Florence-Darlington Technical College

GEO 102

Five Quiz
1. The Total Fertility Rate is a finer tool used to predict future births for any given region
(page 114-115) as it predicts or summarizes the demonstrated and expected reproductive
behavior of women in a region and also takes into account “replacement level fertility”, which
at each successive generation of women produces exactly enough children to ensure that the
same number of women survive in that generation to have offspring themselves. versus the
crude birth rate or just plain birth rate which uses so many births per 1000 of the general
population including men, children the elderly, etc. Thus, fertility rates are specific to women
and are age adjusted versus an overall birth rate, which does not take age or sex into account.
Therefore, one gets a better prediction as to future births. In looking at Figure 5.5 you see
Europe and China have the same low total fertility rate. Given that Europe has fewer births
due to lifestyle choices of marrying later plus family planning practices could the same be said
of China? Yes or No. Is there something else that China has done on a massive scale to
achieve that low fertility rate that Europe did not? Yes or No. Can you say what it is that the
Chinese government did to achieve that goal of lower birth rates? Yes, horrible practices in
growth population control. Sterilizing individuals and restricting the number of kids someone
could have. Along with the initiation of cruel laws.
2. The rate of “natural increase” in a population is derived by (page 123) subtracting the crude
death rate from the crude birth rate. Natural means population increases or decreases due to
migration are not included. So to predict population growth which is geometric or exponential
(something Thomas Malthus said) one could only look at the example the book mentions
about Egypt with a growth rate of only 2% recorded back in 2011 which means that the
population would double in 35 years (population doubling time can roughly be determined by
applying the “Rule of 70”, which means dividing 70 by the growth rate. That said looking at
Figure 5.14 and using the “rule of 70” how many years would the population double in the
country France given that the growth rate would only be one percent? 70 years
3. Look at the Population Pyramids on page 121. In the ages of 65 or older on both male and
females. First look at Shannon County, South Dakota 2010 (Pine Ridge Indian Reservation)
then compare the same age group with Laredo, Texas 2010 (94% Hispanic). Which group had
the most elderly deaths in that age group? Laredo, Texas Were there more deaths among
males or females in each group? Male
4. The planet cannot forever keep supporting an ever-expanding population. Something must
give. There is a model that shows us stages of births and deaths of rates per 1000 during five
stages (page 125-126). This model looks at countries over time how they grow or how they
shrink based on birth and death rates. The first stage is stage one, where no countries are in
now because that is when people lived in primitive shelters and died quite early due to
diseases or natural disasters. Birth and death rates very high and slow growth in population. A
hunters and gatherers society. So, the natural (population) increase rates are low at this level