Scope and content of population geography

Scope and Content of
Population Geography
Mithun Ray
Department of Geography
Malda College (University of Gour Banga)
E-mail: mithunmc@maldacollege.ac.in

Geography has traditionally ben concerned with man-environment relationship.
Man and his activities on the earth surface have occupied an important place in
the discipline for a very long time.
It was Friedrich Ratzel (1844-1904), who established the new subdiscipline, i.e.,
human geography for which he coined the term Anthropogeographie
He had keen interest in the mode of life of different tribes, races and nations.
Alfred Hettener, another German geographer and a contemporary of Ratzel,
regarded the study of population as an integral part of the general field of human
geography.
Introduction

Roots of Population Geography
In the year 1951, Pierre George, a French Geographer, for the first time,
presented a very comprehensive treatment of the facts of population
geography.
However, the emergence and recognition of population geography as a new
sub-branch of human geography is largely attributed to the influential
statement of Trewartha in the early 1950s.
Since geography is fundamentally anthropocentric in nature, number, densities
and qualities of population provide the essential background to all geography.
Population is the point of reference from which all other elements are observed,
and from which they all, singly or collectively, derive significance and meaning.
It is population which furnishes focus.
Trewartha, G.T. (1953)

Definition of Population Geography
The term ‘Population’ signifies the subject matter and ‘geography’ refers to the
perspective of investigation.
Study of population in spatial
perspective

Pioneer books on Population Geography
Population Geography by John I. Clarke (1965)
A Prologue to Population Geography by Wilbur Zelinsky (1966)
A Geography of Population: World Patterns by G.T. Trewartha (1969)
Geographie de la population by Daniel Noin (1979)

Scope of Population Geography
According to G.T. Trewartha:
1. A historical (pre-historic and post- historic)
account of population
2. Dynamics of number, size, distribution and
growth patterns; and
3. Qualities of population and their regional
distribution.
Quality of Population:
Physical (race, sex, age, health etc.)
Socio-economic (religion, education, occupation, marital status, stages of economic
development, customs, habits etc.)

According to John I. Clarke
Population geography is mainly concerned with demonstrating how
spatial variation in population and its various attributes like composition,
migration and growth are related to the spatial variation in the nature of
places.

According to W. Zelinsky
Population geography is a science that deals with the ways in which geographic
character of a place if formed by and in turn, react on a set of population
phenomena which vary within it through both space and time interacting one
with another.
According to Daniel Noin
Distribution of population, components of its growth and characteristics are the
main concerns of population geography.

Content of Population Geography
 Population-Geographic Area:
1. Density and Distribution
2. Trend of Birth Rate/ fertility
3. Trend of Death Rate/ Mortality
4. Age Structure
 Cultural Dimension of Population
 Environment of Population
Types of Population and Related Physical and Cultural Factors

The main concern of population geography revolves around the following three
aspects of human population:
• size and distribution including the rural-urban distribution of population.
• population dynamics – past and present trends in growth and its spatial
manifestation; components of population change viz. fertility, mortality and
migration.
• population composition and structure. They include a set of demographic
characteristics (such as age-sex structure, marital status and average age at
marriage etc.); social characteristics (such as caste, racial/ethnic, religious and
linguistic composition of population; literacy and levels of educational attainment
etc.); and economic characteristics (such as workforce participation rate and
workforce structure etc.).

Relationship with
Demography and Population Studies
Demography: Statistical analysis of the components of population change mainly
migration, births and deaths
Population Studies: is concerned with not only the components of population
change but also their interrelations with various social, economic, political and
biological variables

Demography is concerned with the statistical analysis of population
size, distribution and composition and with the components of
variation and change, whereas population studies involve the
interrelations of demographic variables with other systems of
variables.
Philip M. Hauser (1975)

Irrespective of the distinction between the two, demography and population studies
stand clearly different from population geography in terms of their approaches. In
practice while demography, as also population studies, is concerned with number, size
and demographic processes for political units as a whole, population geography is
concerned with aerial variation in these attributes. Population geography is aimed at
demonstrating how spatial variation in the distribution, composition, migration and
growth of population are related to the spatial variation in the nature of places. A
population geographer is also concerned with the dynamic aspects of spatial
variations over time or how spatial relations or interaction between phenomena occur
This emphasis on space is the distinguishing feature of population geography

The spatial approach has, however, become equally popular among researchers in
demography and population studies with increasing availability of micro-level data
during the last few decades. The contributions of demographers to recent advances
in population studies includes many examples where regional and national levels of
mortality or fertility have been the subject of discussion; or where migration, fertility
or mortality were combined to create interregional population growth models. It has,
thus, become increasingly difficult to distinguish the works of geographers from
that of other disciplines

Population geography in India
 The origin of population geography as a separate topical study in human geography
in India can be traced back to the late 1950s.
 Geographers associated with Panjab University, Chandigarh, played a pioneering role
in the development of the subdiscipline in the country
 Though some studies on population distribution and density by geographers did
appear earlier, G.S. Gosal’s doctoral work entitled A Geographical Analysis of India’s
Population in 1956, under the supervision of G. T. Trewartha, was the first systematic
and comprehensive analysis of India’s population in a geographical perspective

 The first textbook on population geography An Introduction to Population
Geography, was brought out by Chandna and Sidhu, both associated with Panjab
University, in 1980. The subsequent additions to the list of textbooks on population
geography in the country include Chandna (1986, 1987), Lal (1988), Ojha (1989) and
Hassan (2005).
 A general review of research reveals that population studies in geography in the
country have essentially been empirical in nature with a major thrust on ‘from facts-
to-theory’ approach. The theoretical approach – from theory to facts – has by and
large remained neglected.

Suggested Readings:
•Population Geography: A Systematic Exposition by Mohammad Izhar Hassan (2020); Routledge (Manohar
Publishers & Distributors) Download Link
•Geography of Population- Concepts, determinants and patterns by Rc Chandna (2019); Kalyani Publisher
•Population Geography: Tools and Issues by K. Bruce Newbold (2010); Pergamon Oxford Geographies Download
Link
•The More Developed Realm. A Geography of Its Population by Glenn T. Trewartha (1978); Pergamon Press
Download Link
•Population geography progress and prospect by Pacione, Michael (2013); Croom Helm Progress in geography
series Download Link

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