Human Population Growth Graphing Activity



Name: _________________________________________________________________Date: ____________________________Period:______________

Human Population Growth Graphing Activity

Directions: Use the following data table to graph the human population starting in the year. Scale the x-axis from years 1650 through 2050, and the y-axis from 0 to 8 billion people Make sure that you 1) label your axis, 2) scale the axes so that it uses most of the graph, 3) plot the points, 4) draw a best-fit line; and 5) provide an appropriate title for your graph.

|Year A.D. |Number of People (in billions) |

|1650 |.50 |

|1750 |.70 |

|1850 |1.0 |

|1925 |2.0 |

|1956 |2.5 |

|1970 |3.6 |

|1980 |4.4 |

|1991 |5.5 |

|2000 |6.0 |

|2004 |6.4 |

|2008 |6.7 |

|2011 |6.9 |

|2013 |7.2 |

|2015 |7.375 |

Analysis Questions

1. It took 1,649 years for the world population to double from .25 billion people to .50 billion people. How long did it take for the population to double a second time? _______ A third time? ________

2. According to this information, the human population has increased / decreased (circle one) at a decelerated / accelerated rate (circle one). What type of growth curve is this? ____________________

3. Based on your graph, in what year will the population reach 8 billion? _____________What resources will we need on Earth to support these additional humans in the next few years?

4. A carrying capacity is the maximum number of organisms of a particular species that can be supported indefinitely in a given environment. Based on what you have learned about populations and carrying capacity, what prediction(s) would you make about the future of the human population?

5. The population age-density diagrams below show the ages and sexes of individuals in particular countries. Explain the patterns and what they mean for the future of the populations in these countries.

6. After reading the article and analyzing the graphs, write a 1-paragraph response to the information. What solutions do you suggest to solve our human population problem?

Birth of a catastrophe: China faces up to the consequences of its one couple, one child rule

By THE WASHINGTON TIMES - - Monday, November 2, 2015

After decades of brutal enforcement, China has announced the end of its one-child per couple policy. Introduced in 1979, this attempt to control population has prevented the birth of up to 400 million persons in the world’s most populous country.

But the end of the one-child policy is not the end of the government attempt to control reproduction, the most intimate and fundamental human right, by abortion and sterilization. A couple who has the forbidden second child must pay a fine of 40,000 yuan, the equivalent of $6,338.37, almost two-thirds of the average annual Chinese wage. The fines brought the government 2 trillion yuan, or $314 billion, since 1980. There has been no public accounting of where this money went.

There’s a natural lobby for continued population control by a large bureaucracy with almost unlimited powers, operating even in remote rural areas. The two-child limit still requires official permission for the second child and the bureaucrats still have the power to say no and the authority to assign fines.

In China, with 30 percent of the population of 1,400,000,000 over the age of 50, the government is dealing with the threat of rising social costs and a shrinking work force. The Chinese public calls the government social network “4-2-1” — four grandparents and two parents ultimately dependent on one child. Falling birthrates are worrying many of the world’s developed economies, especially Japan. But the announcement of new rules is not greeted enthusiastically on China’s social media; urban couples say they can’t afford to jeopardize their rising living standards with the birth of another child.

Abortion is easily available, and couples have often aborted female babies to make sure they have a son for later support. The upcoming census is expected to reveal a ratio of 122 boys born for every 100 girls, replacing the usual 106 boys for 100 girls. More than 35 million young Chinese men, more than the entire population of Canada, for example, can expect a life without a wife. Some Chinese demographers suggest a solution of recruiting Southeast Asian women to close the gap. Several hundred thousand illegals from those countries are working now in China’s manufacturing plants. But so far there has been no official government sanction of such immigration.

It’s not clear whether the new regulations will cover so-called “illegal children,” those born in excess of one child per couple. Government census figures put this number at 12 million, but other estimates reckon the correct figure is two or three times that, perhaps 3 percent of the population.

Correlation between female literacy rates and population growth in the developing world

Source: UNESCO APCEIU 2002

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