Unit 3 - Lesson 2: Population Growth

Big Ideas of the Lesson

People are not evenly distributed across the Earth. Some places on the Earth are densely
populated and some are sparsely populated.
Population growth depends on three factors: birth rate, death rate, and migration.
Death rates have fallen due to improved health and sanitation.
Birth rates still remain high in many less developed countries where children are needed to
work on farms and eventually care for the elderly.
Birth rates are related to education, economic stability, infant mortality, and other factors.
Population growth rates are higher in less developed countries than they are in more
developed countries. Thus, the poorest countries tend to experience the most population
growth.

Lesson Abstract:
In this lesson students explore factors affecting population growth at national, regional, and global
scales. In the first activity students use data and maps to explore population changes which
occurred over the last two thousand years. Students then learn to calculate the rate of natural
increase and compare and contrast rates among different regions of the world. Students then
compare population data for Tanzania and Spain as they consider population growth differences in
more and less developed countries. The lesson ends with a reading activity in which students
summarize a text selection written by the Executive Director of the United Nations Population
Fund.
Content Expectations:

6 G1.1.1; G1.2.3; G 1.2.6

6 - G1.3.1; G1.3.2

Common Core State Standards for Literacy in History and Social Studies: RH.6-8.6 and 7
Key Concepts
demography
migration
population distribution
population growth