Question

What are the causes for the uneven distribution of population in the world?

Answer 1

The two major factors affecting the uneven distribution of population in the world are given below

• Geographical Factors
• Socio, Cultural and Economic Factors

Geographical Factors

There are 5 different Geographical factors which affect the uneven distribution of population in the world. These are given below:

• Topography
• Climate
• Soil
• Water
• Minerals

Topography

• As plain areas are more suitable for service activities, manufacturing activities, and farming activities, we find plain areas are always more densely populated when compared to areas with mountainous topography.
• Across the world, the most densely populated area is the Ganga plains in India whereas the Himalayas, Alps and Andes Mountain areas are very thinly populated.

Climate

• People always avoid areas having extreme weather climates, be it very cold or very hot, these extreme climates are unsuitable for human habitation.
• Hence people avoid living in extremely cold polar regions of Canada, Antarctica, Russia etc.
• People also avoid living in extremely hot climatic regions like the Sahara Desert, Thar Desert etc.

Soil

• Fertile soil is extremely important for agricultural activities. Places with fertile soil have immense agricultural activities, hence these places are densely populated.
• Fertile plains of Brahmaputra and Ganga in India, Nile in Egypt, Chang Jiang in China are densely populated areas.

Water

• The areas where there is abundant availability of freshwater is densely populated.
• Deserts are thinly populated, whereas the river valleys have dense populations.

Minerals

• Areas which have abundant availability of minerals are densely populated.
• For example in South Africa the locations having diamond mines are densely populated, oil industries in the Middle East are other locations where there is a dense population.

Social, Cultural and Economic Factors

Social

• Areas having better health infrastructure, education facilities and affordable and good housing facilities will have higher population density. Example would be Pune.

Cultural

• People are attracted to places having great cultural and religious significance. Vatican City, Jerusalem, Varanasi are some of the examples.

Economic

• People are attracted to places which have many industries. Areas having industries provides scope for more job opportunities.
• Mumbai in India, Osaka in Japan are some of the examples, which are densely populated due to more economic opportunities.