human geography. with subtitle Foundation of the application of geography to history In 1891 the second volume was subtitled Geographical distribution of human from then on, the human geography has been enriched with the study of a host of facts that are the material and social expressions of human activity on earth.

Ratzel Friedrich (1844-1904)

As a field of study
Population geography hardly had relevance until

after world war II, perhaps for the lack of a solid theory about the nature and purpose of this part of geography. In 1950s a first generation of population geographers tried to give a scientific content to population geography as an individualized branch of human geography. but without disrupting it from the common trunk.

Among the first contributors

Pierra George (1951 and 1959)

Jaqueline Beaujeu-Garnier (1965 and 1966)

Glenn Trewartha (1953 and 1959) John Clarke (1965 and 1971)

Wilbur zelinsky (1966) and many others, that form

the second generation like; Noin, Chandna, Sidhu, Ortolani, Wood, e.t.c.

Population geography and Demography

To some population geography and demography are

the same, even though geography look into other factors that affect population in more detail then the demography, as demography studies different aspect of population like its size, density, effects of birth rate, death rate, migration e.t.c. while geography add with the other inter-related factors with human number such as physical, cultural, economic phenomenon.

Other social sciences and population

All other social sciences do study population but they

look at it base on the orientation of their disciplines e.g Economics demand and supply Sociology: social relations like literacy, family settings. Biology or Ecology which is concern with environment of man and other living things found together at the same environment.

How other discipline view population

Importance of population studies

Help policy makers in their decisions in : Regional planning Economic plans (production, supply) Problems solving Allocation of projects/facilities and representation in the administrative set up. Knowing the quality of population beside quantity.

Conclusion
Despite that geography Is the only subject or method of study that give population a best platform to be studied on, that has all the basic of all the other discipline within it, equipped geographer with all necessary information and explanation of all the earth phenomena and the man as the senior inhabitant. Population geographer need to be versatile.

References:
Chandna, R.C (2011) Geography of population

(concepts, determinants and patterns) Kalyani publishers, New Delhi. Jhingan. M.L etal.(2011) Demography (2nd revised edition) Vrinda publications(P) LTD, Delhi. www.bio.miami.edu/cmallery/150/handouts/c8 www.angelfire.com/go2/ibgeography/population.ht ml