Population: Distribution and Density

Introduction 

Geography Class 12: Population: Distribution and Density deals with patterns of population distribution, population growth, population density, and composition of the Indian population.

Under population distribution, we will study the pattern of the spatial distribution of the Indian population and also know the percentage of the population of every state and union territory.

Population density measures the relationship between humans and land. It gives population measurement in terms of persons per sq km. The concept of population growth in terms of Natural population growth will be discussed. Lastly, the topic of population composition and its types will be discussed. 

Topics covered in the chapter

1. Distribution of population

The population distribution on the Indian subcontinent is severely unequal.

• States with the highest population: The most populous state is Uttar Pradesh, followed by Maharashtra, Bihar, and West Bengal
• States with the lowest population: Jammu & Kashmir has the lowest population, followed by Arunachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand despite having considerably larger geographical areas
• 76% of the total Indian population is situated in 10 major states: Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, West Bengal, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat

Factors affecting the population distribution across India –

This uneven spatial population distribution indicates a close relationship between population and socio-economic, physical and historical factors. 

Effects of physical factors:

• Climate, terrain and water availability are three major physical factors that account for the uneven pattern of population distribution
• The Indian population is more concentrated in the northern Indian plains, coastal plains and deltas. It is thinly populated in inner districts of central and southern Indian states, the Himalayan region, and some eastern and northeastern states
• But over a period of time, there has been development in irrigation systems in water scarcity states like Rajasthan. More availability of minerals and innovations in energy resources has led to an increase in population density in states like Jharkhand

Effects of socio-economic and historical factors: 

• This involves two factors: development in agricultural practices and urbanization and industrialization
• There has been a decline in the land area and water availability in India’s coastal areas and river plains. Still, socio-economic factors like early human settlement and subsequent development in transportation have helped retain the high population concentration in these regions
• India’s urban and metropolitan cities have high population concentration due to urbanization and industrialization
• Development in transportation has also made Peninsular states from moderately to highly concentrated

2. Population Density 

• Population density is defined as the number of individuals per unit area. Population density is a better way of understanding patterns of population distribution in terms of land. The population density is calculated after every ten years in India 
• The data of 2011 shows that there are 382 persons per square km. India’s population density has risen steadily over the past 50 years, from 117 people per square kilometre in 1951 to 382 people per square kilometre in 2011
• The Northern Indian States with the highest population density: Bihar has the highest population density, followed by West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh
• Indian peninsular states with the highest population density: Kerala, followed by Tamil Nadu
• Lowest population density state:  Arunachal Pradesh has the lowest population density with 17 persons per sq km
• The union territory with the highest population density is the National capital New Delhi with 11,297 persons per sq km.s
• Except for Assam, the Himalayan plains and northeast of India have low densities
• For agriculturally populated countries like India, population densities are measured in accordance with physiological and agricultural densities
•  Physiological density = total population / net cultivated area
•  Agricultural density = total agricultural population / net cultivable area

3. Population Growth

Population growth is the percentage change in the population density of a particular region between two points of time.  

• Two components of population growth: Natural population growth and induced population growth

        *Natural population growth: calculated by analyzing natality and mortality rates of a given area

        *Induced population growth: calculated by analyzing migration and immigration rates of a given area  

• The decadal and annual population growth rates in India are very high and increasing over the period of time. 
• The annual population growth rate was 1.64 per cent as per census 2011
• In the last century, four major periods of growth have been identified       

Phase I: The period from 1901 – 1921 

• The population of India is said to be in a stationary or stagnant phase
• Both natality rate and mortality rate were high
• 1911-1921 showed negative growth
• Reasons: Poor Medical health facilities, illiteracy, insufficient necessities like food

Phase II: The period from 1921 – 1951 

• Known as the period of steady and slow population growth
• Less mortality rate compared to phase I
• Despite the Great Depression of the 1920s and World War II, the birth rate was high
• Reasons: improvement in health and transport and communication sectors          

Phase III: The period from 1951-1981 

• This period is known as ‘India’s population surge’
• Rapid decrease in the death rate and increase in the fertility rate
• Natural increase in the birth rate due to immigration on a large scale from neighbouring countries
• The average yearly growth rate goes up to as high as 2.2%
• Reasons: this is the after independence phase; therefore, development started on a massive scale in all the essential sectors, the economy boosted, and living conditions improved 

Phase IV: Period post-1981 till present

• The population growth rate started declining gradually due to the fall in the birth rate
• Reasons: increase in the mean of marriage age, more access to education to females
• Nonetheless, according to the World Development Report, India’s population is expected to exceed 1,350 million by 2025

4. Population Composition

Population composition is the study of the population geography of a region in terms of sex ratios, age, residential places, culture, tribes, religion, language, literacy, occupation, marital status etc., of its population. 

This chapter deals with the composition of the Indian population in terms of rural-urban composition, linguistic composition, and religious composition. 

The Rural-Urban Composition of India

• Rural-urban composition is based on places of residence
• It indicates the social and economic aspects of a population
• As we know, the Indian population is unevenly distributed throughout the subcontinent; about 68.8 % of the total Indian population is rural. Out of 640,867 villages, 597,608 (93.2 %) are inhabited villages
• States with the highest rural population: Bihar, followed by Sikkim. The states with the lowest rural population: Maharashtra and Goa
• All-Union Territories, except Dadra and Nagar Haveli, have low rural populations
• This unevenness in the rural population at intrastate and interstate levels is due to rural-urban migration and increasing urbanization
• The urban population has been growing rapidly over the decades. This is because of economic development and improvement in other essential sectors like health, food, transport etc. 
•  In the agriculturally inactive parts of India, urbanization is low. Regions of the middle and lower Ganga Plains, remote hills, Telangana, tribal areas of the northeast, flood sensitive areas of Peninsular India, non-irrigated Western Rajasthan, and eastern part of Madhya Pradesh come under this

Conclusion 

This chapter gives detailed knowledge of the population distribution of the Indian subcontinent and also covers different factors of population distribution. We got to know the physical, socio-economical and historical reasons behind the uneven population distribution of India. The different compositions of the population are based on language, religion and economy. We also learned about population density and why it is a better way of understanding patterns of population distribution in terms of land. We learned to calculate population density through mathematical formulas. This chapter also covers the topic of Indian population growth, its types and its pattern over the past one century.