1. Introduction to population geography

Have you ever wondered why Chennai is more populated with a high population density than any other villages or small towns in Tamil Nadu? Do all the people who live in Chennai are natives of Chennai? Have you ever noticed a sudden increase in population in a particular area or region? Do people in metropolitan cities talk in the same language? Have you noticed some areas which were previously sparsely inhabited suddenly started to get crowded? Do you know the reason why? In this chapter, we are going to find the answer to all the above questions.
 
Have you heard of the term population? The human population is the number of people who live in a particular place at a particular time. For example, a city's population is the number of people living in that city. These people are called inhabitants or residents.

 

 

Geography has a separate discipline to study population and its dimensions called Population Geography. In other words, Population Geography is a study of demographic phenomena, which includes natality, mortality, growth rates etc., through both space and time. An increase (or) decrease in the population indicates population distribution and growth.

The movement of people from one place to another, i.e. mobility of the population is called Migration. Migration can be within a country or between countries. The human population is grouped under major races such as language and religion. Most people understand race as a mixture of physical, behavioural and cultural attributes.