Activity 3.1 – Human Population

Country Name	Birth Rate  (per 1,000)	Death Rate  (per 1,000)	Pop. Growth Rate	Life Ex. For Fem. & Males	Fertility Rate	Gross National Income
Finland	8	10	-0.1	82	1.4	$51,650
Afghanistan	32	6	2.6	65	4.3	$2,110

 

World Population Data 

World Pop.	Birth Rate  (per 1,000)	Death Rate  (per 1,000)	Pop. Growth Rate	Life Ex. For Fem. & Males	Fertility  Rate	Gross National Income
More Developed	9	11	-0.2	79	1.5	$42,551
Least Developed	32	7	2.5	66	4.0	$3,086

Listed above is my population ecology, a study of any population (individuals of the same species) how they interact with their environment and change over time. (Mutiti, S. 2018) These studies include demography, using vital statistics about people such as birth, death, population size, etc. The population consists of two main characteristics, population size and population density. (Mutiti, S. 2018) However there are many other characteristics that a population includes, such as dispersion, age structure, sex ratio and growth. (Mutiti, S. 2018) While demographers use tools to understand and predict future trends (this is called age structure diagram) (Mutiti, S. 2018) I only used data found in Chapter 2 of the Biological Science Open Textbooks for this research. I have chosen to compare a more developed country, Finland and a less developed country, Afghanistan. Afghanistan seems to have exponential growth, meaning the population is increasing by a fixed percentage each year. (Mutiti, S. 2018) Compared to Finland, Afghanistan has an increasing population growth rate of 2.6 while Finland is in the negative, with a population growth of –0.1. It seems that Finland exhibits logistic growth, where a population grows nearly exponentially at first when the population is very small, and resources are plentiful, but growth rate slows down as the population size gets close to the limit of the environment and resources begin to be short in supply. (Mutiti, S. 2018) In logistic growth, the population size will finally settle down and stay at the maximum population size that can be supported by the environment. This is called, Carrying capacity. (Mutiti, S. 2018) According to Mutiti, S. the goal is to achieve zero population growth, this is when the population size is neither increasing nor decreasing. This could happen if the population reaches the replacement fertility rate. There is a huge difference between Finland's birth rate and Afghanistan’s. This demographic statistic is the crude birth rate, which is the number of births in a year per thousand people. (Mutiti, S. 2018) It appears that Finland has a slower birth rate, and this can be due to having more resources to prevent pregnancies while Afghanistan has a higher birth rate, that could be a result in the lack of resources to prevent pregnancies. Birth and death rates of a population vary depending on the density of the population, this is called density dependent factors. (Mutiti, S. 2018) Population sizes that are not related to the density of the population are called density-independent factors. (Mutiti, S. 2018) Finland's birth rate is extremely close the worlds birth rate for more developed countries, while Afghanistan’s rate is closer to the least developed countries. Neither of the countries have an abnormal rate with their death rates, compared to the world. I was surprised to see that the death rate in Afghanistan is lower than Finland, because Finland is a more developed Country. I had expected Afghanistan to have high mortality rates, thus resulting in a higher death rate. The table above also includes the life expectancy rate. Finland has a wonderful life expectancy of 82 while Afghanistan has a low life expectancy rate of 65. When comparing to the world’s rates, it seems that Finland's life expectancy (82) exceeds the worlds life expectancy rate (79). The population in Finland is living a comfortable life to exceed the average life expectancy. Afghanistan is very close to the worlds life expectancy rate for least developed countries. Life expectancy data tracks survivorship, the chance of an individual in each population surviving at various ages. (Mutiti, S. 2018) Life tables also use track survivorship and survivorship curves, which are graphs showing the proportion of individuals of a particular age that are now alive in a population. (Mutiti, S. 2018) The total fertility rate in Finland is much lower than Afghanistan, however Afghanistan's fertility rate is .3 higher than the world's average. All countries try their best to reach desired fertility but pronatalist pressures determine how successful a county will be in this goal. Finland has a GNI of $51,650 which exceeds the worlds average GNI of $42,551. Afghanistan's GNI is completely below world average, by $976.  

Works Cited: 

Chapter 2 - Population Ecology and Human Demography 

Mutiti, S., Mutiti, C., Manoylov, K., VandeVoort, A., & Bennett, D. (2018). Introduction to environmental science (3rd ed.). Biological Science Open Textbooks. University System of Georgia.