Population

Population

In biology a population is the collection of inter-breeding organisms of a particular species; in sociology, a collection of human beings. A population shares a particular characteristic of interest, most often that of living in a given geographic area. In taxonomy population is a low-level taxonomic rank.

Human populations can be defined by any characteristics such as mortality, migration, family (marriage and divorce), public health, work and the labor force, and family planning. Various aspects of human behavior in populations are also studied in sociology, economics, and geography.

Study of populations is almost always governed by the laws of probability, and the conclusions of the studies may thus not always be applicable to some individuals. This odd factor may be reduced by statistical means, but such a generalization may be too vague to imply anything. Demography is used extensively in marketing, which relates to economic units, such as retailers, to potential customers. For example, a coffee shop that wants to sell to a younger audience looks at the demographics of an area to be able to appeal to this younger audience.

World population

According to papers published by the United States Census Bureau, the world population hit 6.5 billion (6,500,000,000) on January 23, 2008. The United Nations Population Fund designated October 11, 1998 as the approximate day on which world population reached 6 billion. This was about 11 years after world population reached 5.5 billion, in 1988. However, the population of some countries, such as Nigeria, is not even known to the nearest million [cite web |url=http://www.mongabay.com/igapo/2005_world_city_populations/Nigeria.html | title = Cities in Nigeria: 2005 Population Estimates — MongaBay.com |accessdate = 2008-07-01] , so there is a considerable margin of error in such estimates. [cite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/country_profiles/1064557.stm |title=Country Profile: Nigeria |accessdate = 2008-07-01]

In 2007 the United Nations Population Division projected that the world's population will likely surpass 10 billion in 2055. [cite press release |title=World population will increase by 2.5 billion by 2050; people over 60 to increase by more than 1 billion |publisher=United Nations Population Division |date=March 13, 2007 |url= http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2007/pop952.doc.htm |accessdate=2007-03-14 |quote=The world population continues its path towards population ageing and is on track to surpass 9 billion persons by 2050.] The last 50 years have seen a rapid increase in population due to medical advances and substantial increase in agricultural productivity, particularly in the period 1960 to 1995 [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4994590.stm BBC News | The end of India's green revolution?] ] made by the Green Revolution. [ [http://www.foodfirst.org/media/opeds/2000/4-greenrev.html Food First/Institute for Food and Development Policy] ]

Population control

Population control is the practice of curtailing population increase, usually by reducing the birth rate. Surviving records from Ancient Greece document the first known examples of population control. These include the colonization movement, which saw Greek outposts being built across the Mediterranean and Black Sea basins to accommodate the excess population of individual states. Infanticide, including abortion, was encouraged in some Greek city states in order to keep population down. [CathEncy|wstitle=Theories of Population]

An important example of mandated population control is People's Republic of China's one-child policy, in which having more than one child is made extremely unattractive. This has led to allegations that practices like forced abortions, forced sterilization, and infanticide are used as a result of the policy. The country's sex ratio at birth of 112 boys to 100 girls may be evidence that the latter is often sex-selective. However, other countries without a one-child policy also have similar sex ratios but for different reasonsFact|date=July 2008.

It is helpful to distinguish between fertility control as individual decision-making and population control as a governmental or state-level policy of regulating population growth. Fertility control may occur when individuals or couples or families take steps to decrease or to regulate the timing of their own child-bearing. In Ansley Coale's oft-cited formulation, three preconditions for a sustained decline in fertility are: (1) acceptance of calculated choice (as opposed to fate or chance or divine will) as a valid element in fertility, (2) perceived advantages from reduced fertility, and (3) knowledge and mastery of effective techniques of control. [Ansley J. Coale, "The Demographic Transition," Proceedings of the International Population Conference, Liège, 1973, Volume 1, pp. 53-72.] In contrast to a society with natural fertility, a society that desires to limit fertility and has the means to do so may use those means to delay childbearing, space childbearing, or stop childbearing. Delaying sexual intercourse (or marriage), or the adoption of natural or artificial means of contraception are most often an individual or family decision, not a matter of a state policy or societal-wide sanctions. On the other hand, individuals who assume some sense of control over their own fertility can also accelerate the frequency or success of child-bearing through planning.

At the societal level, declining fertility is almost an inevitable result of growing secular education of women . However, the exercise of moderate to high levels of fertility control does not necessarily imply low fertility rates. Even among societies that exercise substantial fertility control, societies with an equal "ability" to exercise fertility control (to determine how many children to have and when to bear them) may display widely different "levels" of fertility (numbers of children borne) associated with individual and cultural preferences for the number of children or size of families. [For illustrations of the distinction between fertility control and fertility levels, see Barbara A. Anderson and Brian D. Silver, "A Simple Measure of Fertility Control," "Demography" 29, No. 3 (1992): 343-356, and B. A. Anderson and B. D. Silver, "Ethnic Differences in Fertility and Sex Ratios at Birth: Evidence from Xinjiang," "Population Studies" 49 (1995): 211-226. The fundamental work on models of fertility control was that by Coale and his colleagues. See, e.g., Ansley J. Coale and James T. Trussell, “Model Fertility Schedules: Variations in the Age Structure of Childbearing in Human Populations.” "Population Index" 40 (1974): 185 – 258.]

In contrast to "fertility control", which is mainly an individual-level decision, governments may attempt to exercise "population control" by increasing access to means of contraception or by other population policies and programs.For a discussion of the range of "population policy" options available to governments, see Paul Demeny, "Population Policy: A Concise Summary," "Population Council, Policy Research Division, Working Paper No. 173" (2003) [http://www.popcouncil.org/pdfs/wp/173.pdf] .] The idea of "population control" as a governmental or societal-level regulation of population growth does not require "fertility control" in the sense that it has been defined above, since a state can affect the growth of a society's population even if that society practices little fertility control. It's also important to embrace policies favoring population "increase" as an aspect of population control, and not to assume that states want to control population only by limiting its growth. To stimulate population growth, governments may support not only immigration but also pronatalist policies such as tax benefits, financial awards, paid work leaves, and childcare to encourage the bearing of additional children. [Charlotte Höhn, "Population policies in advanced societies: Pronatalist and migration strategies,"European Journal of Population/Revue européenne de Démographie" 3, Nos. 3-4 (July, 1988): 459-481.] Such policies have been pursued in recent years in France and Sweden, for example. With the same goal of increasing population growth, on occasion governments have sought to limit the use of abortion or modern means of birth control. An example was Romania's 1966 ban on access to contraception and abortion on demand.

In ecology, population control is on occasions considered to be done solely by predators, diseases, parasites, and environmental factors. At many times human effects on animal and plant populations are also considered. See also [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunting#Wildlife_management] . Migrations of animals may be seen as a natural way of population control, for the food on land is more abundant on some seasons. The area of the migrations' start is left to reproduce the food supply for large mass of animals next time around. See also immigration.

ee also

* World population
* 1907 populations
* Biological dispersal
* Biological exponential growth
* Crude birth rate
* Crude death rate
* Demography
* Dependency ratios
* Life expectancy
* List of countries by fertility rate
* List of countries by population
* List of countries by population density
* List of religious populations
* Median age
* Migration rate
* Mortality under age 5
* Net migration
* Net reproduction rate
* Nurgaliev's law
* Overpopulation
* Population change
* Population density
* Population ecology
* Population growth rate
* Population sex ratio
* Rate of natural increase
* Rural population
* Total fertility
* Urban population
* World's largest cities

External links

* [http://www.un.org/esa/population/unpop.htm United Nations Population Division]
* [http://www.cicred.org/Eng/Publications/IndexPublications.htm CICRED homepage] a platform for interaction between research centres and international organizations, such as the United Nations Population Division, UNFPA, WHO and FAO.
* [http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/popclockworld.html Current World Population]
* [http://www.necsp.org NECSP HomePage]
* [http://www.overpopulation.info Overpopulation]
* [http://www.phishare.org Population and Health InfoShare] . Retrieved February 13, 2005.
* [http://populationinthenews.com/ Population in the news homepage]
* [http://www.optimumpopulation.org Optimum Population Trust]
* [http://www.prb.org Population Reference Bureau] (2005). Retrieved February 13, 2005.
* [http://www.populationworld.com/ Population World: Population of World] . Retrieved February 13, 2004.
* [http://www.populationdata.net PopulationData.net - Information and maps about populations around the world] . Retrieved March 4, 2005. PopulationData.net (2005).
* [http://www.sieds.it/index_en.htm SIEDS, Italian Society of Economics Demography and Statistics]
* [http://www.mercatornet.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=69 Underpopulation? MercatorNet]
* United Nations (2004). [http://www.un.org/esa/population/ Population Division] , Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Retrieved February 13, 2004.
* [http://www.unece.org/pau United Nations Economic Commission for Europe - Official Web Site]
* United States Census Bureau (2005). [http://www.census.gov/cgi-bin/ipc/idbrank.pl Census Bureau - Countries Ranked by Population] . Retrieved February 13, 2005.
* [http://www.counttheworld.com/?counter=pop_world World Population Counter, and separate regions.]
* [http://www.worldpopclock.com WorldPopClock.com] . (French)
* [http://www.populationsdumonde.com Populations du monde] . (French)
* [http://show.mappingworlds.com/world/?subject=POPULATION Population Animated Cartogram.]


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  • population — [ pɔpylasjɔ̃ ] n. f. • populacion mil. XVIIIe; repris de l angl.; 1335 « peuplement » rare; bas lat. populatio, de populus « peuple » 1 ♦ Ensemble des personnes qui habitent un espace, une terre. La population du globe, de la France, d une ville …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • population — pop‧u‧la‧tion [ˌpɒpjˈleɪʆn ǁ ˌpɑː ] noun 1. [countable, uncountable] the number of people who live in a particular country or area: • a city with a population of over 2 million • Hong Kong s rapid growth in population 2. [countable usually… …   Financial and business terms

  • Population — Pop u*la tion, n. [L. populatio: cf. F. population.] 1. The act or process of populating; multiplication of inhabitants. [1913 Webster] 2. The whole number of people, or inhabitants, in a country, or portion of a country; as, a population of ten… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Population — steht für: fachsprachlich veraltet: Bevölkerung eine Gruppe von Individuen einer Art (Tiere und Pflanzen), die zur gleichen Zeit am selben Ort leben und sich miteinander fortpflanzen können, siehe Population (Biologie) in der Statistik für die… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • population — 1570s, from L.L. populationem (5c., nom. populatio) a people, multitude, as if a noun of action from L. populus people. Population explosion is first attested 1953 …   Etymology dictionary

  • population — [päp΄yə lā′shən] n. [LL populatio] 1. a) all the people in a country, region, etc. b) the number of these c) a (specified) part of the people in a given area [the Japanese population of Hawaii] 2. a populating or being populated …   English World dictionary

  • population — population. См. популяция. (Источник: «Англо русский толковый словарь генетических терминов». Арефьев В.А., Лисовенко Л.А., Москва: Изд во ВНИРО, 1995 г.) …   Молекулярная биология и генетика. Толковый словарь.

  • Population — (v. lat.), 1) Bevölkerung, s.d.; 2) die gesammten Einwohner eines Landes, einer Provinz od. eines Ortes. Daher Populationistik, Bevölkerungsstatistik, s. u. Bevölkerung B); Populationisten, in England Gegner des Malthus, welcher gegen die… …   Pierer's Universal-Lexikon

  • Population — (spätlat.), Bevölkerung …   Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon

  • Population — Populātion (lat.), Bevölkerung (s.d.); Populationístik, s. Bevölkerungstheorie …   Kleines Konversations-Lexikon

  • Population — Population, Bevölkerung …   Herders Conversations-Lexikon

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