Expert: Florence M Rollwagen - 5/8/2008

Question
i want information on human growth and population and its distribution i am a tenth class child my age is 14

Answer
Hi Mohammed and thanks for your question.

Population growth is based on death rate and birth rate.  If the birth rate is higher, then the population will go up.  If we are able to decrease the death rate, for example, by increasing survival from infectious disease, then the population will increase.  When a natural disaster strikes, such as the one in Myanmar, the death rate goes up, and the population decreases.

For scientists studying populations, examination of long term trends is important.  How does the population change over decades, centuries?  

In primitive times, the growth of populations depended on food and water supply, infant mortality, and infection.  Nowadays, in a more advanced culture, more children survive birth, and infection is largely controlled.  Food and water supplies are more available and famine is not a problem.  When any of these processes breaks down through social change, or natural disaster (or global warming) populations fall and groups of people migrate to other areas of the world.