A-Level Geography: Population and the Environment
'Population and the environment' is an optional human geography section, set for example by AQA (section 3.2.4). It links the physical environment to how many people live where, how healthy they are and how they are fed. This material trains the calculations, models and debates at the heart of that option.
It starts with vital rates. You calculate the rate of natural increase from crude birth and death rates and estimate a doubling time with the rule of 70, with every figure given in the question. You then interpret the demographic transition model through invented countries: a Stage 2 population whose death rate has fallen while births remain high, and a country whose falling fertility has left a large working-age bulge, with the opportunity of a demographic dividend if there are jobs and investment.
Health comes next. You recognise the epidemiological transition as causes of death shift from infectious diseases towards heart disease, cancers and diabetes, and explain how malaria, a disease transmitted by Anopheles mosquitoes, is linked to temperature, rainfall and standing water, and why its management combines several measures.
The environment and food section covers soil problems such as salinisation under irrigation and the strategies that build food security for smallholder farmers in drylands: water harvesting, drought-tolerant crops, soil care and access to markets. Migration questions distinguish refugees, asylum seekers, economic migrants and internal migrants.
Finally, you compare perspectives on population and resources: Malthus's warning that population outruns food, neo-Malthusian concerns about carrying capacity and ecological footprints, and the more optimistic views of Boserup and Simon, for whom population pressure and human ingenuity drive innovation.
The material offers a quiz with explanations, flashcards for the key terms and theories, a printable written sheet of calculations and extended explanations, and an oral exam in which an examiner asks one question at a time, including about the country and local area you have studied, and gives brief feedback at the end.
- Calculate natural increase from crude rates and estimate doubling time with the rule of 70
- Interpret the demographic transition model and age–sex structures, including the demographic dividend
- Explain the epidemiological transition and the environmental links of a vector-borne disease
- Explain soil problems and evaluate strategies for food security
- Distinguish refugees, asylum seekers and economic migrants
- Compare Malthusian, neo-Malthusian, Boserupian and Simon's perspectives on population and resources
Practice material written by Zestly, based on board specifications for the population and the environment option, such as AQA A-level Geography 7037, section 3.2.4 (environment and population, health and well-being, population change, population ecology, global population futures).
Sample question
The invented country of Morvania has a crude birth rate of 42 per 1,000 and a crude death rate that has fallen from 35 to 18 per 1,000 over thirty years, thanks to vaccination and clean water. Its population pyramid has a very wide base and narrows sharply with age. Which stage of the demographic transition model does this describe, and what is happening to its population?
- Stage 1: births and deaths are both high, so the population is roughly stable
- Stage 2: death rates have fallen while birth rates remain high, so natural increase is rapid
- Stage 4: births and deaths are both low, so growth is slow
- Stage 5: deaths exceed births, so the population is declining
See the answer
Stage 2: death rates have fallen while birth rates remain high, so natural increase is rapid
In Stage 2 improvements in health, sanitation and food supply cut the death rate while the birth rate stays high, so the gap between them (here 42 − 18 = 24 per 1,000, or 2.4% a year) produces rapid growth and a young, wide-based pyramid.
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