Population Distribution in China - Essay Example

Minyu Cai Lindsay GEOG 142 05-11 Population Distribution in China A small number of people around the world are aware that the world population just crossed the 7 billion mark in April 2012, according to the United States Census Bureau (USCB). In the year 1800, the world population was around 1 billion, and 200 years later, this number has increased seven times more. Today, in every second, five people are born while two people die. By the year 2045, the world population is expected to rise by about two billion persons. In 2010, the average life expectancy has increased to an average of 69 years makes the rate of population growth appear misleading. But, one would be surprised to know that if every person on this world stood alongside each other, we would just need an area equal to the city of Los Angeles. So then, why is this information so surprising? It is because we do not need space but balance. The resources dependent on us are few. Five out of a hundred of the world inhabitant’s uses 23% of the world’s energy, 13% do not have water to drink and 38% lack proper hygiene facilities. Humans live on 17% of the Earth’s surface, which is land, out of which only 4% can be used for farming. These problems of today have inspired me to take up the topic of population distribution. The specific case chosen is of the most populous country in the world – China. Population Distribution can be defined as the arrangement or the spread of people in a given area. It could also mean how the population of an area is arranged according to things such as age, race or sex. Population Distribution is influenced by factors such as climate, natural resources, work opportunities, social services, density and culture. A city or town having a pleasant climate, adequate food and water resources, and good employment opportunities is likely to have high density. China, officially known as the People’s Republic of China (PRC), has a population of over 1.3 billion with a population density of about 140 persons per square kilometre. Therefore, this makes China’s population distribution a good topic to talk about as it is the most populous country in the world. In this annotated bibliography, we are going to describe the sources that talk about the distribution patterns of the Chinese population, whereby we will also look at the factors that contributed to the particular patterns of distribution. Zuckerman, P. (2006). Atheism: Contemporary Numbers and Patterns". In Martin, Michael "The Cambridge Companion to Atheism. New York: Cambridge University Press. This text talks about the spreading patterns of the Chinese population in terms of education, religion and ethnicity. According to the author, the population distribution of China can also be conveyed based on the following principles. While considering education achievements as a factor, by in the year 2000, 15.6 per cent of the population above the age of 14 years had not attended schools or had not completed primary school education at all. 35.7 per cent had completed primary school, 34 per cent partly attended secondary schools only, 11.1 per cent completed secondary school and around 3.6 per cent had done some post-secondary education, such as advanced degree. While looking at religious associations, officially China is a nonbeliever country that has no religious connections to a specific religion or belief. Nevertheless, by individual choice, Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Ethnic minority religions and Ancestral worship are practised. The author also say that 3% to 4% of the population practice Christianity and 1.5 per cent practice Islam based. Based on age factor, 16.6 % are between the age of 15 to 72.1 % are between the ages of 15 to 64 years. Based on gender, the spread is the same with 51.27 per cent males and 48.73 per cent females. In addition, the writers say that the People’s Republic of China officlaly recognised 56 distinct ethnic groups, the biggest of which are Han, who constitute 91.51 percent of the total population in 2010. Ethnic subgroups constitute 8.49 percent or 113.8 million of China’s population in 2010. Furthermore, migration from other states in recent times have accounted to the increase in China’s population. The 2010 Census attributed 234,829 occupants from Hong Kong, 21,201 residents from Macao, 170,283 inhabitants from Taiwan, and 593,832 residents from other places, accounting for 1,020,145 dwellers. This edition by Zuckerman is important since it offers the necessary awareness and information that people require in their research about where people live in China. It is in addition, very inclusive and the researches alongside discussions contained therein are very thorugh. Min C, et at. (2007). Key natural impacting factors of China’s human population distribution. Population & Environment, Vol. 28, No. 3. pp. 187-200. This article by Min Chen and colleagues talks about the balance of population in China. According to the authors, China is a very big nation with a population of about one billion, two hundred and ninety two million persons which represents for a one good fifth of the total population of the world. However, the population’s topographical spread is not balanced. The authors argue that there are many factors that mainly cause to the distribution of the population in an unequal different way, which include the economic and social development, natural condition, together with the transportation setup. The authors for the most part argue about the way how the natural factors like include geographical and resource factors, affect the distribution of population. They have use the multiple linear regressions in the analysis of the way the density of the population of the county and the country population is affected by various natural factors. However, the analysis is carried out at two different scales; that is the regional and national scale, which includes the northeast area, east area, the west area and the middle area. The result indicate that the altitude of the arable land, the temperature increase, and the rainfall, means that the total everyday temperature for the daily average temperature period (Td) over ten Celsius has raises. Moreover, the distance from the location of the distribution of energy, the distance from the major or bigger rivers in the country are principal factors that are predominant all the counties in the nation. They found that for the counties the major influenced factors are the distance from the major big rivers, the share of arable land, and altitude. For the region in the side east, the amount of arable land and altitude that are the major factors that influence the distribution of the population. Amount of the arable land, temperature increaseses and rainfall are the major variables that influence the conditions in the northeastern area. Amount of farming land, distance from the location of supply of energy and altitude are the major influencing factors in the middle area. For the west area, we find that the section of farming land, the distance from the main rivers and temperature increased are the major determining factors of the distribution of population. This document is an important one since it has enabled me to have a good understanding of the factors that affect the distribution of population in China. Overmeyer, D, et al. (2011). "Introduction". The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 54, No. 2. pp. 314–321. This article by Overmeyer discusses the population distribution of the Chinese across different provinces. According to the article, through history, human population lived mostly in rural areas than urban areas and depended on agriculture and hunting for a living. By the year1800, only three percent of the world’s population lived in urban areas and by 1900, it this population increased to 14%. However, in 2008, for the first time ever, the world population was evenly split between urban and rural areas. There was 19 megacities in the world having a population of over 10 million. This is because of the quick industrialisation and technological progressing that took place in the 19th and early 20th centuries. More so, he says that the more developed nations contributed 74% of the urban population while the 44 % of residents of developing nations lived in urban areas. However, urbanisation is occurring rapidly in developing nations as well and China is no exception. Over 680 million people live in cities, which make up about 51 percent of China’s entire population. This has occurred due to the rapid migration to the cities in search of economic opportunities. In 1990, 26 per cent of the people living in China represented urban dwellers, which rose to 36 per cent by the year 2000 and 51.27 percent in the next 10 years. Beijing and Shanghai have a combined population of 45 million. These cities are planning to contain the increase. Swift transformation is putting extra pressure on the society and the present damaged environment. With 75 percent of Chinese expected to be living in urban areas by 2030, the demand for more transport, energy, water and other vital resources is destined to increase quickly and largely. “Urbanisation is an irreversible process...It will have a huge impact on China’s environment and social and economic development,” Li Jianmin, head of the Institute of Population and Development Research at Nankai University told reporters. This article is important to my research as it provides me with the necessary information that I require in knowing the particular locations of the Chinese provinces as well as their populations. Murphey, R. (2007). East Asia: A New History. University of Michigan Press. This book by Murphey discusses the history of the people of East Asia, and China in particular, which includes the movement from one region to the other region. According to the author, due to the population explosion of the last two decades acute water shortage have been a big problem. In 1995, 31 countries, accounting for 8 percent of the world population faced acute water shortages. This figure is expected to increase to 48 countries by 2025. India, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria and Peru are among the countries likely to run short of water in the next 25 years. Parts of other large countries like China already see such a problems. The writer says a that though more than 66 percent of the earth is full with water, only a small portion of about 0.3 per cent is available for human use and reuse. China has only 6.2 percent of world freshwater resources to supply 21 percent of the world’s population. Pollution, industrialisation, improper treatment before discharge, and irrational use are some of the factors affect the quality of China’s water resources. Therefore, the government is recognizing the importance of water resources in the country and is taking steps towards conserving them and developing other alternatives. In addition, he notes that three major water conservancy projects in China are not enough. Known around the world, the Yangtze Three Gorges Multi-purpose Project is built in the middle section of the Xiling Gorge of the Yangtze River in Sandouping, Yichang City, in Hubei Province. This book has helped me in understanding the population movements in China and given me an insight into what is expected in future. Selden, M. (2003). The Peoples Republic of China: Documentary History of Revolutionary Change. New York: Monthly Review Press. In this article, the writer talks about how the highly uneven population distribution of China replicates its climatic and physical characteristics. He claims that a small area has been used for agriculture and this can lead to reduction of food production in the future. Transportation problems are also faced by the large size country. Rural infrastructure is still not developed and this contributes to China’s population concentration, which is a big challenge to the economic development of the nation. China’s population is both the cause and the consequence of a massive migration. China is roughly about the same size as the United States and located at around the same latitude. China, however, has five times as many people and the population is not evenly distributed. Moreover, the writer notes that China has some nearly vacant deserts and mountain areas, and in contrast, some very crowded places that have many thousands of people per square mile. Per income is much higher along the coast of China than in the interior. One notable exception is the province of Xinjiang which is a desert area having large reserves of coal and oil. The government has come up with policies that give people extra money to move to the North-West frontier province. Nevertheless, the writer says that during the last 25 years, per capita income in rural areas has increased more than ten times. However, during that same interval, income in urban areas has increased even more great. In the year 2000, the ordinary income of a villager dweller person was 2000 US dollars while that of a city dweller person was said 6000 US dollars. Most of the wealth is concentrated in the four large urban areas of China, namely Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Shenyang. All these cities lie in Eastern China. Beijing is the political capital of the country. The other three cities are trading ports with factories that make tools, clothing, electronics, and many other products for sale to people in China and throughout the world. Thus, there is a direct relation between the number of economic opportunities and the population. Accordingly, with this research I have educated the meaning of studying the population distribution of a country. The population distribution has a many of influences on the socio-economic policies of a nation. Besides, the capacity of a nation to tackle the numerous problems depends on the many information collected founded on the various factors discussed earlier in the paper. For a country like China many of the policies that can be applied for control are; raise taxes in order to provide better transportation in cities and encourage people to move to other countries. This solve can the population problem and support in the development of the nation. The one-child-per-family policy must continue to be enforced. The country should also improve the coastal ports to increase exports. Thus, demography is an important branch of research especially in current times considering the various problems the world is facing because of population. Read More