human geography essay structure

How to Write a Geography Essay: Structure, Tips, FAQs

Geography reveals fascinating facts about our planet, like the Dead Sea's buoyancy due to its high salt content. Similarly, writing a geography essay can be just as interesting.

In this guide, our paper writing service experts will discuss what defines this type of essay and share some tips for writing a great one. You’ll learn its key components and see why geography is relevant today. Whether you're a student aiming for success in geography or simply curious about its significance, let's begin!

What is a Geography Essay

A geography essay is a piece of writing that explores a topic related to the Earth's surface and its features. It goes beyond just memorizing locations. There are two main things a geography essay might explore:

• Physical features: This could be about mountains, rivers, oceans, deserts, or any other natural aspect of the Earth. The essay might explain how these features formed, how they affect the environment, or how they influence human life.
• Human-made features and influences: This could be about cities, borders, agriculture, or any other way humans have shaped the planet. The essay might discuss why these features exist where they do, or how they interact with the natural world.

In the next parts, our skilled writers, who you can buy essay from, will share a simple guide to help you write these essays successfully.

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How to Write a Geography Essay

Writing a geography essay can be broken down into clear steps. Here's a roadmap to guide you:

• Understand the question: Make sure you grasp what the essay prompt is asking you to explore.
• Do your research: Gather information from reliable sources like textbooks, scientific journals, or reputable websites. Remember, a strong essay needs a solid foundation of facts.
• Craft your thesis statement: This is the main idea your essay will explore. Think of it as the sentence that summarizes the whole chapter of your story.
• Introduction: Grab the reader's attention with a captivating opening and introduce your topic. Briefly mention your thesis statement.
• Body paragraphs: Each paragraph should focus on one key point that supports your thesis. Use clear explanations, examples (like real-world places or case studies), and geographical terms to back up your ideas.
• Conclusion: Wrap up your essay by summarizing your main points and leaving the reader with a final thought that reinforces your thesis.
• Proofread and edit: Double-check your work for spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, and clarity of your writing. Make sure your essay flows smoothly and transitions well between ideas.

Remember, geography essays explain the "why" behind where things are and how they interact. Use clear language, relevant examples, and a well-organized structure to build a strong and informative essay about our amazing planet.

While you’re at it, find out all about a cause and effect essay and how to write it in our separate guide!

How to Start a Geography Essay

The introduction is your chance to grab the reader's attention and set the stage for your exploration. Here are some tips to craft a compelling opening for your geography essay:

How to End a Geography Essay

A strong conclusion leaves the reader with a lasting impression and reinforces the key takeaways from your essay. Here's how to write a conclusion for an essay :

Geography Essay Example

For a closer look at how to structure and compose an effective geography essay, we've put together a compelling example for your review. As you go through it, you'll discover the essential elements that contribute to making an essay both informative and engaging.

For more inspiration for your upcoming writing project, check out our extensive list of research paper topics . 

Geography Essay Structure

We've covered the essential elements of a geography essay, but crafting a truly strong piece requires attention to detail within the structure. Here are some additional points to consider:

Tips for Writing a Geography Essay

Here are some final tips to equip you for crafting a stellar geography essay:

• Know Your Audience: Consider who will be reading your essay. Is it for a general audience or a professor well-versed in geography? Tailor your language complexity and level of detail accordingly.
• Focus on Clarity, Not Jargon: While geographical terms are important, avoid overusing complex vocabulary that might alienate your reader. Explain technical terms if necessary, and strive for clear, concise writing.
• Active Voice is Your Friend: Geography is about a dynamic planet! Use active voice to make your essay engaging and avoid passive constructions that can sound dull.
• Proofread and Edit Ruthlessly: Typos and grammatical errors can undermine your essay's credibility. Take the time to proofread meticulously and have someone else review your work for a fresh perspective.
• Practice Makes Progress: The more you write about geography, the more comfortable you'll become. Don't be afraid to practice writing about different geographical topics to hone your skills.

This guide has equipped you with the tools to write a good geography essay. Remember, it's all about understanding the why behind where things are on Earth. Use clear language, strong examples, and a well-organized structure to craft an essay that explores our amazing planet in a compelling way. So, get out there, research your topic, and impress your professor!

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How Do You Start a Geography Essay?

What is geographical essay, what is the structure of the geography essay.

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is a seasoned educational writer focusing on scholarship guidance, research papers, and various forms of academic essays including reflective and narrative essays. His expertise also extends to detailed case studies. A scholar with a background in English Literature and Education, Daniel’s work on EssayPro blog aims to support students in achieving academic excellence and securing scholarships. His hobbies include reading classic literature and participating in academic forums.

is an expert in nursing and healthcare, with a strong background in history, law, and literature. Holding advanced degrees in nursing and public health, his analytical approach and comprehensive knowledge help students navigate complex topics. On EssayPro blog, Adam provides insightful articles on everything from historical analysis to the intricacies of healthcare policies. In his downtime, he enjoys historical documentaries and volunteering at local clinics.

• Updated writing steps, structure and tips
• Added new essay sample and FAQs
• Geography Essay Writing Guidelines . (n.d.). https://www.adelaide.edu.au/writingcentre/ua/media/40/learningguide-geographyessay.pdf 
• Extended Response Writing HSC Geography . (n.d.). Retrieved July 9, 2024, from https://gtansw.org.au/files/resources/SeniorGeography/2017/2a.%20Grace%20Larobina%20%20Extended%20Response%20Writing.pdf 

How to Write Geography Essay: Topics and Examples

Table of contents

• 1 What Is Geography Essay
• 2 Choosing a Topic
• 3 Research and Data Collection
• 4 Planning the Essay
• 5 Writing the Essay
• 6 Examples of Geography Essays
• 7 Unlocking the World: Key Insights from Our Geographic Exploration

Welcome to the dynamic world of geography essays, where understanding the Earth’s surface becomes an enlightening journey. This article serves as a comprehensive guide to writing a geography essay, starting with the crucial step of selecting a captivating topic. We’ll navigate through various popular topics, emphasizing the importance of effective research and data collection.

In this article, we’ll cover:

• How to select engaging and relevant geography essay topics.
• The importance of thorough research and effective data collection methods.
• Strategies for planning and organizing your geography essay for clarity and impact.
• Tips for writing a compelling geography essay, including structuring and presenting arguments.
• Analyzing examples of successful geography essays to guide and inspire your work.

As we transition into the details, prepare to enhance your understanding and skills in geography essay writing.

What Is Geography Essay

As we delve into the essence of a geography essay, it’s important to understand that it meticulously examines Earth’s landscapes and human activities. Furthermore, it aims to analyze how these two aspects interact, focusing on spatial relationships and patterns. Transitioning into the specifics, such essays often delve into particular geographic issues, aiming to broaden our comprehension of the world.

Moreover, when writing a geography essay, one must include accurate geographical data. This data, encompassing maps, statistics, and case studies, is crucial for a well-grounded analysis. Consequently, the essay should present facts and interpret them, offering fresh insights into the discussed topic.

Additionally, it’s noteworthy that an essay on geography stands out from others due to its unique subject matter approach. It demands a keen eye for detail and a profound understanding of the world’s physical and human dimensions. This requirement makes crafting such an essay a challenging yet fulfilling endeavor.

Lastly, the primary goal of a geography essay is to enlighten and inform. It persuades readers to view the world through a geographical lens, grasping the complex interplay between humans and their environment. This type of essay transcends mere academic exercise, serving as a means to foster a deeper appreciation for our world and its complex dynamics.

Choosing a Topic

The crucial point for a successful geography essay is selecting an engaging and appropriate topic. To choose a topic that resonates, consider current events, your interests, and the scope of your assignment. A good topic should captivate your interest and offer sufficient scope for in-depth study and analysis.

Popular geography essay topics often revolve around climate change , urban development, and cultural landscapes. These topics provide a rich ground for exploration and allow for diverse perspectives and interpretations. For example, a thematic essay on geography could focus on how urbanization affects local ecosystems or how cultural practices shape landscape use.

• Analyzing the Direct Impact of Climate Change on the Amazon Rainforest’s Biodiversity
• Urbanization in Mega Cities: Environmental Consequences and Sustainable Solutions
• Wind and Solar Power: Pioneers of Sustainable Energy Landscape
• Managing Water Scarcity in the Middle East: Strategies and Challenges
• The Amazon Deforestation Crisis: Causes, Impacts, and Global Responses
• Spatial Inequality: A Detailed Look at Poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa
• The Dynamics of Population Growth and Overconsumption in Asia
• Cultural Preservation of Indigenous Peoples in the Amazon Basin
• Earthquakes in Japan: Analyzing Causes, Effects, and Preparedness Strategies
• Geography’s Role in the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire
• Implementing Sustainable Agricultural Practices in India for Food Security
• The Kashmir Conflict: A Geopolitical Analysis of Border Disputes
• The Growing Crisis of Climate Refugees in the Pacific Islands
• The Importance of Urban Green Spaces in New York City’s Environmental Health
• The Impact of Globalization on Maori Culture in New Zealand
• Ecotourism in Costa Rica: Balancing Economic Benefits and Environmental Preservation
• Addressing Ocean Plastic Pollution: Case Studies from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch
• The Nile River Conflict: Water Politics in a Changing Climate
• Preventing Desertification in the Sahel: Strategies and International Cooperation
• GIS in Disaster Management: Case Studies of Earthquake Response and Recovery
• Measuring the Effects of Glacial Melting on Greenland’s Coastal Communities
• Tracing the Economic Geography of the Silk Road in the 21st Century
• The Health Impacts of Air Pollution in Beijing: Urban Policies and Challenges
• Vulnerable Communities: Assessing the Socioeconomic Impacts of Climate Change in Bangladesh
• The New Face of Migration: Syrian Refugees and European Response
• The Critical Role of Metropolitan Areas in Combating Global Warming
• Saving Madagascar’s Rainforest: Conservation Strategies and Challenges
• The Transition to Renewable Energy in Germany: A Model for the World?
• Satellite Imagery in Land Use Changes: A Study of the Brazilian Amazon
• Arctic Sovereignty: The Geopolitical Implications of Melting Ice Caps for Global Powers

To guide and inspire your topic selection, you can use geography essay examples. These examples showcase a range of topics and approaches, helping you understand what makes a topic both engaging and feasible for study. Remember, a well-chosen topic is the first step toward a compelling and insightful geography essay.

Research and Data Collection

To talk about thorough research, it is the backbone of any geography study, providing the factual and theoretical foundation to understand complex geographical phenomena. To explain why the study of geography is important, one must delve into diverse and reliable sources that offer insights into how geographical factors shape our world and affect our lives. This research underpins the type of geography being studied, whether physical, human, or environmental.

Collecting geographical data can be done through various methods. Firstly, fieldwork is essential, especially for physical geography, as it allows for the direct observation and measurement of geographical features and processes. For human geography, surveys and interviews can yield valuable data on human behaviors and social patterns. Moreover, a thorough literature review also helps understand existing research and theories, providing a critical context for new findings.

Furthermore, evaluating sources for their credibility and relevance is vital. This involves checking the qualifications of the authors, the rigor of their methodologies, and the recency of their findings. Reliable sources are peer-reviewed and come from reputable academic or scientific institutions. What is more, ensuring the credibility of sources strengthens the arguments made in a geography essay and enhances the overall understanding of the topic.

In summary, comprehensive research and careful data collection are fundamental in geography. They enable a deeper understanding of how geographical aspects shape our environment and lives, which is central to the discipline.

Planning the Essay

When you start planning a geography essay, it begins with creating an outline to organize thoughts and research. This step is crucial as it helps structure the essay logically, ensuring a smooth flow of ideas. Start by listing major points and supporting evidence. This framework guides the writing process and maintains focus on the chosen topic. Planning involves outlining the essay and crafting a compelling thesis. Planning involves outlining the essay and crafting a compelling thesis. This process ensures the essay remains focused and coherent, addressing the chosen geography topic. By establishing a clear roadmap for the essay, writers can navigate their arguments and evidence with precision, avoiding common pitfalls such as digression or ambiguity. Now, with our plan in place, let’s transition to examining the structure more closely, exploring how to effectively organize our thoughts and research into a well-structured essay that engages and informs the reader.

Writing the Essay

When you finally start writing, a geographical essay involves several key steps, each demanding attention to detail and a balance between descriptive and analytical writing. This balance is crucial in creating an essay about geography that informs, engages, and persuades.

The introduction sets the stage. Start with a hook that grabs the reader’s attention, followed by background information that provides context to the topic. This section should conclude with a clear and concise thesis statement that guides the rest of the essay.

In the body, organize paragraphs thematically or chronologically , depending on the essay’s focus. Each paragraph should start with a topic sentence that relates to the thesis. Following this, present your arguments and support them with geographical theories and data. This is where you incorporate detailed information from your research, including statistics, case studies, and examples. Make sure to explain how this data supports your arguments. A geography research paper demands precision in presenting data and clarity in its interpretation.

When discussing geographical theories, link them directly to your topic. This shows your understanding of the subject and how these theories apply to real-world scenarios. Remember, each paragraph should have a smooth transition to the next, maintaining a coherent flow of ideas.

In the conclusion, summarize the key points of your essay. Restate the thesis in light of the arguments and evidence presented. The conclusion should not introduce new information but encapsulate what the essay has covered. It’s also an opportunity to emphasize the importance of the topic, suggesting potential areas for future research or implications of your findings.

Throughout the essay, maintain a balance between descriptive and analytical writing . Descriptive writing helps paint a picture for the reader, making the data and theories more relatable. Analytical writing, on the other hand, demonstrates your ability to think critically about the topic, evaluating and interpreting the information in a meaningful way.

Examples of Geography Essays

Diversity in style and approach marks the essence of geography writing. A popular method is the comparative approach, contrasting different geographical phenomena. This method often appears in works comparing landscapes or urban vs. rural areas. Another common technique is the case study, focusing on a specific location or event for in-depth analysis of a particular issue.

Thematic approaches cover broader topics like climate change, globalization, or human migration, weaving together various theories and data for a comprehensive view. Additionally, argumentative compositions present a thesis supported by geographical evidence, frequently seen in discussions about environmental policies or land use conflicts.

Each style offers unique insights, providing varied ways to explore and understand geographical concepts and issues. For an in-depth exploration and diverse perspectives on these topics, consider reviewing geography essay examples. This resource can enrich your understanding and offer a broad spectrum of approaches to geographical analysis, from case studies on environmental conservation to essays on urban development and spatial inequalities.

• Geography Unveiled: Costa Rica’s Absolute Location Revealed
• Geography Unveiled: Navigating Earth’s Spatial Tapestry through Five Themes
• The Ever-Changing Canvas of New England Weather
• The Mystique and Marvels of the Desert Biome
• The Impact of Geography on the Development of Egypt

Unlocking the World: Key Insights from Our Geographic Exploration

This journey through the realm of geography reveals the field’s depth and complexity. From initial planning to diverse writing methods, the main insight stands out: geography compositions are more than maps and data; they are about comprehending our world’s rich tapestry. They balance descriptive narrative and critical analysis, backed by meticulous research and credible sources.

Whether exploring climate change impacts, urban developments, or cultural landscapes, these works offer a lens to see and understand the world anew. They prompt critical thinking about our environment and our place in it. Navigating various geographic topics brings not just academic insights but also life lessons in appreciating our world’s complexity and beauty.

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How to master A Level Geography 20-mark essay questions

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What should I do before attempting an A Level Geography 20-mark essay question?

Should i plan an a level geography 20-mark essay, how should i structure an a level geography 20-mark essay.

As we run up to exam season, many of you will now be completing your NEAs (non-examined assessment) and exam content, and starting to focus on exam technique. You may be thinking about how you will tackle the dreaded 20-mark essay questions . Essay questions are very much like marmite for students. Some love them as they get the chance to explore key geographic theories and showcase their knowledge and understanding, which may not be possible in lower-stakes questions. However, others may struggle to formulate their geographic ideas or structure them in a way that makes a convincing argument.

In my experience, all A Level geography students must be systematic and structured in the way they write their long-form answers. This approach ensures that students cover all the necessary content while also demonstrating the geographic skills that examiners are assessing.

Examiners use both AO1 and AO2 to evaluate students in essay questions. AO1 requires students to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of places, environments, concepts, processes, interactions and change at various scales. AO2 deals with the application of knowledge and understanding in different contexts to interpret, analyse, and evaluate geographical information and issues. The strongest students can produce answers that balance the two aspects in their responses. If you weigh your answers too far toward knowledge recall and simply state facts, figures, and case study knowledge without doing anything with the knowledge (this is where command words are essential), you will not be able to achieve the highest levels described in the level descriptors.

Before you attempt essay questions, I suggest you take a look at the mark schemes for some past paper questions. It is important to focus on the level descriptors as these are what the examiners will use to assess your answers. Pay attention to the language they use to describe what they are looking for, and when you start your attempts, consider whether your language and writing style match the descriptors. The exam board mark schemes are available on the PMT A Level Geography past papers webpage .

Another place to look before attempting essay questions is the assessed sample answers produced by the exam boards (e.g. AQA Paper 1 Hazards Example Responses ). These are available on the exam board websites and show a range of pupil responses to exam questions. They come with a helpful commentary that explains how the pupils gained marks, highlights the importance of a well-structured response, and provides insight into what examiners are looking for when assessing your answers.

Where to start – command words

As mentioned above, it is very important for students to be systematic in their approach to answering 20 markers. The first thing students need to understand is the command word . Without knowledge of what the command word means and what it is asking you to do, you will not be able to fully engage with the question. To find out the meaning of different command words , you should visit your exam board’s website and look in the specification.

Essay questions tend to use the command words “to what extent” or “assess” . According to AQA, if the question includes the “to what extent” command word, you should “Consider several options, ideas or arguments and come to a conclusion about their importance/success/worth”. On the other hand, if it is an “assess” question, you should “use evidence to weigh up the options to determine the relative significance of something. Give balanced consideration to all factors and identify which are the most important.”

BUG the question

Command words can help guide you in how to structure your answers and the skills you need to exhibit. During KS3 and KS4, you may have been told to BUG the question, where B stands for box the command work , U for underline key terms , and G for glance back at the question .

I would encourage all A Level students to continue to use this strategy, even for longer essay questions. It will help ensure that you are answering the question you are being asked, rather than the question you wish you were being asked.

Failure to prepare is preparing to fail.

It is crucial for all students to plan their essay writing before they start answering a question. An essay question requires you to write for a sustained period, and if you don’t have a clear plan for what you’re going to write, you may lose focus on your points and arguments and not fully answer the question.

I suggest that all A Level students write a brief plan before attempting the question . This plan should outline the introduction, including key terms to define and any case studies to introduce, the main argument in each of your paragraphs, and finally, the contents of your conclusion. Spending just five minutes on this will save you time in the long run and help keep you on track to answering the question fully.

A good structure is key to success in essay writing. A clear structure enables you to answer the question coherently and reduces the chance that you will lose the key focus of your points. All of the exam boards recommend following the structure outlined below:

Introduction

• Main body of the answer (three to four key arguments)

In academia, this is sometimes known as the hourglass essay . An hourglass essay starts with a big idea, narrows down to a specific question, and then widens back out to explain why that specific question is important in the grand scheme of things.

The introduction of your essay should account for approximately 10% of the total essay length , and it’s an excellent opportunity for you to impress the examiner. Your essay introduction should give a broad view of the essay themes and provide a definition of the key terms that you have underlined in your question. It is also the place to introduce a case study location . A strong start to your essay is crucial as it demonstrates to the examiner that you have a clear understanding of the geographic content you’ve been studying.

Once you have written your introduction, you can then get on to answering the questions. While the introduction mainly covers AO1 (knowledge and understanding of geography), the main body of your answer should cover both AO1 and AO2 (analysis and evaluation in the application of knowledge and understanding).

As before, the way you structure the main body of your answer is very important, and you must form your points clearly and coherently. During my teaching and tutoring, I have seen many ways of forming these arguments/points, but the two most effective methods I have seen are using PEEL or PEACE paragraphs .

• E xplanation
• A pplication

Everyone is different, and everyone has their unique writing style. My advice to all A Level students is to try both methods when beginning to tackle essay questions and determine which one works best for you. I would also recommend completing PEEL/PEACE paragraphs and asking for feedback from your teacher or tutor.

The main body of the essay should consist of three to four arguments that cover the views for the specific question. Those who can link back to the question but also between their paragraphs will have the best chance of performing well in their essay questions.

After completing the main body, you now need to finish your essay with a conclusion. Just like the introduction, this should be roughly 10% of the total essay length . The main aim of the conclusion is to bring your essay to a close and essentially answer the question you have been asked. In the conclusion, you should summarise your argument and avoid introducing any new information . It is simply a chance to express your own thoughts and opinions while bringing your essay to a close.

The quality of a conclusion is often a key indicator of the overall quality of an essay. Although it is a short section of the whole piece of writing, it provides a platform to showcase several important geographic skills such as analysis, summarising, and creating synoptic links .

Overall, it is very important that you give yourself enough time to complete your essay questions during your examinations and that you follow the structures discussed above. If you follow these guidelines, you will see an improvement in the quality of your essay responses.

If you’re in Year 13 and in need of additional help, PMT Education runs Geography A Level Easter Crash Courses for AQA and Edexcel . Whether you need support with exam technique or want to revise key sections of the syllabus with the help of an experienced tutor, these courses will equip you with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to excel in your summer exams.

Dave is a qualified teacher with 10 years of experience teaching GCSE and A Level Geography. He has worked as an assistant faculty leader for Humanities and a professional mentor for new and trainee teachers. He has also been involved with the supervision and guidance of NEAs. Dave currently works in higher education and trains geography teachers across the North West of England. He is also a tutor at PMT Education , with experience running highly successful geography courses .

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Theory and Methods

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This volume tackles the complex terrain of theory and methods, seeking to exemplify the major philosophical, social-theoretic and methodological developments - some with clear political and ethical implications - that have traversed human geography since the era of the 1960s when spatial science came to the fore. Coverage includes Marxist and humanistic geographies, and their many variations over the years, as well as ongoing debates about agency-structure and the concepts of time, space, place and scale. Feminist and other 'positioned' geographies, alongside poststructuralist and posthumanist geographies, are all evidenced, as well as writings that push against the very 'limits' of what human geography has embraced over these fifty plus years. The volume combines readings that are well-known and widely accepted as 'classic', with readings that, while less familiar, are valuable in how they illustrate different possibilities for theory and method within the discipline. The volume also includes a substantial introduction by the editor, contextualising the readings, and in the process providing a new interpretation of the last half-century of change within the thoughts and practices of human geography.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Part i | 72  pages, spatial science and its critics, chapter 1 | 40  pages, a geographic methodology, chapter 2 | 12  pages, sensations and spatial science: gratification and anxiety in the production of ordered landscapes, chapter 3 | 20  pages, retheorizing economic geography: from the quantitative revolution to the “cultural turn”, part ii | 52  pages, marxist geography and its early reconstructions, chapter 4 | 14  pages, revolutionary and counter revolutionary theory in geography and the problem of ghetto formation, chapter 5 | 20  pages, the socio-spatial dialectic, chapter 6 | 16  pages, the matter of nature, part iii | 54  pages, humanistic geography and its early reconstructions, chapter 7 | 12  pages, humanistic geography, chapter 8 | 22  pages, practicing humanistic geography, chapter 9 | 18  pages, prospect, perspective and the evolution of the landscape idea, part iv | 62  pages, agency and structure, chapter 10 | 18  pages, human agency and human geography, chapter 11 | 18  pages, human agency and human geography revisited: a critique of new models’ of the self, chapter 12 | 24  pages, space and causality, or whatever happened to the subject, part v | 48  pages, time, space, place and space-time, chapter 13 | 18  pages, social reproduction and the time-geography of everyday life, chapter 14 | 8  pages, geography and the realm of passages, chapter 15 | 20  pages, politics and space/time, part vi | 66  pages, scaling human geographies, chapter 16 | 22  pages, is there a place for the rational actor a geographical critique of the rational choice paradigm*, chapter 17 | 24  pages, beyond state-centrism space, territoriality, and geographical scale in globalization studies, chapter 18 | 18  pages, human geography without scale, part vii | 2  pages, feminist and other ‘positioned’ geographies, chapter 19 | 20  pages, the geography of women: an historical introduction, chapter 20 | 18  pages, changing ourselves: a geography of position, chapter 21 | 18  pages, postcolonialising geography: tactics and pitfalls, chapter 22 | 28  pages, i lost an arm on my last trip home: black geographies, part viii | 2  pages, poststructuralist geographies, chapter 23 | 10  pages, geography and power: the work of michel foucault, chapter 24 | 18  pages, understanding diversity: the problem of/for “theory”, chapter 25 | 14  pages, my dinner with derrida, or spatial analysis and poststructuralism do lunch, chapter 26 | 26  pages, poststructuralist geographies: the essential selection, part ix | 2  pages, posthumanist geographies, chapter 27 | 26  pages, inhuman/nonhuman/human: actor-network theory and the prospects for a nondualistic and symmetrical perspective on nature and society, chapter 28 | 24  pages, the body as “place”, chapter 29 | 16  pages, making connections and thinking through emotions: between geography and psychotherapy, chapter 30 | 14  pages, from born to made: technology, biology and space, part x | 2  pages, limits to human geography, chapter 31 | 12  pages, hemming the way, chapter 32 | 15  pages, coming out of geography: towards a queer epistemology, chapter 33 | 14  pages, neo-critical geography, or, the flat pluralist world of business class.

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1st Edition

Regions Critical Essays in Human Geography

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Description

This volume gathers a collection of the most seminal essays written by leading experts in the field, which identify or signal many of the changing directions of regional research in geography during the past fifty years. Various forms of 'new regionalism' or 'new regional geography' have emerged over the last several decades, especially in political and economic geography, but in general the region has been a concept in declining use. Despite this, the region has gained new currency in sub-areas of political and economic geography and a so-called 'new regionalism' has emerged in studies of the changing nature of the nation-state in a globalizing economy. Taken together, the essays in this volume provide the reader with a comprehensive overview of academic developments in this area of geographical research.

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J. Nicholas Entrikin

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Understanding Geography Essay and Its Importance

By: Angelina Grin

It might not seem too important to you, but knowledge of your planet is crucial. Geography is the one subject that will teach you all about the Earth. From plate movements to industrial development in your country, it covers everything!

Take a Look At Cultures And Regions

Let's try to understand what a geography essay is, what do we mean by professional essay writing, let's work on writing a compelling introduction, time to craft your essay body, a compelling conclusion awaits, take a look at the following essay topics for your ease, geography offers many subjects combined as one, let's talk about place awareness, understanding history, travel knowledge is essential, familiarize with globalization, global interdependence is increasing, navigation skills are crucial.

Learning about the formation of cyclones, earthquakes, volcanoes, and mountains might not seem impressive, but don't judge a book by its cover at any cost. If you learn how to climb Mount Everest and why is it the highest mountain in the world, once you know how and why you will be in awe of how much a geological course can teach you about the Earth.

You will find many geography articles online, which will tell you how the weather and climate changes can shape people's lives across the world. Geography is the first step to understanding time differences on the Earth. Different oceans, seas, rivers, islands, continents, countries, and cities. It has everything about the Earth in detail, one way or another.

The Earth is not just about topography; it is also about cultural differences and how climate affects different lifestyles. You can expect anything in this course. From learning about the lifestyle a farmer leads and his income source to learning about a trader or an industrialist, we will find everything in a geographical course.

It also links to significant parts of history and how it all developed. It is a holistic view of all aspects of life on Earth. It will also help you learn about global interdependence in trade, sanctions, quota systems, and money value. It is the perfect mix of all subjects for a student.

It might not cover topics in detail related to economics or business. However, you will still learn about how currency functions and how trade depends on a country's production and alliances with other trading blocs. If you're interested in geography fieldwork and want to build a career in it, then you must pay attention to all these practical issues that the subject covers.

A geography essay might seem a bit complicated, but it can be simplified in a few words. Such essay writing informs us about the different features of the Earth. They can be natural and artificial. It usually covers the factors that can cause a significant change in the world's geography. An example of this is how depletion of the Ozone layer can allow Ultra Violet rays to harm human beings.

Another example is how tidal waves occur at different heights due to the moon's gravitational pull. Whether your essay writing covers mountain ranges or natural phenomena of the Earth, it will help you understand everything in detail. Such essays enable you to identify cultural and natural problems worldwide and later draft suitable solutions for them in your career.

Let's Take a Sneak Peek at the Structure of a Geography Essay

Let's start with the basic outline of a geography essay. Remember that it is a formal piece of essay writing, so you cannot change the outline unless your teacher permits you. It is best if you try sticking to the format and outline your teacher gives you. In case the instructions are unclear or your instructor doesn't provide a proper format to follow, you can then refer to the basic outline for an essay.

The structure of an essay writing paper is divided into three main parts.

• An introductory paragraph, known as the introduction;
• Body paragraphs. Try to keep at least two to three body paragraphs in your essay;
• Concluding paragraph. It contains the conclusion of your essay.

When we say a professional piece of essay writing, we don't just mean the tone to be professional. We're saying the structure of your paragraphs and the length should be relatively similar. Do not write excessively long paragraphs, followed by a shorter one. Keep the length the same with the same font size and design. To ensure you follow this technique, you can decide a particular word limit for your essay and divide it by the total paragraphs you plan on writing.

As you all know, an introduction is the first impression of your work. And no one wants to ruin the first impression at any cost. Your introductory paragraph is the first thing after your geography title that your reader will read. You must make the best effort to grab your reader's attention. If you fail to do so, your reader will go to some other information source. To avoid this, you can begin your essay with useful information or an interesting fact about the topic. You can then build on it and introduce your topic. If you don't want to start with a fact, you can use some other exciting hooks.

Then you will be introducing the issue you chose to address. State where the issue occurs most frequently and explain it. It comes in your thesis statement, after which you can proceed to your body paragraphs.

The body paragraphs of your essay should contain all the details about your topic. You can provide examples from your life or a case study to answer all the questions you feel the reader might develop after reading your paper. Make sure you provide information such as facts, dates, locations, and names from reliable sources.

Try to maintain an objective tone to avoid any bias towards the argument. You should divide your argument into paragraphs and points so that you don't get confused. The best part about your essay's body paragraphs is that you can add multiple figures, tables, and even images to show the reader what you're trying to convey or as proof of the statements you have made. You can show data changes through graphs and help the readers identify a changing pattern to understand your essay writing piece clearly.

Your conclusion is not a summary or a discussion, but rather your final impression on the readers. You shouldn't provide any new information in your conclusion. take about the points you have already mentioned and how you feel they impact us or the issue at hand. Try to pull the argument towards the thesis to remind your reader what your paper's true essence was if they lose track as readers can be lazy and read papers in breaks. It isn't about what you have stated; it is about what you have understood. You can conclude it with a warning or a solution to the problem. Make sure whatever you write links to the topic. Don't go off track, or you will lose your marks. If you need help with homework help , you can contact several service providers online to guide you or write an engaging piece for you.

Students often face difficulties in coming up with a suitable topic for essay writing, cases, or dissertation. It delays their essay writing tasks. Well, we don't have all month to come up with a topic. Deadlines are quick to approach. To help students, we have prepared a list of topics they can use to work with to write an essay:

• Impacts of global warming;
• Changing climate across the globe;
• The topography of mountains and rivers;
• The water cycle;
• Changes in nature in the past century;
• Formation of a cyclone and the role of wind in it;
• The occurrence of earthquakes and their intensity;
• Economic disadvantages of tsunamis;
• Ways to reduce pollution;
• Impact of pollution on the ozone layer;
• Agricultural practices and industrialization in countries;
• Disadvantages of soil erosion;
• Does cutting down trees result in infertile soil?
• Formation of fossil fuels;
• Why should we use substitutes for fossil fuels?
• Formation of deserts and their importance.

Reasons To Focus on Geography As a Subject

Usually, students wonder why geography is so important or why they should have to study it. Understanding the subject educates you about the world and allows you to avail future opportunities in different areas of your life. Since it is a mixture of many courses, you can determine which field interests you the most and build a career in that field.

It educates students about retail issues, global issues, natural issues, and also, cultural issues. It will allow you to keep your career options readily open as it combines technology, social sciences, and science to form a subject! You might often get written assignments linked to other courses, such as biology topics to write about , which are linked to this course.

How great is it that one subject is educating us about so many things? There are different aspects of geography that you can focus on as it offers a wide variety of chapters and courses. Let's look at a few of these options.

Studying geography not only informs us about nature, but it also creates awareness about places in the world. We get a chance to learn about the formation and history of these places. We also know about human beings' role and natural factors in turning places into what they are today! It is fascinating!

Not only this, students become more and more aware of the direction and location of various places around the globe. They know the topographical features of these places and find different ways to navigate these areas. If we consider dividing it into two parts, we can say that physical aspects will teach you about the topography like terrains, water bodies, plateaus, soil, and forests in an area. Human aspects will teach you about the culture, lifestyle, and ways of earning in different places. Ap human geography will often bring you such topics to work on.

As human history itself isn't impressive enough, we now have it paired up with geography's fascinating phenomena. We learn about different civilizations that occupied other geographical regions and changed their culture according to that area's climate and living conditions. We also learn about why wars are waged against different civilizations only due to their land and water bodies' strategic importance. Did you ever think this subject would so closely be linked to human and cultural development?

Now you can easily understand the relationships that link cultures so closely together. Rather than thinking like a citizen from one country, you will develop a global citizen's mindset. You will realize how the entire world is interdependent and why one nation has never conquered the whole world. Each civilization has a different topographical and historical advantage that has contributed to its development.

You can't travel to a place if you do not understand the geography of the area. You'll get lost in a foreign land. For someone who goes to a place to enjoy their vacations, stress about traveling and not understanding the area ruins an entire trip.

Geography is there to rescue such new travelers! Make sure you study the topography of a place before you visit it to avoid mistakes. Try always to know the features and landmarks surrounding the area. Study about the weather conditions as they are often unpredictable and can result in accidents. It can be detrimental to you and the people you travel with.

If you learn about a place's geographical features, you will enjoy your trip more and make better use of your time exploring the area rather than sticking to one hotel or restaurant.

Globalization is the process of bringing the world closer by travel and understanding cultures. The world is now focusing on global platforms to help the process of globalization. It enables people to understand global cultures and develop businesses in different areas of the globe with more profit! It also allows firms to influence cultures and, at times, will enable cultures to influence firms.

With so much focus on globalization nowadays, you need to understand how it occurs. You should know what has contributed to its growth and why. If you focus on this course, you will answer all these questions and understand where globalization might take different countries of the world.

Like we said earlier, no country in the world has been blessed with every natural resource. Some have fuel. Some have mines, some have water, some have glaciers, some have agricultural benefits, while some have the best industries. As human beings, we need a bit of all these resources combined to benefit from them.

Life without these primary natural resources becomes difficult, so countries engage in global trade. They buy one item while selling the other. It brings them foreign exchange, which later helps in globalization. To understand the reasons behind why one country has more natural resources than the other or why one country does better in terms of industrialization, we need to seek the help of geography.

You all are aware that geography is the one subject that deals with maps and direction. So it is pretty evident that geographical knowledge will most definitely help you understand directions if you're headed north or south. Studying it, you become more disciplined and focused. While traveling, the focus is precisely what you need if you're trying to reach a place without a GPS device without making a mistake. In case your devices stop working, you need to come back to navigating in the usual ways by spotting landmarks and knowing where north, south, east, and west are. You will only learn about this if you have studied the geographical aspects of an area for navigation.

Writing about geography will become easy for you if you try to look at it interestingly. Try to see it as a platform of information about the world in different ways. With all these facts and details, review the instructions given to you by your instructor, and start working on your essay writing skills!

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Introduction to Human Geography - 2nd Edition

(5 reviews)

David Dorrell, Georgia Gwinnett College

Joseph P. Henderson, Georgia Gwinnett College

Copyright Year: 2018

Last Update: 2019

Publisher: University of North Georgia Press

Language: English

Formats Available

Conditions of use.

Learn more about reviews.

Reviewed by Patrick Kennelly, GIS Program Director, Central Oregon Community College on 9/8/22

This is a comprehensive textbook that covers the topics typical to a course in Human Geography at the college level. It is organized into the following chapters: 1. Population and Health 2. Migration 3. Folk Culture and Popular... read more

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

This is a comprehensive textbook that covers the topics typical to a course in Human Geography at the college level. It is organized into the following chapters: 1. Population and Health 2. Migration 3. Folk Culture and Popular Culture 4. Geography of Language 5. Religion 6. Ethnicity and Race 7. Political Geography 8. Development and Wealth 9. Industry 10. Human Settlements 11. Environment and Resources These also follow the typical topics covered in Advanced Placement Human Geography and college courses in Cultural Geography. Comparing it to non-OER resources, this book groups Agriculture and Rural Landscapes and Urban Geography into the Human Settlements chapter, and touches on Globalization in the Industry and Development and Wealth chapters. Each chapter is further subdivided into sections for more detailed organization, and these sections appear in a clickable Table of Content at the beginning of the book for quick reference.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

I found the content accurate and free of errors, but I have not yet used this textbook for teaching a course.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

It seems like the text is written in such a way as to make updates relatively easy and straightforward. The big topics here seem to be consistent in most human geography textbooks over the years, and they serve as the foundation for this book. Supporting materials including text examples, maps, diagrams, etc. should be relatively straightforward to revise with future revisions.

Clarity rating: 5

I found the materials to be clearly written. I like that the authors bold new terminology on first use and associate these bolded terms with a clear explanation or definition. They also have a section called “Key Terms Defined” at the end of chapters to further reinforce the terminology that students studying human geography will need to use.

Consistency rating: 4

I found the materials to be consistent and useful. Chapters begin with a list of student learning outcomes followed by a chapter outline that is presented as a numbered list with the chapter number before the decimal, and the section after the decimal. For example: CHAPTER 2 OUTLINE 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Thinking About Population 2.3 Population and Development 2.4 Population is Dynamic 2.5 The Demographic Transition 2.6 Measuring the Impact of Population 2.7 Future Population 2.8 Geography of Health 2.9 Summary 2.10 Key Terms Defined 2.11 Works Consulted and Further Reading 2.12 Endnotes These are good for quick reference, and to assess the relative weight the authors assign various topics, such as population versus health in this case. As indicated in the outline, chapters end with a summary, glossary of terms defined in the chapter, works consulted/further readings and endnotes. The only of these that was a bit inconsistent was the summary section, which in some chapters goes by “conclusions” but in other chapters is not included at all.

Modularity rating: 5

With well-organized chapters and sections within chapters, I think this book allows instructors to easily divide out portions based on their needs. Each chapter also seems to stand up pretty easily on its own for instructors wishing to present the material in a different order when compared to the chapter sequence in this book.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

I thought that topics were presented in a logical and clear fashion. For example, the chapter on Political Geography begins by explaining how politics is organized spatially, discusses how states cooperate, stresses the importance of boundaries and the types of disputes that arise, and talks about the election process as a geographic phenomenon. This seems like a logical flow of discussion that touches on the most important points of political geography.

Interface rating: 5

The textbook can be downloaded from this URL https://oer.galileo.usg.edu/geo-textbooks/2/ (also given above). It can be saved as a 57 Mb PDF file and used as a traditional textbook. Additionally, the authors have provided a MS Word file, sample questions, exercises, Powerpoint slide decks for each chapter, and the 1st edition of the book for download.

Inside the book the authors provide internal links from the Table of Contents into each chapter and section. Additionally, hyperlinks are included in the PDF to external websites, and most but not all of the links I checked worked. There are some especially good links in the endnotes for students or instructors especially interested in a topic.

The authors also include a nicely formatted and consistent “Author | Source | License” citation for their graphs, images, maps etc. It’s nice to see that many of these are licensed with the Creative Commons or in the public domain. I would have liked the “Source” to also be a clickable link so that readers can further explore such images, graphs or maps as they work through the book.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

I didn’t notice any grammatical errors for the portions of this book that I read in detail.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

I didn’t find anything culturally insensitive or offensive in this book, and thought that the authors made good efforts to include examples from underrepresented cultures.

Reviewed by Serena St. Clair, Adjunct Faculty (formerly full time faculty-retired), Rogue Community College on 1/2/22

Human Geography is a dynamic subject because of the changes the world experiences in culture, climate, communication, and politics. As someone who has been teaching this course for several decades and used at least six different texts (including... read more

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

Human Geography is a dynamic subject because of the changes the world experiences in culture, climate, communication, and politics. As someone who has been teaching this course for several decades and used at least six different texts (including subsequent editions), the topics in this course continue to evolve. Intro to Human Geography provides all the traditional topics typically covered in textbooks for this subject/course. It is a challenge to keep all the material relevant and current.

There is an omission of "Gender" in Chapter Seven that has become a standard in most texts when discussing Identity: Ethnicity and Race. Chapter 12: Human Settlements addresses Urban topics but does not address Urban Planning with a more comprehensive foundation for students who may choose land use or urban planning for further study or careers. Chapter Ten: Agriculture discusses many aspects of food access to communities but did not mention in the chapter or under "Key Terms Defined" the idea of a "food desert" which is an important concept to understand as a Geographer.

Content Accuracy rating: 4

Dorrell et. al, text was accurate in that it leads the reader through all the important topics that make up the basics in the study of Human Geography. They cover the basic concepts consistent with the subject. The chapters are all relatively short (20-25 pages of content) therefore the depth of ideas is not present in the text. The information provided was accurate and learning outcomes are consistent with other HG textbooks.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 4

I think the challenge for writing a textbook in this subject is the ever changing nature of the human-environment experience. The world, from a geographical standpoint, is a dynamic system. This textbook covers the basic framework for HG which hasn't changed for several decades, however, the living examples of geographical concepts will need to be illustrated by accompanying lessons, assignments, instructor lectures, and current event/media.

The last chapter on the environment was the only chapter that was sorely inadequate in what it introduced. It was half the length of every other chapter in the book. While not a physical geography course, all human-environment interaction (one of the five themes of Human Geography) has an impact and relationship with the planet. This was a missed opportunity to put into context the physical implications from the twelve chapters prior.

This textbook is written with a combined matter-of-fact and conversational style. I found the book to be very accessible and think for an introductory class it has a good tone to engage students with this subject.

Each textbook chapter follows the same format listing: Student Learning Outcomes, Chapter Outline, and then numbered subtopics under the main focus of the chapter. At the conclusion of each chapter, they provide a Summary, Key Terms Defined, Works Consulted and Further Reading and Endnotes. The chapters are all about the same length with the exception of the final chapter (13) titled "Environment and Resources". This chapter was eleven pages of content for a topic that is critical to this academic study.

Each chapter ends with a section "Key Terms Defined". There was inconsistency on the length and scope of these key terms. Some chapters had as few as a half page, while others had 2-3 pages of terms. It appeared as if the author was indicating that key terms were left out of the text but still relevant to the chapter topic.

The book was well organized. The chapters are relatively short and cover key concepts to this subject. The consistency of "Key Terms" and "Works Consulted and Further Reading" could be a launch point for students to do research and go deeper in their learning process.

This textbook is very consistent in its sequence of topics with other Human Geography textbooks I've used over the past two decades. There were maps presented in each chapter to illustrate the topic. However, there were not many images/pictures which help engage students in the seeing the topic of the chapter in real life. I understand copyright access can limit these options when developing an OER, therefore it offers the instructors of this course the job of finding other ways to create these connections

None noted.

Grammatical Errors rating: 3

I found a handful of grammatical, format, and spelling errors in the book which could easily be corrected.

Cultural Relevance rating: 4

There are several ways to assess this book's cultural competence. All the chapter topics were approached in a relatively unbiased presentation. There were occasional informal comments from the author but not as commentary on cultural bias. The chapters that directly addressed culture (Chapters 3,4,6,7,12) provided basic structures of how these topics are viewed through the perspective of geographers. There were a few places in these book chapters where there could have been more forthright discussion about the cultural conflicts and shifts that have been happening in different places in the world and our country, e.g Chapter 3: Migration: More discussion needed on influence of migration on local/regional cultures; Chapter 7: Civil Rights/Black Lives Matter, Indigenous -Reservation Issues, could have been used as examples of the role of place, resource access, political boundaries; Ch. 6, section 6.4 "Religious Conflict" could emphasize the role of "Place and Location" in the situations they only briefly mention.

As a Human Geography professor who is using this book for an online class, I think this book offers me and the students an excellent opportunity to learn together and apply the concepts presented in real time context. The book covers the basics of this subject, and it challenges me to build learning activities that bring them to life in the current world. I believe that the primary learning outcome for Human Geography is to support the development of "systems thinkers". To me, that means that for every chapter/topic we read about, I want students to "SEE" how this looks right now on the planet. I use current events, videos such as: YouTube, Ted Talks, documentaries, News Publications, and other Library resources to have students interpret world events through the newly acquired lens of a geographer. I often use the following quote to frame our learning in this class. "Everything is related to everything else. But near things are more related than distant things." This is considered "the first law of Geography" and was introduced by Waldo R. Tobler in 1969. I believe you can apply this idea to almost anything we study in this course knowing that the meaning of this statement will change over time.

Reviewed by Margaret Stephens, Associate Professor, Community College of Philadelphia on 6/24/21

The book provides comprehensive coverage suitable for an introductory human/cultural geography course. The Student Learning Outcomes, Chapter Outlines, maps, tables and graphs are useful guides for reading online or in print. The supplemental... read more

The book provides comprehensive coverage suitable for an introductory human/cultural geography course. The Student Learning Outcomes, Chapter Outlines, maps, tables and graphs are useful guides for reading online or in print. The supplemental resources/further reading sections (Works Consulted and Further Reading) are helpful for students or instructors who want to delve more deeply. At the end of each chapter, Key Terms Defined offers easy reference and a good way for students to build vocabulary and facility with terminology. It would be helpful to include a comprehensive glossary at the end of the book, along with a full index. Sample Questions, exercises and slides accompany each chapter. Instructors can use them as they are or revise as they see fit.

The content is accurate and avoids value judgments and bias.

The content is relevant and up to date. It includes a sufficient amount of comparative information from a broad spectrum of regions and cultures, something that many texts do not provide. The organizational structure facilitates incorporating new and timely information without requiring major revision to the text. Research, data and examples from current events can be added as appropriate.

The text is clear, concise, free of unnecessary jargon and suitable for an introductory course. Terminology from the discipline is defined and introduced in context, often using illustrative examples. The language is not complicated, overly academic or excessively wordy. For courses that are more rigorous are for majors, instructors may wish to provide additional readings from research or professional publications.

Consistency rating: 5

The chapters are consistent in language, structure, organization and flow. It appears to be edited well for internal consistency.

The sequence of topics and chapter structure readily allow for course material to be presented in different order or modular units. The text avoids excessive self-references. While the text illuminates connections among fundamental geographic concepts, the information in each chapter is presented so that it does not require reading in sequence.

The topic sequence is logical. Further, it can be adapted easily for courses that present information in a different order or thematic arrangement.

I did not encounter any interface or navigation issues of concern. As one would expect, there may be slight differences in page numbers and display of graphics depending on the format selected (e.g. PDF vs Word, online or print).

No obvious grammatical errors were detected.

The text presents information in a culturally sensitive way. It does not convey value judgment or questionable cultural comparisons. It offers a variety of examples featuring different races, ethnicities and backgrounds. The text could include links to supplementary resources to expand these further.

Overall, this is a sound, suitable choice for introductory human geography courses. It presents the basic information that instructors can supplement easily if they choose to cover specific topics in more depth. A few areas that might be included or expanded as the materials are revised: gender and identity; examples or features about research methods, current research and careers related to geography; references to multimedia on geographic topics.

Reviewed by Dimitar Dimitrov, Geography Instructor, Portland Community College on 6/16/21

The text provides a comprehensive introduction to the traditional topics in human geography and covers all areas and concepts appropriately. Each chapter starts with Student Learning Outcomes and Chapter Outline sections, and ends up with two very... read more

The text provides a comprehensive introduction to the traditional topics in human geography and covers all areas and concepts appropriately. Each chapter starts with Student Learning Outcomes and Chapter Outline sections, and ends up with two very helpful to the students sections – Key Terms Defined and Works Consulted and Further Reading. Most of the chapters have also Summary sections. The text is illustrated with maps, tables and figures, but the use of these illustrative materials should be more balanced between the chapters. Chapter 5 The Geography of Language for example, contains only one map, whereas in the following chapter (about religions) the reading material is supported with 13 maps. Some of the maps are from 2015 and need updating.

I didn’t find any inaccurate information. The text is unbiased.

The textbook is up to date. Due to the constantly changing subject matter of human geography the examples, the maps, and the figures in all of the chapters should be updated every three or four years.

The textbook is clearly written and easily understandable even for students who are encountering the basics of human geography for the first time.

The textbook is consistent in terms of structure, terminology and framework.

The chapters are arranged by topics, and each chapter is organized into smaller reading sections that can be easily assigned for individual or group work. Most of the chapters include short introductions.

The textbook is organized in 13 chapters, each one covering a specific topic. The flow is traditional for human geography texts.

I didn’t find any interface issues. Also, the textbook is easy to navigate.

I found no grammatical errors when reviewing the book.

I didn’t find any offensive language or culturally insensitive issues. All of the races, ethnicities, and cultural backgrounds are addressed with respect.

This textbook entirely meets my expectations for an OER in the field of human geography.

Reviewed by TUBA KAYAARASI, INSTRUCTOR, Portland Community College on 6/13/21

There are thirteen chapters. Each chapter focuses on a subdiscipline of human geography. However the chapters are not as comprehensive as a regular human geography textbook. Most of the relevant theory for each subdiscipline of human geography is... read more

There are thirteen chapters. Each chapter focuses on a subdiscipline of human geography. However the chapters are not as comprehensive as a regular human geography textbook. Most of the relevant theory for each subdiscipline of human geography is covered, but postmodern geographic theory is missing.

There are no major errors that I noticed. It looks unbias. It presents multiple perspectives. However it does not use enough information from different sources.

Most data that is used for each chapter is up-to-date. The text can be easily updated as the editions change. However it might be difficult to update maps and images.

The text is written with a clear language. It is easy to follow the content. Even if English is not the first language of a student, the theory and concepts can be understood easily.

Each chapter is arranged in a way that is consistent. Chapters are introduced with chapter outlines and student learning outcomes.

The book is divided into various chapters. Each chapter has subtitles with small reading sections.

The structure of the book is very well organized. The order of the chapters are logical, follows one another. It helps connect one topic to another.

There is good amount of images inserted in to the text. Images are small but easy to read. Images make content easy to understand.

English is my second language. It is hard for me to evaluate the grammatical mistakes. I have noticed no grammatical errors.

Most chapters are written with great cultural sensitivity. Examples that are provided are inclusive of a variety of backgrounds. However the book could include a chapter on cultural geography that focuses on issues of identity, such as gender and sexuality. Also there could be more cultural examples from various parts of the world. Most of the examples that are provided are from North America.

It is an average quality textbook for an open resource. The book is formatted in a way that it is easy to read for first year college course. The content is easy to follow for students who do not have prior knowledge on the topic.

Table of Contents

• Chapter 1: Introduction to Geography
• Chapter 2: Population and Health
• Chapter 3: Migration
• Chapter 4: Folk Culture and Popular Culture
• Chapter 5: The Geography of Language
• Chapter 6: Religion
• Chapter 7: Ethnicity and Race
• Chapter 8: Political Geography
• Chapter 9: Development and Wealth
• Chapter 10: Agriculture and Food
• Chapter 11: Industry
• Chapter 12: Human Settlements
• Chapter 13: Environment and Resources

Ancillary Material

About the book.

Geography is a diverse discipline that has some sort of connection to most every other academic discipline. This connection is the spatial perspective, which essentially means if a phenomenon can be mapped, it has some kind of relationship to geography. Studying the entire world is a fascinating subject, and geographical knowledge is fundamental to a competent understanding of our world. In this chapter, you will learn what geography is as well as some of the fundamental concepts that underpin the discipline. These fundamental terms and concepts will be interwoven throughout the text, so a sound understanding of these topics is critical as you delve deeper into the chapters that follow. 

About the Contributors

David Dorrell

Joseph P. Henderson

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AP® Human Geography

The ultimate list of ap® human geography tips.

• The Albert Team
• Last Updated On: March 1, 2022

The AP® Human Geography exam is undeniably one of the most challenging AP® tests offered. Its volume of information alone could make for a difficult test, but all of this material coupled with the notoriously difficult AP® Human Geography FRQ questions must account for why only 10.8% of students scored a 5 and only 18.2% scored a 4 on the 2019 exam. 

However, despite the difficulty surrounding the AP® Human Geography exam, you can score a 5 with the right amount of hard work, preparation, study routines, and AP® Human Geography tips. Formulating a good study routine consisting of AP® Human Geography practice tests and AP® Human Geography study guides is the best way to solve the tough question of how to prepare for the exam. 

Below, we’ve compiled the ultimate list of AP® Human Geography tips, prep, and notes which will help you score a 5 on the exam and point you in the right direction to developing a solid study routine!

What We Review

How To Study for AP® Human Geography: 9 Tips for 4s and 5s

1. Unpack the structure of the exam to devise a test-taking strategy

Before you even start studying for the AP® Human Geography exam, it’s helpful to know how the exam is structured so you can prepare a study routine around its organization. There are two sections on the exam, each counting for half of your score. Here is a table outlining the structure of the AP® HUG exam:

Knowing the structure of the exam will help focus your studying and noting the time limits you have on each section will help you know what to expect. For example, since you must answer 60 MCQs in 60 minutes, you have, on average, one minute per question. Since you have 75 minutes for 3 FRQ’s, you have, on average, 25 minutes per essay. Use these numbers to time yourself during practice exams and FRQ practice. 

2. Work a supplementary review book like Barron’s into your study routine

Taking comprehensive notes in class and reading your class’s assigned textbook is helpful, but an outside review book like Barron’s can give you a more holistic look at what the AP® Human Geography exam covers. These books, unlike, say, your class, will give you further insight into the exam by providing multiple-choice questions, strategic breakdowns, and FRQ samples. 

Use these AP® Human Geography review books as a way to boost the knowledge you receive in class, and work them into your daily study routine. For instance, when you’re reviewing coursework from class, carve out at least 30 minutes to take 15-20 multiple choice questions from Barron’s or to work out a practice essay. This will develop your test-taking skills and allow you to see how the AP® Human Geography exam works.

3. Make flashcards of key terms using Quizlet

First and foremost, don’t go out and buy pre-written flashcards. The act of writing them out yourself actually helps you to retain the information you’ll need to ace the exam. While you can write out physical flashcards, we recommend using online cards through Quizlet . The site not only allows you to make your own flashcards, but also offers different interfaces and study methods like true and false, multiple-choice, and more. 

Carve out at least 15-30 minutes per day to work through flashcards on a certain unit or vocabulary bank. Quizlet also allows you to star or highlight terms you struggle with so use that feature to organize words you need help with. Here’s a great list of APHG vocabulary terms you should know. Aim to make flashcards on all of these words.

4. Create a study journal detailing various types of geographical regions

Since the AP® Human Geography exam tests, well, your understanding of geography, you will need to have developed a strong understanding of the many geographical features and regions populating the course. When your class covers a new type of region like a formal, functional, or perceptual region, mark it and define it in a separate journal. Use this journal throughout the year to review and study because knowing the basic types of geographical regions is key to scoring high on the exam, and particularly, scoring high on the FRQ section. You should be able to locate and identify each region and then be able to expand on its relationship with other concepts.  Check out our crash course on Types of Geographical Regions to get started!

5. Join or form an AP® Human Geography study group

Sometimes studying alone can become tedious. You can start to lose focus, get distracted, and just can sometimes have a hard time motivating yourself to even start studying. That’s why study groups are beneficial. Ask some of your AP® Human Geography classmates if they want to meet once or twice a week to go over the materials. If you’d prefer to meet virtually you can use Zoom or Google Hangouts , too. Conqr is an online platform specifically designed for group study, so it is also a good resource. 

Once you have found a group, create a weekly or bi-weekly schedule. Select a location to meet, and stick to the schedule. Prior to meeting, create a checklist of terms, concepts, regions, etc. to cover or use Conqr to do so. Be sure you stick to the list. Deviating from it can lead to unproductive study sessions and time-wasting. 

6. Follow AP® Human Geography social media accounts

Whether you use Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, or all four, there are teachers and students who run social media accounts dedicated to AP® Human Geography. By following or liking these accounts, you will be incorporating APHG facts, study resources, videos, and graphics into your everyday life. 

So get out there and start following some accounts! Try following @APHumanGeog on Twitter, this AP® Human Geography board on Pinterest, and Thornton Academy’s AP® Human Geography Facebook page . After you follow these accounts, create a page on your notes app of certain terms, phrases, ideas, or regions discussed by these pages that you think will benefit your learning. Maintaining this study routine will help build your AP® Human Geography foundation.

7. Engage with AP® Human Geography-related media

If you’re a visual learner, sometimes it can be hard to focus or understand concepts when you’re reading a textbook. It can be nice to change up your study technique and get your nose out from behind your review books.

Look up YouTube videos about certain topics in Human Geography. Use keywords like “ crash course ” or “review” when searching for videos. Mr. Sinn offers a handful of good review videos, and so does Advanced Placement itself. When watching, keep a set of notes out, and jot down certain explanations or topics that stick out to you. You could even keep a Google Doc running on one side of the screen and the video playing on the other. 

Additionally, we recommend that you read or watch the news on a regular basis. Since global politics is such an important part of AP® Human Geography, watching the news or reading the newspaper regularly is a habit you should form in the buildup to the exam. It’s important to get your news from several different sources, so watch channels such as CNN, PBS, FOX news, MSNBC, read online publications such as the New York Times, and listen to NPR’s “The World” regularly. Keep a journal of current events that strike a chord with you. 

Moreover, you could also listen to AP® Human Geography podcasts and keep a daily journal of what you hear. A quick Google search comes up with a wide variety of free AP® Human Geography podcasts, which cover certain topics. Listen to them while you’re at the gym, before bed, on your bus ride to school, or whenever you have extra time. These may be a nice way to keep AP® Human Geography always on your mind. 

8. Create a review guide of geographic models and theories

Many past FRQs and multiple-choice questions have been about specific geographic models and theories. You will not only need to know the definitions of these but also how they interact, apply to real-life situations, and their overall significance. Some basic models you’ll need to know include the demographic transition model, the gravity model, Rostow’s Stages of Growth, Concentric Circles, and the Hoyt Sector Model. When you come across terms like this, create a separate journal detailing them, or plug them into a separate set of Quizlet flashcards and study them individually because they are essentially the backbone of AP® Human Geography. 

9. Manage your stress using meditation apps like Headspace or Calm

It can be very easy to become stressed out when preparing for the exam, which is why positive affirmations, confidence, and trusting in your abilities are important when studying. The best way to achieve a positive mentality in the thick of AP® Human Geography is to clear your head using meditation apps like Headspace or Calm . After studying give yourself 15-30 minutes to detox and meditate. It will clear your head, and take away the stress that blocks you from memorizing or understanding concepts clearly. Overall, it will benefit your academic progress greatly.

Return to the Table of Contents

AP® Human Geography Multiple-Choice Review: 11 Tips for a 4 or 5

1. Focus on specific themes

It’s helpful to know that the multiple-choice questions on the AP® Human Geography exam follow a pattern and are not just randomly selected. Based on previous exam, the breakdown goes like this:

Unit Percentage of Questions

• Thinking Geographically, 8-10%
• Population and Migration Patterns and Processes,  12-17%
• Cultural Patterns and Processes, 12-17%
• Political Patterns and Processes, 12-17%
• Agriculture and Rural Land-Use Patterns and Processes, 12-17%
• Cities and Urban Land-Use Patterns and Processes,  12-17%
• Industrial and Economic Development Patterns and Processes, 12- 17%

Notice how much of the exam content is distributed fairly evenly across the board. Therefore, it is imperative that you develop a strong understanding of the course as a whole. When you study, pay certain attention to units that trouble you most and study those harder. But the exam is pretty equal in terms of which units it tests you over, so it is best you have a solid understanding of the course at large.

2. Mark up keywords and commands in the question

When you first look at a multiple-choice question, circle the commands (EXCEPT, NOT, ALL, BEST, etc.). Sometimes, questions can trip you up if you don’t read them correctly. By circling the commands, you’re making sure you don’t misinterpret the question or confuse yourself. 

Similarly, underline keywords in the questions, such as words that relate to places, people, vocabulary words, etc. This will help keep you focused and maybe even help jog your memory. By picking apart the questions, you can get a better understanding of it and pin down exactly what it is asking.

3. Don’t skip any questions

On the APHG exam, there is no guess-penalty. This means that you don’t get docked for answering a question incorrectly. It goes without saying that even if you have no idea what the answer to a question is, just make an educated guess! The key here is an educated guess, which will give you a better chance of getting the correct answer than if you just circled an answer willy-nilly. 

One way to perfect you educated guessing skills is to use the process of elimination when working through the questions. If you come upon one or two that are clearly incorrect, draw a line or X through them. Then, with some of the obviously-incorrect answers out of the way, you can make a better guess. 

4. Form a plan to take practice tests

Taking practice exams is an extremely beneficial way to determine your strengths and weaknesses in the AP® Human Geography exam. You could go about this a few ways. One, you could try and carve out at least one day per month to give yourself time to take a practice exam. Set a reminder on your phone calendar equipped with an alert to remind you too. One test per month will help establish a solid test-taking foundation and adequately prepare you for the big one.

Or, you could take only certain components of the exam either weekly or bi-weekly. On, say, Sunday you could take the multiple-choice component and then record and evaluate your results. On the following Sunday you could take the FRQ section of the exam, evaluate your writing, and continue alternating between MCQ and FRQ every week or every other week. Taking AP® Human Geography tests is an effective way to build a foundation in the course.

5. Don’t spend too much time on any one question

Think about it this way: if you manage to answer all 75 multiple-choice questions, within the time-limit, and get most of them right, you can end up with the same score as if you answered only 60 questions and got all of them right. Using this logic, make sure you’re not spending too long on any one question.

Your goal is to answer every single question, which can be difficult in the 60-minute time limit. Don’t get stuck choosing between two options. Rule out answers, look at your remaining options, and take an educated guess. The goal here is to be efficient, without sacrificing accuracy.

To hone this strategy, keep a timer near you when taking a practice test and set it for one minute per question. After each minute beeps, move on to the next question. This will train you to start approaching the exam with pacing in mind. 

6. Know the types of multiple-choice questions

It’s important that you familiarize yourself with the types of questions on the AP® Human Geography exam. There are several types of multiple-choice questions you will encounter, which are detailed in the following table:

Understanding the different types of questions will help you approach the test with a more critical eye, and it will make the multiple-choice section much more manageable. The more you break up and categorize the AP® World Geography multiple-choice questions, the easier the exam will be.

7. Know how to interpret graphs, maps, charts, and illustrations

More than likely, there will be at least one multiple-choice question on the APHG exam that deals with a graphic of some sort. Questions with graphics can sometimes seem overwhelming since you have to look at both the visual element and the question and relate them. As long as you practice answering these types of questions, know how to interpret graphs and maps, and have a good understanding of the concept in question, you should do well on these types of questions.

Take a look at our example : 

Based on the map above, which of the following statements is not accurate? 

• There are higher percentages by country of Native Americans in the West than in the Midwest.
• There are more Indian reservations in the West than in the Mid-Atlantic. 
• Native Americans are present in each of the 50 states. 
• The lowest percentages of Native Americans by country are found in the Southwest. 
• Alaska has the higher percentages of Native Americans by country than the Northeast. 

8. Take good notes using a tried and true note-taking system

Reading textbooks and review books is not enough to actually learn the material. On the multiple-choice section, you absolutely have to know your stuff. Because of this, you need to actively, not passively, learn the material. As you’re reading your text or review book, take meaningful notes. 

Try using a tried and true note-taking method like Cornell notes.  See an example of these below.

By using this system, you can develop a clear organizational method which will then allow you to take the best notes you possibly can. When taking notes, think about the overall significance of the piece of information you’re recording. Think about the context, action, purpose, and effect behind the information in the note. Avoid simply scribbling down information for the sake of doing so. Keep your notes in a large binder, sorted by theme. You’ll be thankful you did it when it comes time to review in the weeks before the exam.

9. Teach concepts to your friends or family members

When you come across a particularly tough concept while learning the material, jot the theme/concept/vocab word down. Find a way to dumb it down so that a friend (who is not taking the course), or a family member, can understand it. By doing this, you can pinpoint which parts of the concept you’re not understanding and find ways to explain them. You could even make a Jeopardy game of the terms and teach your friends and family members material through Jeopardy. By teaching others, you’re making the information stick and learning a lot about your strengths and weaknesses.

10. Write your own multiple-choice questions

This can be a helpful trick to give you a better understanding of certain key terms and concepts. Pick an area that you’re struggling with, or need to know more about, and create questions based on vocabulary words within that area. 

Have your friends or classmates write questions, too, so that you can take each other’s tests. The act of writing out questions helps the information stick and the more practice tests you take (even if they’re written by a classmate!) can only help. By reversing the roles of student and test-maker, you can put yourself in the shoes of those who build the tests and begin to think like them.

However, don’t write wishy-washy or too simple of questions. Avoid questions that merely gloss over topics and key phrases, and don’t write questions that are too wordy, too complicated, or unanswerable. We recommend that you mimic the AP® Human Geography questions that you see on practice tests.

11. Use the information provided by the questions to your advantage

Sometimes the AP® Human Geography multiple-choice questions can actually sort of answer themselves. By this we mean that some questions can actually be used to answer others. Say MCQ #20 asks a question which describes the nature of relocation diffusion, and then MCQ #42 asks you to define relocation diffusion. Use the information in #20 to your advantage when answering #43. These moments of overlap do occur on the exam, and they should be taken advantage of. Read the questions with a critical eye and remember when they give free information.

AP® Human Geography Free Response: 11 Tips

1. Work through previous free-response essay questions

Practice makes perfect. The single most important FRQ tip for the AP® Human Geography exam is to practice, practice, practice. The College Board website has valuable resources to help you do just that. There, you will find past free-response essay questions, scoring guidelines, and sample responses. Then, start practicing.

Set a timer to 25 minutes per FRQ and begin practicing. After you finish, go back and reread your writing. Take note of your strengths and your weaknesses. Then, compare your essay to the sample responses and look through the scoring guidelines. Measure your essay against the rubric. Have your teacher or classmate objectively grade your practice essays for you. It’s okay to start practicing without a time limit at first, but make sure you’re writing essays under time limits, too.

2. Reread the question several times and mark it up

One of the biggest mistakes students made on the 2019 exam involved misreading the question and, therefore, providing incorrect or wishy-washy answers that ultimately missed the mark. 

For example, on a question involving urbanization and pollution, many student responses discussed the link between increased urbanization and increased pollution in too general of terms, and without referring to edge cities. Better responses noted how edge cities lead to more sprawling, less compact urban areas where there once was farmland or wilderness. These errors of generalization can be avoided by spending more time with the prompt! 

So, do not start writing immediately! Too often, students jump right into writing, without really understanding what the prompt is asking you. You need to carefully read and reread the question to make sure you know what’s being asked. Spend a good 5 minutes planning out each essay, always referring back to the question to make sure you’re staying on topic.

Additionally, while reading the prompt, mark it up with your pen. Underline, circle, or highlight key verbs like “analyze,” “explain,” “demonstrate,” and so on. This will help you break the prompt down into something much more manageable, and it will let you tackle the essay with more clarity. The first step to acing the FRQ is firmly understanding the prompt. 

3. Locate the verb in the question

To piggyback off of the previous tip: locating the verbs in FRQ questions can really help you understand which action you should take when forming your response. The following verbs and their explanations are common on AP® Human Geography FRQs

• Analyze: Using at least 2 sentences, find the relationship between two events or concepts. Explain this relationship and come to a conclusion using solid evidence, details, and specifics.
• Assess/Evaluate: Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of something using specific examples.
• Identify/Define: Using examples, craft a simple list (in narrative form) of factors or characteristics, or give well thought out definitions.  
• Explain: Using specific details, discuss the logical connections or cause and effects of concepts, themes, or events.
• Discuss: Taking both points of view, debate about something using details. Use at least 3 sentences in your response.

As you can see, no matter what the question asks you to do, always use specific details and supporting evidence. 

4. Create a common list of geographic themes you can incorporate into your FRQ

Before even taking the AP® Human Geography exam, you should have a solid understanding of at least the five basic themes of human geography: location, place, human-environment interaction, movement, and region. You should be able to use these themes as starting points to make complex, multi-faceted arguments, so we recommend you keep a list of them in a journal or review book as you take the course. 

Now, back to exam day: once you’ve read and reread the question and have a full understanding of the prompt, start to consider what geographic themes you can use in your response. You must remember that the exam is a Human Geography exam, which means you have to use geographic themes in your response, and they will make your essay much more academic, professional.

We’ll help you get started with the five basics: 

5. Answer the question and nothing more

As tempting as it is to write everything you know about a given topic, this can hurt more than help. For the 2019 exam, students made the mistake of writing responses that referenced generic arguments and examples. 

One way to only answer the question and nothing more. If a question asks for two examples, do not give three in your response. The AP® Human Geography FRQ is not about adding flowery language and opinions (do not include “I think” or “in my opinion” in your response). You need to be succinct, while still making sure you’re answering the question fully. Do not merely dump all the information you know out onto the page; strategically organize your thoughts into a cohesive argument. 

6. Remember that AP® Human Geography FRQs are NOT 5-paragraph essays

It can be sort of confusing to refer to FRQs as essays. In reality, AP® Human Geography FRQs are more like short-responses—sort of. While you don’t need to write a huge, AP® English-type essay with a thesis, body, and conclusion, you still must offer a solid, thick response of at least 3-4 paragraphs.

This also does not mean that you don’t have to be analytical. Quite the opposite, really. With less room for discussion, you must make all of your points as detailed, specific, and effective as possible. One way to achieve this is by using specific, concrete examples and evidence in your argument to support your point. Avoid generalizations. 

7. Approach the FRQs with AP-AP® in mind

AP-AP® is an acronym which can be used as a guiding principle to unpack the FRQ. It stands for this:

• A – Analyze the prompt 
• P – Plan your essay
• A – Attack the essay
• P – Proofread

First, analyze the prompt by marking it up, underlining key phrases, words, and action verbs. Then plan out your essay using an outline, brainstorming web, or essay map. After you plan, attack the essay—write it out. Then, finally, when you’ve finished your draft, read through it again and proofread . This step-by-step method, AP-AP, is a tried and tested approach to the FRQ.

8. Review previous AP® Human Geography FRQ responses

In addition to taking practice tests, one way to develop your writing skills is to read other students’ FRQ essays. College Board offers a collection of samples from previous years that prove super useful to review. They’re organized by strong scores, average scores, and low scores, so you will be able to see writing from all different levels. This will show you clear examples of what to do and what not to do. Additionally, College Board offers commentary from the readers which details strengths, weaknesses, possible improvements, and more. Reading others’ responses is a great way to develop your own writing skills. 

9. Make it easy for the reader to follow your thoughts by following a logical method of sentence sequencing

Remember that AP® readers have to go through large volumes of FRQ responses. Make it easy for them to follow your answer by following a logical sequencing method. After you write your topic sentence, stop, and reread. Then, ask yourself what comes next? 

If your topic sentence makes an assertion about how rapid industrialization in New England has led to a crisis in maintaining public infrastructures, then follow your claim with the logical next step. This would likely be an elaboration of your claim, some evidence to back it up, or further clarification of your argument. Whatever it is, follow your topic sentence with a logical next-step.

Moreover, be sure to label and number each part of your response in the margins of your answer booklet. Underline key terms and words you are defining. When using maps or charts in your response, use corresponding labels in your answer. Keep things organized. It’s also extremely important to keep your handwriting neat and legible. If the AP® reader cannot read your response, you won’t get the points, regardless of whether or not your answer is correct.

If you really want, you can skip lines when writing your FRQ to break things up and keep you sequenced. This gives you space if you need to go back and add additional information.

10. Practice pacing

Since you’re given a large block of 75 minutes to complete 3 essays, it is imperative that you manage your time effectively. When you work through sample FRQ’s set a timer while you write. We recommend that you give yourself 5 minutes to prewrite and 20 minutes to write each essay. This model of time will squarely fit within the 75 minute time limit, and practicing within these constraints will adequately prepare you for the exam.

On test day, make sure you bring a watch to monitor your time. Do not be tempted to spend more time on any one exam. It may be helpful to write the essays you’re most comfortable with first because you might be able to write those faster, leaving more time for essays that are more difficult. Whatever you do, don’t get caught up on one specific essay, squander your time, and neglect one of the essays. That’s a sure sign of a low score.

11. Use SPEED to organize your analysis

SPEED is an acronym integral to AP® Human Geography that can be used to organize your thoughts, ideas, and arguments. Here it is spelled out;

• S – Social
• P – Political 
• E – Environmental 
• E – Economy/Economical 
• D – Development 

The various progresses and processes of human geography can be largely lumped into one of these main categories. Use SPEED to break up your reading, organize your arguments, and make AP® Human Geography more manageable.

Study Tips by AP® Human Geography Teachers

Overall AP® Human Geography Tips

1. participate in class discussions.

By speaking up during class discussions and listening to what your classmates and teacher have to say, you are opening yourself up to higher level thinking and can integrate yourself with the material on a richer and more meaningful level. AP® Human Geography offers all kinds of nice ways to speak up, share your opinion, hear what others have to say, and critically engage with big questions. Thanks to Mr. Z. at Windermere Preparatory School for the tip!

2. Read daily and go above and beyond when completing coursework

Read and reread all of your reading assignments, using both your textbook and a review book. Additionally, develop a daily reading schedule of material from sophisticated publications like The New York Times, The Economist, The New Yorker, etc. A daily reading schedule will keep your sharp and help you hone your reading. 

Venture out into current books about culture, economics, and politics. Examples of interesting books to read during the APHG course are:

• Confucius Lives Next Door by T.R. Reid
• Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond
• Collapse by Jared Diamond
• The Lexus and the Olive Tree by Thomas L. Friedman
• The City of Joy by Dominique Lapierre
• The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom by Slavomir Rawicz
• Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream by Andres Duany, et al.
• Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt

Thanks to Ms. Whitney W. from Lafayette High School for the tip and reading list!

3. Keep a yearlong media journal

Each week, find a current event news story that relates to human geography. In your journal, summarize the news story (who, what, when, where, why, how, etc.). Then, ask yourself, “How does this connect to Human Geography?” Try to explain this by using appropriate vocabulary words. Next, think about your opinion on the story. Try to make a personal connection to the story, beyond just “I liked it.” Overall, media journals give you a better insight into what is going on in the world and can give you a wealth of examples to use in your APHG essay responses. Thanks to Mrs. M. from Kellam High School for the tip!

4. After a test or quiz, write out the questions you missed with the correct answers

If you miss questions on a test or quiz, grab a sheet of notebook paper and write out the questions, the correct answer, and why it’s correct. It may seem like overkill but, really, developing this pattern will help fully engage with the mistakes you make, and, thus, lead to correct answers. Also, this can help you understand why you got the question wrong and make sure you don’t get it wrong again. Thanks to Ms. W. from South Effingham High School for the tip!

5. Write out definitions in your own words

If you can’t put something in your own words, you essentially don’t know what it means. When you come across difficult words in your reading, try and define them in your own words before simply copying the definition down from the glossary. Glossaries are, of course, helpful but they give you definitions without context or examples. This is not helpful for learning or understanding the word. Instead, use the text to learn the meaning of vocabulary words. Thanks to Ms. Leslie G. at Vandergrift High School for the tip!

6. The main event, of course, is to know the vocab

By this I don’t mean just memorizing terms, but using and relating those terms to the world. For each chapter, keep a journal of vocabulary words, the bolded words, big concepts, etc. so when it comes time for you to take the exam, you’ll have a solid foundation. Also, a less obvious tip would be to listen to NPR (Public Radio) in particular a show called “The World”. And a show that I continue to watch and learn from is Fareed Zakaria GPS on CNN on Sunday’s mornings. Thanks for the tip from Pam H.

AP® Human Geography FRQ Tips

1. focus on content in your frq responses.

AP® readers do not deduct points for spelling or grammar errors that do not detract from the meaning of the writing. Feel free to cross things out if necessary. The overall attractiveness of your essays is not as important as what you’re saying. Focus on content, not proper grammar and spelling. Integrate appropriate geographic terms whenever possible! But also: don’t blow off grammar or spelling or punctuation, of course! Just don’t spend ten minutes wondering if you’ve put a comma in the correct spot. Thanks to Sara D. at Stillwater Junior High School for the tip!

2. Answer the FRQ question in the same format that it’s written

For the FRQ, make sure you are answering the question in the format that the prompt lays out for you. For example, if the question has three parts labeled A, B, and C, write your response in the same format. If the question asks you to analyze something, then analyze it. If it asks you to assess something, then assess it, so on and so forth. Carefully read the prompt and do what it asks! Thanks to Mr. Robert C. from Pearland High School for the tip!

3. Be sure to outline your FRQs using graphic organizers

By doing this, you will ensure that you at least answer every part of the FRQ.

For example:

From the 2018 FRQ. A.  Explain TWO ways that gentrification may positively impact neighborhoods. B. Explain TWO ways that gentrification may negatively impact neighborhoods. 

• The outline should be a T chart with A on one side and B on the other.

From the 2018 FRQ. Identify TWO specific means by which new expressions in popular culture are diffused globally.

• Students should also do a T chart with an example of expression on one side and a description of how it is diffused on the other.

Lastly, from the 2018 exam. For each of the following THREE categories, describe ONE obstacle that may prevent women working in agriculture from achieving greater equality and empowerment. 

• Cultural 

For this, students should create a four squared ESPN (economic, social, political, environmental) chart and jot down some economic, social, and political consequences and pick one from each category so they don’t overlap, therefore losing points for double-dipping.

Thanks for the tip from Justin H.

4. When in doubt on a written response, use the Demographic Transition Model 

Since AP® Human Geography is so “human”-oriented, talking about the finer points of the DTM— population growth, distribution, diffusion—could help you achieve a higher score. Be sure to work analysis of these into your essay. Thanks for the tip from Jonathan S. from Somerset College Preparatory School.

Are you a teacher? Do you have an awesome tip? Let us know!

Wrapping Things Up: The Ultimate List of AP® Human Geography Tips

The AP® Human Geography exam is not a walk in the park. The test’s abundance of AP® Human Geography regions, themes, concepts, and vocabulary words make for a grueling, difficult test-taking experience. There’s a reason so few students score a 5. 

Try and approach your preparation for the AP® Human Geography exam in three ways:

Develop a regular, scheduled study routine filled with a good review book, flashcards, study groups, and monthly or bi-weekly practice exams. The key to acing this text, and really any test, is preparation.

AP® Human Geography Multiple-Choice:

Know the specific types of questions asked on the MCQ section, and refer to our table above which lists and defines these types during your preparation. The key to answering the AP® Human Geography MCQs is understanding the various types of questions you will encounter.

AP® Human Geography Free Response:

Remember AP-AP® as a general rule of thumb in tackling the AP® Human Geography FRQ. This is a simple way to stay organized and focused on the FRQ.

Keep this review close, and use it as a guiding principle. Also, check out our entire unit on AP® Human Geography where we offer practice on free response, critical reading, MCQs, and more! You’ve got this!

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How To Write Essay About Geography

Table of Contents

Content of this article

• Outline sample
• Introduction writing
• Body writing
• Conclusion writing

A geography essay is an article that explains the appearance and existence of phenomena like physical features and some human-made features. It tries to explain how natural resources like rivers, mountains, and valleys came into existence. It also explains their significance. Most students have a difficult time writing a paper on geography due to its complexity. This article is meant to improve your essay on geography writing skills. As most students do not know how to start a geography essay, below is a geography essay outline .  This paper is a guide on how to write a geography essay.

Geography essay structure and outlining

Outline sample.

Introduction

The study of geography is far and wide.  These two broad areas; are natural and human-made. This essay on geography will focus on how human activities like industrialization and farming have affected nature.

Thesis statement

Over the years, climate change has been a topic of discussion as a bomb waiting to explode.  The industrialization has led to a shift in climate due to the emission of CFOs that have resulted in global warming. The effects of climate change can be felt in its different capacities. By 2020, the effects of global warming will be so severe that the earth will almost be inhabitable.

• Global warming has led to the expansion of deserts. Deserts such as the Sahara and the Kalahari have become drier and expanded due to the lack of rain in the surrounding areas.
• Melting of glaciers- the Arctic and the Antarctic have experienced a reduction in their ice mass due to global warming. The ice is gradually melting.
• Mutations of animals- due to the effects of global warming, animals have begun mutating, therefore, becoming more resistant.

Human beings have contributed to the change in climate, yet the more technology moves forward, the more the damage is likely to be in future. We need to derive a method of keeping the air, water, and soil pollution-free.

With this outline for a geography essay, it is easier to see the essay tackles.

Tips concerning introduction writing

There are many tips on geography essay writing to guide you through your paper. This section highlights some of the simple tips for introduction writing that one can use.

• First, you need to know the geography essay outline before you start writing the essay. Consider the geography essay topics of choice. It is important in developing a geography essay draft that guides you into the kind of research to carry out. Ensure that the topic is one that you understand fully for easy geography essay writing.
• In a geography essay introduction, explain the phenomena you are writing about in detail stating its exact location.

Tips on the body (paragraphs, length, and transition)

• The body of a geography essay includes both theory and specific real-life cases. It answers the what, where and the why questions. Geography essay prompts you to have a relevant case study about the phenomena.
• It should be factual. Mention specific names and location and ensure they are accurate.
• Ensure that the diagrams used are well-drawn and labeled.
• Ensure that what you write relates to the thesis.
• Keep it as objective as possible for example do not say the Big Bang Theory is a lie.
• It has to be well organized into categories, discussing different factors in well-thought-out paragraphs.
• The transitions should blend well in cases where one paragraph is not enough to explain the phenomena and its implications.

Writing the conclusion

How to conclude a geography essay is a challenge for many students. In the geography essay conclusion, give a general outlook of the phenomena of study and your opinion based on the case study done. The conclusion for a geography essay should state the recommendations and solutions that you think should be put in place to bring changes. It explains the significance of your findings. Do not introduce new information in the conclusion, but ensure that it matches the argument presented in the introduction.

Sources for geography essay choice

The geography essay topic chosen will guide you in finding out the best source to use. There are very many sources of geographical data. Find a source that is accessible such as libraries and the Internet.  Papers on geography can also be used as a reference.

Students can use the internet, topographical maps, Atlas, Globe, literature review, and observation as their sources. Observation, however, requires you to dedicate a lot of time for fieldwork. Books in the libraries are very helpful especially when you need diagrammatic representation.

The atlas is convenient for finding the accurate location.

Finalizing the essay

A geography essay is not complete without a glossary that explains the definition of technical terms used in the essay. A glossary is a requirement in all papers on geography.

• Ensure that the diagrams (if used) are clear and well labeled. State the sources of these charts and provide links for further reading. These pictures act as a geography essay writing guide for the readers.
• Proofread the essay for accuracy. Ensure that the argument proposed does not deviate from the topic. This makes sure that your geography papers writing can be defended as true.
• Check for punctuation, correct referencing for content, and spelling.

Geography essay tips for topic choice

These tips are important for students that want to learn how to write a geography essay.

• The choice of topic is the first step to passing papers on geography. Choose a topic that you are conversant with. This makes it easier to write without too much geography essay writing help.
• The topic should be catchy and precise to capture the attention of the reader.
• The topic should not be overly broad. It allows you to defend your argument.

Top 20 geography essay topics

• How do volcanic activities occur?
• Discuss the Supernova theory
• The effects of the rising climate change
• What is a human-wildlife conflict?
• How does climate affect vegetation?
• Discuss the ocean topography
• How does the principle of relativism relate to geography
• Explain how currents have affected fishing in Japan
• Discuss longitudes and latitudes and the concept of time
• How does the moon affect tides?
• Discuss the earth and solar system
• What causes tsunamis and hurricanes?
• Explain what causes the occurrence of rocks
• Statistical Geographical data
• Elaborate on the significance of faulting
• Explore the effects of the Himalayas and its surrounding
• Determine how sextants identify the position in the sea
• Identify how do physical features affect human activities?
• Explore the implications of farming on soil pollution
• Why do deserts occur?
• Discuss how water bodies affect the rain cycle

58 Human Geography Examples (Terms & Concepts)

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Human geography studies the relationship between human societies and spaces and places.

It is a branch of the social sciences that concerns itself with our relationships with place, how we move through spaces, and the politics of space, place, and nationhood.

Students who study human geography will examine patterns of migration, how humans are nourished by the earth, how we use (and abuse) the earth, and how we can live more sustainably on our planet.

According to the Advanced Placement Human Geography course, there are five themes of human geography :

1. Location Location holds fundamental importance in human geography as it pertains to the ways in which we shape and are shaped by the spaces in which we inhabit. So, human geography might explore how our location affects our lives (e.g. if we live in a food desert), or how our proximity to the city affects our job prospects. 

2. Place The theme of Place encompasses physical characteristics (natural environment or landscape) and human aspects (structures and cultural influence ) that make one place different from another (Marston, 2013). It also pertains to the concept of ‘sense of place’, explaining how place becomes a part of our cultures and identities.

3. Human-Environmental Interactions Human-Environmental Interactions involve how humans adapt to, modify, and affect nature, for example, building a dam to control a river’s flow (Peet, Robbins, & Watts, 2011). In the era of the Anthropocene, it’s believed human actions are able to impact the entire global ecosystem, such as through human-induced climate change.

4. Movement The theme of Movement concerns the continuous interaction among people, places, and environments that facilitates exchange, along the pathways of transportation routes, communication networks, or economic associations (Knox, Marston & Imort, 2015). It also examines how and why people migrate, and the impacts that has on both migratory and host populations.

5. Region Region refers to an area distinguished by particular physical and human characteristics, that includes formal regions (countries or climate zones), functional regions (based on interaction), and perceptual regions (associated with cultural identity or mindset) (Cresswell, 2010). People living within regions tend to have a strong impact on one another due to their interdependence for food and resources, and the fact they tend to share resources.

While above I’ve presented five broad themes, below are summaries of some of the most important terms and concepts in human geography. You would need to familiarize yourself with these as a human geography student.

Human Geography Examples

Absolute Location This term refers to a point on the Earth’s surface defined with precision using geographic coordinates such as latitude and longitude; it provides a unique numerical identity for each location.

Anthropocene This term proposes a new geological epoch characterized by the significant global impact of human activities on the Earth’s ecosystems, including biodiversity loss, climate change, pollution, and land use changes; its usage reflects the recognition of human influence on the planet’s health. 

Balkanization This is a geopolitical process where a region or state fractures into smaller autonomous entities due to ethnic, social, political, or economic divisions; it represents the conflict and disintegration often driven by ethnic enmity.

Carrying Capacity This concept signifies the maximum population of a species that an environment can sustain indefinitely given available resources like food, water and habitat; it showcases the balance between resource availability and consumption.

Contagious Diffusion This notion relates to the rapid, widespread dispersion of a characteristic, idea, innovation, or disease throughout a population by contact from person to person; it demonstrates how phenomena can spread organically across regions.

Cultural Appropriation This term delineates the adoption or borrowing of elements from a culture by individuals from a different culture, usually dominant ones, without understanding, respect, or proper acknowledgment; it often unveils sensitive issues related to power dynamics and fairness.

Cultural Assimilation This term signifies the process in which members of a minority group adapt or adopt dominant social norms, traditions, and behaviors, merging into the prevalent culture; it highlights important aspects of cultural integration and homogeneity.

Cultural Diffusion This is a sociocultural process where a new cultural idea, material, or practice spreads from its place of origin to other locales, fostering cultural interconnectedness; it forms an integral part of cultural evolution, often leading to cultural diversity.

Cultural Globalization This concept relates to the transmission of ideas, meanings, and values around the world in such a way as to extend and intensify social relations, often leading to the mingling or confluence of cultures; it shows the dynamic interplay between global and local cultures.

Cultural Heterogeneity This indicates the diversity of human societies or cultures in a specific region, or in the world as a whole; it underscores the dynamic interplay of cultural variations and similarities.

Cultural Homogenization This refers to the reduction in cultural diversity through the popular spread of certain languages, practices, or values across regions, often due to globalization; it signals the growing similarity among cultures.

Cultural Landscapes These are natural landscapes that have been altered by human societies, reflecting the cultural imprint on the environment through buildings, agriculture, or other modifications; they embody the intertwined relationship between people and their environments.

Cultural Syncretism This denotes the fusion of different cultural beliefs, practices, or expressions to create new combined forms; it illustrates the dynamism and pluralism within cultures.

Demographic Transition This term outlines the shift from high birth and death rates to low birth and death rates that typically occurs as a country develops economically; it offers a macro view of population change over time.

Demography This is the statistical and scientific study of population dynamics, including size, structure, movement, birth, death, and migratory trends; it provides vital insights into societal characteristics and trends.

Diaspora This represents a scattered population outside their original geographic homeland, maintaining cultural connections to it; it unveils the complexities of migration and cultural identity.

Economic Globalization This term designates an interconnected world economy where countries are economically dependent on each other through trade, investment, and capital flows; it underscores the integrated nature of the modern global economy.

Environmental Justice This term emphasizes fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people in environmental policymaking, implementation, and enforcement, regardless of race, color, national origin, or income; it draws attention to social justice aspects of environmental issues.

Ethnocentrism This is the belief in the superiority of one’s own ethnic group or culture and viewing other cultures from that perspective; it underscores bias and prejudice in understanding and valuing other cultures.

Expansion Diffusion This denotes a type of cultural diffusion where an idea or innovation spreads outward from its hearth, maintaining its influence there while being adopted elsewhere; it indicates the spread and uptake of cultural trends.

Food Deserts These are urban or rural areas with limited access to affordable and nutritious food, often due to systemic socioeconomic barriers; they depict disparities in food access tied to social and economic inequities.

Formal Region A formal region is an area characterized by a certain degree of homogeneity in one or more phenomena; such as climate, soil, vegetation or human activity such as religion or language.

Functional Region This term pertains to a region defined by the particular set of activities or interactions that occur within it; it usually consists of a central place or hub and the surrounding places affected by it.

Gentrification This is an urban development trend characterized by the influx of wealthier individuals into deteriorating urban neighborhoods leading to increased property values and the displacement of lower-income residents; it raises concerns about social inequality and housing justice.

Globalization This term signifies an ongoing process that involves increasing interaction and integration among people, governments, and companies worldwide; it’s often driven by international trade, investment, and aided by information technology.

Heartland Theory This geopolitical theory postulates that the landlocked Eurasian “heartland,” due to its huge resource base and inaccessibility, is the key to global domination; it sought to explain political power dynamics in the first half of the 20th century.

Hierarchical Diffusion In this form of diffusion, an idea or innovation spreads by trickling down from larger to smaller adoption units, often with the help of opinion leaders; it explains the different stages of adoption in a social system.

Human Impacts on Climate Change This refers to the significant anthropogenic contributions to global climate change, primarily through greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels; it illustrates the critical influence of human activity on the planet’s climate.

Human-Wildlife Conflict This involves any intersection of human and wildlife where interactions result in negative effects on human social, economic or cultural life, or on the conservation of wildlife populations; it spotlights the challenges of coexistence in shared habitats.

Intensive Agriculture This system of agriculture involves greater inputs of labor and capital relative to land area for increased agricultural output; it involves practices like terracing, agroforestry, and multi-cropping.

Megalopolis This term is employed for cities with a total population in excess of 10 million inhabitants; these urban agglomerations, often setting trends in culture, politics, and economics, grapple with challenges of congestion, pollution, and social disparity.

Migration This denotes the act of moving from one geographical area to another, often for reasons such as employment, education, or escape from adverse conditions; it impacts the social, economic, and political strategies of the departed and destination places.

Multiculturalism This signifies the coexistence of diverse cultures where each maintains their identities within a larger society; it signifies a societal approach advocating for diversity, pluralism, mutual respect, and integration (see also: pluralism in sociology ).

Nation-State This term refers to a form of political entity in which a nation (a group of people sharing common elements of culture, such as language or history) coincides with a political state; it represents an ideal wherein cultural boundaries match up with political ones.

Political Geography This is a subfield of geography that studies the spatial distribution of political phenomena and processes, inclusive of boundaries, divisions, and resources; it underscores how political structures and actions influence and are influenced by the spatial layout.

Political Globalization This refers to the intensification and expansion of political interrelations across the globe, marked by international treaties, global regulations, and the emergence of international organizations; this phenomenon highlights how nation-states navigate within an increasingly interconnected global political landscape.

Postindustrial Society This term denotes a stage of society’s development when the service sector generates more income than the manufacturing sector; it showcases a societal transition towards information- and service-based economies.

Primary Sector of the Economy This component of the economy involves industries involved in the extraction and collection of natural resources, such as mining, agriculture, or forestry; it represents the foundation of all economic activity.

Pull Factors These are conditions that attract people to a new area, including job opportunities, political stability, or better services; they play a significant role in patterns of human migration.

Push Factors This term refers to the reasons that compel people to leave their areas of residence, including war, economic hardship, or natural disasters; understanding push factors helps explain migratory trends.

Quaternary Sector of the Economy This economic sector encompasses knowledge-based services like information technology, consultation, education, research and development, and financial planning; it underlines the increasing importance of intellectual capabilities in contemporary economies.

Quinary Sector of the Economy This segment of economy includes the highest levels of decision-making in a society or economy, including top executives or officials in government, science, universities, nonprofits, healthcare, culture, and the media; it reflects the highest levels of societal influence and decision-making power.

Relative Location This term refers to the location of a place in relation to other places, such as “west of the park” or “south of the city”; it provides a frame of reference that helps depict spatial relationships.

Relocation Diffusion This type of diffusion happens when individuals migrate from one place to another, taking their cultural ideas, practices, or innovations with them; it demonstrates the transmission of cultural traits through human motion.

Rimland Theory This geopolitical hypothesis proposes control of the maritime fringes of a landmass (rimland), and not the landlocked center (heartland), as the key to global power; it provided a counterpoint to the Heartland theory in the mid-20th century.

Rural Depopulation This phenomenon involves a reduction in rural population, usually because of migration to urban areas for better economic opportunities or living conditions; it displays the urban-rural dynamic in population distribution.

Secondary Sector of the Economy This term pertains to industries that produce goods using the raw materials provided by the primary sector, encompassing activities like manufacturing, processing, and construction; it highlights the value-added aspect of the economy.

Social Geography This is a branch of human geography focusing on social patterns as expressed in space, exploring dimensions like distribution, identity, behavior, and interaction of diverse social groups; it illuminates the spatial manifestations of social phenomena.

Stimulus Diffusion In this form of diffusion, a concept, idea or innovation spreads to new places, but is then changed by those who adopt it to better suit their culture or environment; it highlights the adaptive nature of cultural exchange.

Subsistence Agriculture This form of agriculture is characterized by self-sufficiency where the farmers focus on growing enough food to feed themselves and their families; it displays a traditional approach to farming, centered on basic survival.

Supranationalism This signifies a type of alliance where nations surrender some degree of sovereignty to a higher entity for mutual benefits or for pursuing common objectives, like in case of the European Union; it underscores trends towards greater global governance.

Sustainable Development This development strategy integrates economic progress, social development, and environmental protection to meet the needs of the present without compromising the future generations’ ability to meet theirs; it embodies a holistic, long-term perspective on global development.

Technological Globalization This concept refers to the proliferation and integration of technology across national and cultural borders, facilitating increased connectivity, interaction, and exchange; it underscores the role of technology in creating a globally connected ecosystem.

Tertiary Sector of the Economy This sector, also known as the service sector, covers all jobs that involve providing a service to individuals and other businesses, including healthcare, education, retail, and entertainment; it signifies a dominant part of most developed economies.

Transnational Corporation This refers to a corporation that operates in more than one country, driving its efficiencies or gains from utilizing resources or markets across nations; it typifies large-scale business operations in a globally interconnected economy.

Urban Sprawl This term refers to the uncontrolled expansion of urban areas into the adjacent rural lands often resulting in increased dependence on cars and reduced walkability; it underscores a significant planning challenge associated with rapid urban growth.

Urbanization This describes the growth and expansion of urban areas, typically involving the migration from rural to urban regions, and corresponding increase in their population and economic activities; it represents a dominant demographic trend in the contemporary world.

Vernacular Region This term pertains to areas that people define by their collective mental map of the world’s regions based on perceptions or an accumulation of descriptive facts; it demonstrates how place identities can vary based on personal or collective interpretations.

Human geography helps us to explore the complexity and interconnectedness of the world. The discipline explores spatial relationships, environments, cultural relations to place, and socio-economic systems, providing us with the tools to decipher our shared and unique experiences on this planet. The study of human geography reminds us how interconnected we are, as well as the scope and impact of our actions in shaping the cultural, socio-political, and economic landscapes.

Cresswell, T. (2010). Towards a politics of mobility . Environment and Planning D: Society and Space.

Knox, P. L., Marston, S. A., & Imort, M. (2015). Human geography: places and regions in a global context . Los Angeles: Pearson.

Marston, A. (2013). Geography. New York: Reference Reviews.

Peet, R., Robbins, P., & Watts, M. (2011). Global political ecology . London: Routledge.

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Geography Notes

Essay on world population: top 10 essays | human geography.

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Here is a compilation of essays on ‘World Population’ for class 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12. Find paragraphs, long and short essays on ‘World Population’ especially written for school and college students.

Essay on World Population

Essay Contents:

• Essay on the Views of Malthus on World Overpopulation

Essay # 1. Introduction to World Population:

Human and economic geography are concerned with Man and his use of natural resources. The way in which land, sea, minerals, forests, and water supplies are used varies very much around the world, chiefly because of the wide variation of human numbers, human types and the stage of development of different human groups.

The rapid growth of population is perhaps the most obvious factor affecting present and future na­tional and regional development, but it is by no means the only population problem in the world today. Un­even distribution of population and conflicts stem­ming from racial, cultural, religious, social or political diversity are problems in almost every country in the world.

In 1977 the total world population was estimated at 4,105 million and by the end of the twentieth cen­tury it will have reached about 7,000 million. It is seen that world population is increasing ever more rapidly. This is because it increases in geo­metrical fashion (i.e. 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, . . .), rather than arithmetically (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, . . .).

Moreover the rate of growth in the last two centuries has been accelerated by the great advances in medicine, hygiene, and nutrition made all over the world. Death rates and particularly infant mortality rates have been drastically reduced so that more children grow up and themselves have families.

But enormous as the world population is, mere numbers do not present a problem if all the people in an area can be adequately fed, clothed, housed, edu­cated and employed. But this cannot always be done and this is why population growth creates problems.

Some of the main difficulties arise because people are not distributed evenly over the earth and because the age and sex structure of populations varies widely from country to country. Only in terms of these factors can we discuss whether a country is under- or over- populated.

Essay # 2. Distribution of World’s Population:

In terms of continents and countries the world’s popu­lation is very ill-balanced. More than half of the world’s people live in Asia (excluding the U.S.S.R.) which accounts for only one-fifth of the world’s land area, while North, Central and South America together, occupying more than a quarter of the land surface, have only one-seventh of the population.

The African continent also accounts for a quarter of the land sur­face but has just over one-tenth of the world popula­tion. On the other hand Europe, whose area is only one twenty-fifth of the total, has about one-ninth of the world’s people.

The distribution within the continents is also un­even. In Asia, China alone, with ab  out 900 million people, accounts for half the Asian and a quarter of the world population. The Indian subcontinent has a further 710 million people. In Europe too, the popu­lation is unevenly distributed. Far more people live in northern and western European countries than in southern and Eastern Europe.

The U.S.S.R. is the largest country in the world and has 259 million peo­ple but only a quarter of them live in the Asian sec­tion. In Africa and the Americas people are for the most part spread very thinly across the land, leaving large sections such as northern Canada, south-western U.S.A., the Sahara Desert, and the Amazon forests practically uninhabited.

The distribution of population depends to a large extent on the quality of the land itself, which is very uneven. Where the land is well suited to agriculture or there are natural resources for industrial development the population will naturally be larger than in areas where climatic conditions are hostile or where re­sources are few.

Thus population density, that is the number of people living in a unit area, varies widely. In Singapore there are nearly 4,000 people to the square kilometre (ppsk)or 10,300 people to the square mile (ppsm); in Belgium there are 320 (840); in Brazil only 13 (34) and in Mongolia less than 1 ppsk or 2 ppsm, though even within these countries the population is far from evenly spread.

A map of world population densities shows that while the great majority of the land surface is sparsely or moderately populated (between 0 and 50 ppsk or between 0 and 125 ppsm) some limited areas are very densely populated.

These areas are Western Europe, the Indian subcontinent, the plains and river valleys of China, and north-eastern U.S.A. Smaller concen­trations of people are found in the Nile Valley of Egypt, the island of Java in Indonesia and the south­ern part of Japan.

The factors which lead to high population densities are often complex, but those which restrict popu­lation are clear-cut. They are usually climatic factors and, despite modern advances in technology, most ’empty’ areas are never likely to be much more densely peopled than they are today.

Essay # 3. Features of Population Patterns in the World:

The broad features of world population distribution are clearly related to climatic, soil, and other physical factors. This is because such factors regulate the type and amount of crops which can be grown, determining both negative and positive areas for economic develop­ment.

But physical factors are not the only ones which affect population distribution. In most parts of the world the basic pattern of population due to physical factors has detailed variations imposed upon it as a result of social, ethnic, cultural or historical factors.

Some of the most important of such factors are the concentration of racial or linguistic groups in limited areas; the dominance of particular religions in certain areas which may in turn affect birth rates or economic development; the way of life of particular population groups which may mean for instance that a large area of land is required to support a relatively small num­ber of people; the history of settlement, which for instance has led to the dominance of the eastern sea­board in North America; and the history of coloniza­tion, which has led to the development of some tropi­cal areas, especially those nearest the coast.

Moreover modern developments such as rural resettlement, the introduction of new farming techniques, industrialization, the drift to the towns, and changes in the standard of living, are all leading to changes in the population patterns of many countries.

It is not possible in this book to cover the popula­tion pattern of the whole world in detail, but by deal­ing with some countries as examples the comparative roles of basic physical features, economic and social factors can be better understood.

(i) People’s Republic of China:

China has the largest population of any country in the world but its average population density is only about 75 ppsk (200 ppsm). Compared with countries such as the Netherlands (average density 410 ppsk: 1,601 ppsm) or Japan (310 ppsk: 800 ppsm), China does not appear particularly densely peopled.

However, average densities can be misleading where there is a very uneven spread of population, for about three- quarters of China’s population is concentrated in only 15 per cent of the land area. The most densely settled region is in the east, while the western half of the coun­try is still under-populated. Moderately populated dis­tricts are found on the fringes of the densely settled regions.

The physical background to this pattern is fairly clear: the eastern plains and river valleys, including the North China Plain, the Chang Jiang (Yangtze) basin, the Sichuan (Szechwan) basin and the Xi Jiang (Si Kiang) basin, offer ideal conditions for agriculture, with adequate monsoon rainfall, good soils, flat land and water for irrigation from the large rivers.

As a re­sult rural population densities are sometimes as large as 1,000 ppsk (2,500 ppsm). During the long history of settlement in eastern China only the inherent rich­ness of the land has enabled the population to expand to such proportions. The long tradition of dense set­tlement has led to the development of many towns and cities which must originally have served as markets and administrative centres, but have now become in­dustrial centres.

The existence of sixteen or more cities with over a million inhabitants helps to raise population densities in the eastern region; but in terms of the total population urbanization is not very im­portant, for only about one-sixth of the population lives in towns.

In the surrounding uplands and foothills the poorer agricultural opportunities, poorer accessibility and dif­ficulties of irrigating the steep slopes have led to more moderate population densities. Moderate densities are also found in the more favoured areas of the generally negative western provinces.

In the interior provinces of Xinjiang (Sinkiang), Gansu (Kansu), Qinghai (Tsinghai), Tibet and Inner Mongolia, where densities are generally less than 1 ppsk (3 ppsm), physical factors such as a cold continental climate, aridity, high alti­tude and inaccessibility have militated against intensive agriculture. The best form of land use is some form of herding.

This extensive type of agriculture is practiced by the Tibetans, Uighurs, Kazaks, Mongols and Kirghiz who inhabit the area but does not support large num­bers of people. The region is, however, capable of greater development than has hitherto taken place.

The contrasts between China proper and the in­terior are not all due to physical factors however. The sparse population of the interior is partly the result of the traditional way of life of the herders, for in recent years the growing of crops and the exploitation of mineral resources has led to an increase in population density.

In the more densely peopled regions, too, so­cial factors have helped to create overpopulation. Peo­ple could have moved westwards into the empty areas and relieved pressure on the lowlands, but partly be­cause the people of China proper are of true Chinese or Han race while the outer territories are peopled by other ethnic groups, and partly because the unfamiliar conditions would have meant the evolution of new forms of agriculture, this has not taken place on a large scale.

Recently, however, planned colonization of the interior has been encouraged by the communist gov­ernment. Pressure on land in China proper would also have been less, had industrial development taken place earlier, causing many people to migrate to the towns. To some extent this occurred in the 1950s and early 1960s when emphasis was placed on industrial devel­opment.

Despite government attempts to reduce the ‘drift to the towns’ this inevitable movement from the overcrowded countryside continues. The present popu­lation distribution pattern of China is the result of a combination of physical, social, historical and eco­nomic factors.

Present changes are due to the breaking down of traditional attitudes and the rational planning of economic development but it remains to be seen whether this will significantly alter the long-established pattern.

(ii) Canada:

Canada also has marked dis­parities in its population distribution pattern. Over 90 per cent of its 23 million people live in a narrow belt not more than 320 km (200 miles) wide, immediately north of the U.S. border, leaving the vast Northlands practically uninhabited.

Even within the settled belt there are marked differences in population densities for the western coast, the Prairies and the Maritime Provinces are only moderately peopled while the St. Lawrence lowlands are more densely peopled.

The small total population of the country means, however, that nowhere are there the extremely high densities found in China. The main basis of this pattern is the physical background. The cold climate, permafrost, short growing season, rocky terrain and poor soils of the Northlands means that except in certain favoured areas, agriculture is not possible.

The Northlands do have some physical advantages, such as rich mineral resources, coniferous forests and swift-flowing rivers for the generation of H.E.P., but none of these need a large or permanently settled population for their ex­ploitation.

The only permanent inhabitants of the re­gion are Eskimos and certain Indian tribes, who have adapted their way of life to the harsh conditions and have traditionally, depended on hunting and fishing, neither of which supports a dense population.

The Northlands are not the only negative area as far as settlement is concerned; the Rocky Mountain ranges are also sparsely peopled. The climate in the moun­tains is severe, the slopes are steep and rocky and ac­cessibility is limited by the terrain. Only limited coastal areas and valleys are suitable for settlement and these support only a moderate population.

The Prairies have a moderately dense population because the main activity is agriculture. Extensive, highly mechanized farming does not offer employment opportunities to more than a moderate number of people.

The most densely settled parts of the Prairie provinces are those where mineral resources (oil and phosphates) offer some possibilities of industrial de­velopment, or where more intensive agriculture is pos­sible as in the Red River Valley.

The cool, foggy, damp climate of the Maritime Provinces, the hilly terrain and the limited agricultural lands are only suited to a moderate population den­sity, but the better conditions of the St. Lawrence lowlands lead to a denser settlement. The possibilities of more intensive agricultural development, good water communications, and land of moderate relief are the main physical advantages of the region.

Physical factors are not all-important, however, in determining Canada’s population distribution. Re­moteness from central services, and fear of loneliness play some part in keeping the Northlands empty. Similarly the distance of the Prairies from contacts with the rest of the world, limits the willingness of people to live there as well as hampering industrial growth for lack of markets. The eastern seaboard was the first area settled by European immigrants.

As the longest-settled part of the country it has the best social and cultural amenities. Its nearness to Europe allows traditional links with Britain and France to be main­tained as well as promoting trade and industry. Anoth­er reason for the concentration of settlement in the south-east of the country is the proximity of the U.S.A.’s industrial belt.

This has encouraged invest­ment and therefore industrial development and has led to a greater density of population, especially in and around the industrial centres of Toronto, Kingston, Montreal and Quebec. The Maritimes have not had the same advantage for they adjoin the northern New England states which themselves suffer from inaccessi­bility. Social factors also play an important role.

The population of Canada is descended mainly from immi­grants; about half from British and a third from French stock. Descendants of immigrants of other nationali­ties are far fewer in number. While the English-speaking Canadians are found throughout the country, the French are concentrated in Quebec and eastern On­tario.

This is mainly because they feel most at home in a French environment, where French is spoken, French language papers and French food are available. Because of this concentration, and the fact that most of the French Canadians are Catholics, the birth rate is high and this leads to a denser population. For these various reasons, therefore, the provinces of Quebec and Ontario have about two-thirds of the Canadian population.

(iii) Peninsular Malaysia:

It is not only large countries with a wide range of physical and climatic regions which have a marked disparity in population distribution. Peninsular Malaysia has far greater den­sities of population on its western coastlands than in other parts of the country. This is partly due to the far greater possibilities for agriculture on the west where the lowlands are broader than on the east.

In the north are the wide padi-lands of Kedah and Perlis, while far­ther south are undulating lowlands which were found ideal for the growing of export crops, especially rub­ber and oil palm. On the East Coast, however, the swampy coastal plain is narrower and gives way more rapidly to mountainous terrain, except in the north in a region around Kota Bharu and Kuala Trengganu where the lowlands are wider and support a high rural population growing rice, rubber and other crops.

The western lowlands proved ideal for colonial plantation development not only from a physical standpoint but also because of their proximity to the Strait of Malacca which has always been a major sea- route. Ports such as Malacca, Port Kelang and George Town provided outlets for the produce of the western coastlands.

Ports on the east coast did not have the advantage of facing such a major seaway. Population was expanded in the west by an influx of immigrant labourers for the plantations. Nowadays the West Coast is still favoured for agricultural development both in plantations and smallholdings because of the existing infrastructure of roads, market towns and ports.

The other important factor has been the exploita­tion of vast reserves of tin which occur largely in the western coastal plains. Here again immigrants came in to work the mines or came as traders to support and serve the mining communities.

Tin and rubber trading led to the establishment of far more market towns in western districts and these in turn have grown into ex­panding industrial and commercial centres. George Town, Ipoh and Kuala Lumpur alone house 15 per cent of the Peninsular Malaysian population.

Agriculture and fishing have led to a moderate popu­lation on the East Coast but the centre of the country, which is mountainous, forested and ill-provided with transport routes has few people and is far more diffi­cult and expensive to develop. Government policy is to help open up the land for settlement through settle­ment schemes such as that at Jengka Triangle but this will make little impact on overall population distribution.

(iv) Nigeria:

Nigeria has a very compli­cated pattern of population distribution, with three separate centres of dense population divided by regions of moderate or sparse settlement. This pattern is part­ly governed by physical factors, since the area of least dense population, known as the Middle Belt, coincides with a region of poor soils, low rainfall and inadequate groundwater supplies. The tsetse fly is also a great problem in this region.

The regions of dense popula­tion are those where climate, soils and terrain are more favourable, and where a wide variety of food and cash crops can be grown. In the south-east the main cash crop is oil palm, in the south-west cocoa and some oil palm, and in the north the main crops are cotton and groundnuts.

Areas of moderate population density tend to be found on the more marginal land on the fringes of the densely settled zones and in those parts of the sparsely settled zones which are better served by roads, railways or river transport and are thus more accessible.

Many other factors than those of climate and soil have contributed to the present pattern. Perhaps the most important is that each of the main centres of population is the chief area of settlement of one of the three main ethnic groups in Nigeria. The Ibos are con­centrated in the south-east, the Yorubas in the south­west, and the Muslim Hausa peoples in the north.

These are the three most successful and powerful groups and their numbers have increased more rapidly than those of smaller groups which were more subject to wars, slave raiding and general unrest. As a result of these ethnic differences and the separate development of the three groups, the detailed population distribu­tion differs from one densely settled region to another.

In the north the main centres of population are large, isolated towns such as Kano and Sokoto which have traditionally served as termini on the caravan routes of the Sahara. In the south-west, the towns are more con­centrated, forming an area of dense population includ­ing Ibadan, Oshogbo and Oyo; the rural population is also fairly dense. Lagos, the capital city, has grown rapidly by in-migration and is the centre of another densely settled region.

The south-eastern concentra­tion of population is characterized, however, by few large urban centres but by very high rural densities, reaching about 700 ppsk (1,500 ppsm) in some dis­tricts, and is thus more similar to densely settled rural areas in some Asian countries than to conditions in most parts of Africa. The south-east is also the region where major oil exploitation has taken place with as­sociated industrial development.

The Middle Belt, which represents a negative area for settlement has also been affected by factors other than those of terrain. Though poor, this region is in fact capable of greater economic development than has hitherto taken place. It could support more peo­ple, but its population was greatly reduced in the past by slave raiding by the more powerful tribes of the north and south. Some regions such as the Jos Plateau and the Niger Valley, which have mineral and agricul­tural potential are now being developed and are gain­ing population.

Many of the moderately settled areas on the fringes of densely settled regions could also support far more people. In some cases natural conditions in such areas are highly suitable to agriculture. However, people from the overcrowded regions have not moved into them because of traditional social attitudes and their wish to stay near friends, homes and existing cultural centres.

Recent government policy has encouraged a wider spread of settlement by developing transport, mineral resources, power supplies and agriculture in the regions still capable of supporting a larger popula­tion.

Essay # 4. Population Structure of the World:

Population structure is analysed in terms of age and sex groupings and is represented by population pyra­mids. By studying such diagrams it is possible to gain a clearer idea of the population characteristics of any given country.

In working-class families all the children could contribute to the family income. However, death rates were also very high be­cause epidemic diseases such as bubonic plague, chol­era and typhoid had not been brought under control and tuberculosis was also very common. Moreover low standards of hygiene and nutrition meant that infant mortality rates were also high. It was therefore neces­sary to have a large family so that at least some of the children would live.

During the nineteenth century great advances were made in medicine and the death rate began to fall, but the birth rate remained high so that the population expanded rapidly. During the twentieth century a different pattern has emerged.

The First World War and the Depression of the 1920s impressed upon people the difficulty of feeding, clothing and educating a large family of chil­dren. Children were no longer an economic asset, con­tributing their labour or wages to the family as they had done in the past. At the same time people wished to give their children a better education and better homes than they had had themselves. This led to a de­cline in the birth rate.

This trend was assisted by the fact that, with far better living conditions and health facilities, children had a much better chance of sur­vival. At first this trend was more apparent in the towns than in the country districts and in middle-class rather than in working-class families but it eventually affected the whole population. Birth rates dropped even further during the Second World War and though there was a post war ‘baby boom’ when the number of babies born was very large, the size of families re­mained small.

People live longer on an average and Britain therefore has an ageing population. The proportion of the population living to ages of 65 or more has doubled since the late nineteenth century. Britain’s death rate is slightly higher than that of Aus­tralia or the U.S.A. because of the large proportion of older people in the population.

The nicks in the pyra­mid at age groups 60—64 and 35—49 reflect the very low birth rates of the Depression and war years (1920s and 1939-45) while the bulge in the 10-20 year age groups indicates higher birth rates in the more hopeful economic conditions of the 1960s which has petered out with renewed economic difficulties in the late 1970s.

Britain’s population is now decreasing. People are unwilling to have many children who have to be supported through many years of education, and who thus restrict the money available for material comforts in the home or for leisure pursuits.

Other European countries have a similar population structure though there are minor differences. In West Germany for instance the birth rate is so low that the population is decreasing markedly and may drop from 57 million today to 52 million by the year 2000.

Some countries in Europe and elsewhere attempt to encour­age population growth by giving child allowances or tax relief to lessen the financial burden of larger fami­lies, e.g. in France. But in Spain and Ireland, where the Catholic Church forbids birth-control, birth rates are still high and the population still has a high pro­portion of young people and is growing.

Population structure in most Asian, African and Latin American countries is very different from that of Europe. Death rates have declined markedly in the twentieth century, though they are still a little higher than in Europe or North America because standards of hygiene, nutrition and disease control are lower.

The proportion of old people in the population is very small. The moderate decline in the death rate however has not been matched by a change in the birth rate which remains very high, so that the popu­lation contains many young people. The pyramids for most underdeveloped countries are even more broadly based than that of Britain in the nineteenth century.

In many of these countries it will take a long time to overcome the traditional attitudes and lack of know­ledge of family planning techniques though some countries such as India give great publicity and promi­nence to family planning. Few of the underdeveloped countries show any sign of a voluntary change to small­er families. Only in some of the most rapidly develop­ing countries, such as Singapore have birth rates de­clined rapidly.

Singapore is small and changes in birth rates affect the population quite quickly. Singapore has a policy of encouraging two children per family by imposing financial penalties on families with more than two children. Japan with 114,000,000 people and among the lowest death and infant-mortality rates in the world today has an interesting population history.

Until the early 1950s except for a nick in the male 30—45 age groups, caused by deaths during the Second World War, the pyramid resembled that of any other traditionally agricultural country. However the impact of industrialization, urbanism and a rising standard of living led to a decline in the birth rate and the pyramid is now ‘top-heavy’, though it still does not show the concentration in the middle and older age groups found in European countries.

The case of Japan illustrates the time-lag in changes in population structure, for though industrial develop­ment began in the late nineteenth century, it took fifty years for the effect to be felt in the population structure. Population structure in Japan now follows the European pattern.

Migration can have profound effects on population structure. This relates to Australia but in the 1950s and 1960s the U.S.A., Canada and New Zealand had a similar pattern. Immi­gration into these countries is much more restricted today. Immigrants are usually young people who have their families in their new country, encouraged by the better standards of living they find there.

The immi­grants themselves swell the population in the 30—45 age groups while their children help to increase the proportion of people under 20. When the rate of im­migration slows down the population becomes more stable. The U.S.A., for example, now has a declining birth rate. Immigration of large numbers of people of a different racial group often produces a temporary imbalance both in age and sex structure, because the bulk of immigrants are men, and also in racial com­position.

An age, sex pyramid divided by race for Peninsular Malaysia in 1931 illustrates this. Men out­number women in the middle age groups while a time lag between the bulk of Chinese and the bulk of Indian immigration is also seen.

Indian women came into the country mainly after the men. At this stage immigrants were not settling down to have families so the percen­tage of young Chinese and Indians in the population was smaller than that of Malays.

Migration not only affects the population structure of the receiving countries, but also that of the home countries of emigrants. Thus between 1850 and 1900 Ireland’s population was reduced from 8 to 4 million people by migration, about 90 per cent of which was to the U.S.A. Many young people left and the birth rate was drastically reduced. This migration has now slowed down and the population is beginning to as­sume a more normal pattern.

The sex structure of population is also important. The proportion of men to women affects the rate of population growth through the net reproduction ratio, which measures the rate at which the present genera­tion of women is being replaced by daughters who will in turn have children.

The calculation of this ratio allows forecasts of future population trends to be made. The numbers of men and women are usually fairly even but are sometimes out of balance after such events as wars, when more men than women are killed. The numbers are usually uneven in the higher age groups because women tend to live longer than men.

Essay # 5. Population Problems of Advanced Countries:

Underdeveloped countries do not have a monopoly of population problems, though in general their prob­lems are more widespread and more difficult to solve. It is, however, worthwhile to note the problems of in­dustrial and urbanized societies, some of which are becoming increasingly serious.

1. Ageing Population:

As the birth rate is low the proportion of younger people in the population is relatively small and the low death rate and high life expectancy mean that there is an ever-increasing pro­portion of older people in the population. Many retire from active work in their sixties and then become dependent on the working population. Provision of pensions and other facilities, e.g. extra health services, for elderly people pose financial problems.

2. Small Work Force:

As educational standards improve children remain longer at school and join the work force later. This, combined with the low birth rate, means that the labour force expands only slowly while industrial and other employment opportunities continue to multiply. Despite a high degree of mecha­nization in most industries many countries are short of workers.

In Europe for instance workers migrate from Italy, Greece, Yugoslavia and Turkey which are some­what overpopulated, to Germany and Switzerland where there are insufficient workers. Another problem is that the work force is generally well-educated and skilled and there is a shortage of unskilled workers. Because the majority of workers are skilled and the work force is relatively small wages are high.

3. Rural Depopulation:

Towns provide ameni­ties such as shops, entertainment and better social services, which cannot be matched in country districts, and employment is usually easier to find in urban areas. For this reason there is a steady movement of people from the country to the towns so that in some areas farms are even abandoned.

The fewer people live in the country the less economic it is to provide serv­ices and the greater becomes the disparity between town and country. Where rural depopulation is accom­panied by mechanization and rationalization of farm­ing and thus a rise in income, an improvement may result, but often the country districts suffer a decline in living standards.

4. Urbanization:

As towns expand, the pressure on transport, water supplies, sewage and refuse disposal grows and creates problems. Smoke and chemical ef­fluents from factories produce air and water pollution. Traffic congestion and noise are other problems.

Ten­sions created by urban life lead to a far higher incidence of mental illness than in underdeveloped countries, and pollution, particularly fumes from motor vehicles, also has physical health hazards. Urban sprawl is anoth­er problem; the expanding towns engulf land which would otherwise be suitable for agriculture and thus reduce self-sufficiency in many countries.

Underdeveloped and advanced countries have some problems in common, for most countries are unevenly developed. Most advanced countries have areas where agriculture or industry could be improved or where the population is too large. Similarly the underdeveloped countries all have large towns where the problems are similar to those of urbanized societies everywhere.

It is also important to bear in mind the differences be­tween underdeveloped countries. Some have a much better resource base or a smaller population, and these, such as Argentina, Mexico and Malaysia, are much more likely to be able to overcome their problems than countries with few resources and a large popula­tion with fixed traditional ideas.

Essay # 6 . Moderately Populated Areas of the World:

Around the margins of sparsely-populated areas the density of population gradually increases; only occa­sionally are low and high densities found side by side with no transition zone. The sharpest changes occur between the irrigated and non-irrigated areas in the deserts, the most notable example being the con­trast between the Nile Valley and the surrounding desert.

The moderately peopled regions of the world are usually those where agriculture is the dominant occu­pation. The climate, relief and soil are thus the main factors affecting population density; the more favour­able these conditions are, the more people the land can support. But human and economic factors such as communications and accessibility to markets also af­fect population patterns.

The moderately-peopled parts of the world are of four main types:

(i) Tropical Savannas:

The savanna areas have a very seasonal climate with summer rainfall and a natural vegetation of grass and scattered trees which are adapted to withstand the drought of the winter. Various types of extensive farming are practised. Ranching is important in the sertao of Brazil, in north­ern Australia and in many parts of Africa.

Shifting cultivation provides food crops for the scattered popu­lations in Brazil and Africa though some areas have been developed for the cultivation of cash crops, such as groundnuts, tobacco, sisal or pyrethrum, either on large estates or smallholdings. None of these occupa­tions supports a dense population.

(ii) Temperate Grasslands:

In temperate con­tinental areas there are broad stretches of grassland where the climate is relatively dry and most of the rain falls in summer. Temperatures are high in summer and very low in winter. The growing season is long enough for cereal cultivation but where there is insuf­ficient moisture ranching is the dominant occupation.

The largest grassland areas are in North America (the Prairies), U.S.S.R. (the Steppes), and Argentina (the Pampas), but parts of interior Australia and South Africa have similar conditions. The grasslands coincide with vast plains or with regions of undulating terrain and are thus ideal for large-scale, mechanized cereal cultivation, but neither this nor ranching supports a large population.

Both savannas and temperate grasslands are con­tinental in location and lack of communications and remoteness have helped to keep the population rela­tively small. The best developed areas are those with good lines of transport, e.g. Argentina. Settlement has often followed the building of railways, such as the Trans-Siberian or the Canadian Pacific.

(iii) Tropical Coastlands:

While the interiors of tropical countries are often not well developed, the more accessible tropical regions have been cleared of forest and are devoted to agriculture. Both food crops such as rice and maize and cash crops such as rubber, oil palm, cocoa and sugar-cane are important in the lowlands, while tea and coffee are grown in the high­lands.

Coastal areas are preferred since accessibility to the sea is an advantage to growers of these dominantly export crops. Many areas were cleared only in the nineteenth century and thus populations are not as large as those found in tropical countries with a long agricultural tradition.

(iv) Temperate Coastlands:

Temperate coast- lands have a moderate climate, with an adequate rain- fall and no great extremes of temperature, so that a very wide range of crops can be grown. Livestock also form an important part of the agricultural economy. Farming is well established and although farms are usually small in size, yields per hectare are high.

As a result the land can support fairly large numbers of people, and such areas as central and eastern Europe, central, southern and north-western U.S.A., south­eastern Australia, central Chile and along the Plate estuary in Argentina, therefore have a moderate to dense population.

Both tropical and temperate coastlands are more densely peopled than the continental interiors, partly because the climate is more favourable and partly be­cause communications and markets are better. The larger the population the faster it will grow and the greater will be the market for agricultural and other goods.

This in turn helps to promote improvements in farming practices and the production of larger crops. The more productive the land the more peo­ple it can support. Areas of moderate population grad­ually merge into more densely settled areas where intensive farming and the development of industry allow far more people to get a living from the land.

Essay # 7 . Densely Populated Areas of the World :

Only limited areas of the world have high densities of population and these have all the advantages of good climatic, soil and relief conditions, as well as re­sources of fuel and industrial raw materials. The largest populations also grow most rapidly so that, unless there is rapid out-migration, people tend to concen­trate in relatively restricted areas.

The development of urban areas with many people, markets, shops, en­tertainment and other facilities tend to attract people from the surrounding areas.

Densely populated regions fall into two main categories, those dependent mostly on agriculture and those dependent mostly on indus­try:

(i) Agriculture:

Some of the most densely peo­pled parts of the world rely basically on agriculture. Industry has been developed in these areas and there are many large towns but a large proportion of the population still lives and works on the land. These areas include the Nile Valley of Egypt, the river valleys and plains of mainland China, the Indo-Gangetic plain and western coastal plain of the Indian subcontinent, and the island of Java in Indonesia.

In these areas as many as 1,000-2,000 people may live on a square kilometre (3,000-4,000 per square mile) of land. This is only possible because climate, relief, soil and water supply in the regions are favourable. Egypt has a Medi­terranean type of climate which is suitable for many crops and the Nile waters have been harnessed to irri­gate the fields.

In India, too, the fertile alluvial soils of the plains, the availability of water for irrigation in the dry season, the regular rhythm of the monsoons and high temperatures all the year round, allow several crops to be grown each year.

In China warm summers, monsoon rainfall, irrigation, constant manuring of the soil, and the careful management of the land, all con­tribute to support a huge rural population. Java has a warm climate, heavy rainfall and rich volcanic soils.

These areas were always advantageous for settle­ment. The Nile, Indus and Huang He (Hwang Ho) val­leys were the centres of ancient civilizations and as agriculture developed large settled populations were built up. Numbers have continued to grow ever since but farming techniques have not been modernized at the same rate.

As the capacity of the land to provide food has been outstripped the people have become poorer. Farms are very small—often not more than half a hectare and although a wide variety of cash crops is grown the cultivation of food crops is more important. Rice is the main food crop and is supple­mented by vegetables; poultry are kept, and buffaloes, sheep and goats are important in Egypt, Indonesia and India, and pigs in China.

The pressure on land is continually increasing as more and more people must be fed from the same plot, and such large populations can only live off the land because the people are willing to subsist on a relatively meagre diet of little nutri­tional value. Overcrowding thus leads to poverty and a low standard of living which in turn makes moderni­zation difficult because people cannot afford to buy machinery or fertilizers.

Moreover the farms are often too small to use modern techniques efficiently. Farm­ing could be done much more effectively by fewer people working larger plots of land but there is as yet no alternative source of employment in the towns of these countries. Large-scale industry has only recently been established and may never be able to compensate for population problems which have existed for so long.

(ii) Industry:

The densely populated areas depen­dent on industry and urban development are Western Europe, north-eastern U.S.A., and Japan. These areas are less extensive than densely peopled agricultural areas and are radically different, for most of the peo­ple live in large towns and few in the country.

The food for these large centres of population is not pro­duced locally but drawn from all over the world, so they are much more dependent on industry, trade and commerce. Unlike densely peopled agricultural areas they have a generally high standard of living and rather than getting poorer they are becoming richer as new techniques and ideas create greater employment op­portunities.

However problems of traffic, noise, pollu­tion, disposal of waste and provision of water supplies become greater as towns expand, and as the standard of living improves, health, education, recreation and other amenities must be provided at greater and great­er cost. Large urban centres attract ever larger popu­lations by in-migration, for while improved agricultural methods mean that fewer people are needed in the country, employment opportunities are much greater in the cities.

The three areas of high urban population differ from one another for historical reasons. The Industrial Revolution first took place in Britain where industrial­ization coincided with a phase of rural depopulation, caused by changes in land tenure, which provided workers for the factories in the towns.

At this time too, medical advances brought down the death rate and thus the population began to expand rapidly so that a large urban labour force was available through­out the nineteenth century. Mineral resources such as coal and iron were also available and trading relation­ships with other countries were already well-established so that raw materials could be obtained and goods marketed all over the world.

Industrialization spread to Belgium, northern France and later to Ger­many, but in these countries agricultural reform did not take place as early as in England and there is still a relatively large agricultural population.

The industrial district of the U.S.A. is an offshoot of the European region. Immigrants from Europe brought their knowledge and skill in industry to the new country, where the huge resources of coal, oil, iron, copper and many other raw materials allowed industry to develop rapidly. Large industrial towns and cities were already established before the whole country was settled.

Japan was traditionally an agricultural nation with a large rural population similar to that of China, and had little contact with other countries. In the late nineteenth century, however, this isolation was broken down and the advantages of industry were realized. Many circumstances aided the growth of Japanese in­dustry and its already large population was transformed from an agricultural to an urban one.

In this Japan differs from other industrial regions where the growth of population occurred at the same time as the growth of industry. As a result the popu­lation pattern in Japan is different; 13 per cent of the people still depend on agriculture as compared with only 2 per cent in Britain for example.

Essay # 8 . Problems of Overpopulation across the World :

There are underdeveloped countries where the level of technological development inhibits agricultural effi­ciency and the establishment of industry even though the resources exist in the country. Such countries have additional problems if they are overpopulated like China or India. In these countries the modern indus­trial economy has been grafted on to a traditional agricultural one and the two have not yet been proper­ly balanced.

Another group of countries which are underdeveloped are those which lack population, al­though they sometimes have advanced societies and command modern technological methods. These coun­tries, such as Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Zaire, or Asiatic U.S.S.R., have tremendous resources which cannot be fully developed because of lack of population.

Their problems are often accentuated by adverse climatic conditions. Population problems are thus among the basic difficulties of underdeveloped countries but those of overpopulation are of course different from those of under-population.

(i) Rapid Population Growth:

Large popula­tions increase rapidly and in most underdeveloped countries the birth rate is high and family planning is not practiced on a large scale. This means that there is a large proportion of young people in the population who are dependent on the relatively small working section of the population. At the same time the large number of young people puts extra strain on social services, especially education.

(ii) Unemployment:

In many underdeveloped countries industry is not well-established and there are few employment opportunities for unskilled work­ers. Unemployment is therefore high. On the other hand there is often a shortage of skilled workers be­cause there are few facilities for training.

In overpopulated rural areas unemployment or under-employment is also a major problem; people migrate to the towns where it is often even more difficult to find work. Moreover the towns become overcrowded, making living conditions poorer.

(iii) Housing and Health:

The standard of living in overpopulated countries is low and housing condi­tions are often poor and overcrowded. Standards of hygiene and nutrition are also low which leads to health problems such as malnutrition, and the spread of dis­eases. Prevention and cure of disease is hampered by insanitary conditions, by the ignorance of the people, by the lack of financial resources and often by the sheer numbers of people involved.

(iv) Under-Utilization of Agricultural Re­sources:

Traditional methods of agriculture, out­dated or inadequate equipment, lack of financial re­sources for improving farms, the non-use of fertilizer and the non-use or misuse of marginal agricultural land, such as highlands, may all help to keep agricultural production much lower than its potential. Difficulties of rationalizing farming techniques and reforming land tenure to give larger, more economic farms are aggra­vated by lack of capital and by traditional atti­tudes of the farmers who are often slow to accept new ideas.

(v) Slow Growth of Industry:

In most under­developed countries industry is only slowly becoming established. Apart from lack of local capital which makes the actual exploitation of resources or setting- up of factories difficult, the population factors are important. The labour force, though large in number is generally unskilled and has no background of indus­trial employment.

Similarly, although the large popu­lation should provide a good market for the finished goods, the majority of the people are poor and cannot afford to buy the products. To produce goods cheaply for a small market mechanized manufacture is most economical but this employs very few workers and does not help the employment situation.

(vi) Traditional Attitudes:

Traditional or reli­gious attitudes may militate against change or may make conditions worse. Birth-control is forbidden by the Catholic Church, for instance, and caste restric­tions on occupations in India also help to slow down development. Less important is the conservatism of rural people regarding farming methods and the intro­duction of new crops. This kind of attitude can be removed by education in a way that religious beliefs cannot.

Essay # 9 . Problems of Under-Population across the World :

(i) uneven distribution of population :.

Average population densities for under-populated coun­tries are low, and in many areas there are practically no people at all. Small populations increase slowly, even though birth rates are often high. Immigration is an important source of people but it is usually to the towns rather than to the country that new immigrants go.

At the same time the towns with their better con­ditions attract people from the already sparsely settled countryside. Imbalance between town and country is a major problem of under-populated countries.

(ii) Remoteness:

It is difficult to increase settle­ment in sparsely populated areas because people are unwilling to forego the amenities of the town. Where there are few people it is uneconomic to provide elab­orate communications, health, education or other facilities. This in turn increases the unwillingness of people to settle in such areas.

(iii) Under-Utilization of Resources:

Lack of population makes it difficult for a country to de­velop its resources to the full. Minerals will usually be extracted, especially precious metals and petroleum, because the desire for wealth will overcome other con­siderations. Agricultural resources are more difficult to develop because they require more and harder work over a long period of years before they show a good return.

In the nineteenth century when the U.S.A. was settled people were prepared to develop the land be­cause many of them were landless peasants, but immigrants to under-populated countries today generally prefer town life.

(iv) Slow Growth of Industry:

The growth of industry is often slow in under-populated countries because there is a shortage of labour, especially skilled labour, e.g. in the South American and African coun­tries. Where skilled labour has to be brought in this raises the cost of industrial development. Moreover the small population does not always provide an adequate market even where the standard of living is high.

(v) Climatic Problems:

Many under-populated countries have hostile climatic or relief conditions which make settlement difficult or dangerous for im­migrants. Such conditions obstruct development and are likely never to be fully overcome.

Are there any solutions to the problems of under­developed countries? In terms of economics the major need is for an infusion of capital, probably in the form of foreign aid, to finance development. In terms of population the need is for a decline in birth rates in overpopulated countries, but progress towards this end is extremely slow so that the improvement of agricul­ture, establishment of industry and extension of edu­cational, health and other facilities will in the long run be more important in solving overpopulation by mak­ing better use of available resources.

In under-populated countries immigration might be increased but this could only work if immigrants possessed the right skills and were prepared to live in the sparsely populated areas. To open up under-populated areas is both diffi­cult and expensive and thus economic factors are again paramount.

Essay # 10 . Views of Malthus on World Overpopulation:

Thomas Malthus was an English clergyman who, in 1798, published an Essay on the Principle of Popu­lation in which he put forward the view that, ‘the power of population is indefinitely greater than the power of the earth to produce subsistence for man’. He thought that a balance could only be maintained if famine, disease or war periodically increased the death rate and reduced population growth.

His pessimistic ideas were accepted by several other nineteenth-century scholars in England and France and many people still hold similar views today. Is this pessimistic view really justified?

In the first place it is important to realize the context of Malthus’ work. He was not considering the world as a whole but only England. Moreover he wrote almost 200 years ago when conditions certainly justified some of his conclusions.

At the end of the eighteenth century the popu­lation of England was only about 10 million, but much of their food supply had to be produced from the limited agricultural land of the country. The Agricultural Revolution of the late eighteenth cen­tury had brought about many improvements, but farming methods and crop yields were still much lower than they are today.

Changes in land tenure, brought about by enclosure of the old common fields and the formation of large farms in the place of small scattered plots, led to rural depopulation. The towns, especially those where the new factory industries had been established, grew very rapidly and were overcrowded, dirty and unhealthy. The people who lived in them were poor, under-fed, overworked and had little resistance to disease.

Thus, had food supplies been reduced or popula­tion expanded too rapidly, these people would have suffered and starvation and epidemics would have reduced the population. This had already hap­pened twice during England’s history; the Black Death of the fourteenth century and the Great Plague of the seventeenth century coincided with periods when harvests were bad and there were food shortages. Hunger reduced resistance to dis­eases and bubonic plague caused the death of many thousands of people.

Malthus was afraid that something similar would happen again. In his time great advances were being made in the treatment and control of diseases such as cholera, typhoid and smallpox which were still rife in England and Europe. This meant that death rates, and particularly infant mortality rates, were falling.

Malthus calculated that population could double every 25 years, but no similar increases in food supplies could be expected. Given the social conditions of the time it was not therefore surpris­ing that his predictions should be pessimistic. He could not have foreseen the tremendous changes which were to take place in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

These changes completely altered the economic and social conditions in Britain and Europe:

1. Great improvements have taken place in agri­cultural production as a result of better farm man­agement, increased use of fertilizers and pesticides, use of better seeds and livestock breeds, application of soil-conservation methods and so on. These im­provements led to considerable increases in the yields of most agricultural products and also allow­ed hitherto unusable land to be brought into profit­able use.

2. During the nineteenth century vast new agri­cultural regions in America, Africa and Australasia were opened up and large-scale plantation agricul­ture was established in tropical countries. Improve­ments in transportation not only allowed migrants to reach new areas and bring them into production, but also meant that their crops could be easily transported to Britain and Europe to supplement local food supplies.

3. The population did not expand anything like as fast as Malthus predicted. The rate of increase declined largely as a result of a decreasing birth rate although death rates continued to fall. Improved standards of living, the costs of maintaining a large family and especially the difficulties of the depres­sion and the two World Wars in the first half of the twentieth century all contributed to the trend to­wards smaller families and a slower rate of popula­tion growth.

Thus, in Europe at least, Malthus’ predictions were proved wrong by events. But many people still apply his ideas to underdeveloped countries, where advances in agriculture are slower and population growth much more rapid. Death rates in many un­derdeveloped countries have been reduced but can still be lowered considerably.

In some ways this gives these countries a breathing space for if current high birth rates were combined with the low death rates of advanced countries, populations would ex­pand so rapidly that it would indeed be impossible to feed them. On this basis, for instance, India’s population could be trebled in less than 50 years.

Death rates are linked with levels of hygiene, nutri­tion and housing and will fall as Living standards improve. Fortunately these improvements are grad­ually taking place. The question remains-when death rates reach their lowest level, will a propor­tional reduction have occurred in birth rates?

There are several reasons to hope that the future of underdeveloped countries is not as bleak as it seems:

1. Rapid and efficient means of transportation have benefited not only Europe but the rest of the world. Thus if there is famine in one area food sup­plies can usually be brought in from elsewhere.

2. On a world scale there is no real food short­age and in many fields, such as livestock and dairy products, output could be greatly expanded in a very short time. But financial considerations pre­vent poor countries from purchasing as much food as they need or could absorb. Thus huge surpluses of wheat, for example, cannot be sold to the coun­tries which need them most.

Other food crops such as coffee, tea and sugar, of which surpluses are often produced, cannot be sold in underdeveloped countries because incomes are low and therefore demand is low. The lack of an effective market is also the chief obstacle to the production and sale of highly nutritious meat and dairy produce.

Thus the problem is not one of food shortage but of economic inequality. This inequality is, how­ever, gradually being reduced by the development of natural resources, agriculture and industries in underdeveloped countries, which in turn earns for­eign exchange and provides them with the financial resources for further development.

Such improve­ments in agriculture and industry should eventually improve incomes and standards of living and allow people in underdeveloped countries to obtain more and better foods.

3. Tremendous advances have been made in agriculture in underdeveloped countries which, with foreign aid and technical advice, are growing more staple crops and are introducing more nutritious crops not previously grown. Research into plant varieties has produced improved hybrids which have greater resistance to disease, greater tolerance to unfavourable climatic conditions and give much higher yields.

The most important achievements have been in producing ‘miracle’ rice strains. IR8 and IR15 grown in the Philippines, turned that country from a rice importer to a rice exporter in the course of a few years. Moreover the nutritional value of rice has been improved in certain recently developed strains.

4. Education in underdeveloped countries is being steadily improved and is gradually reaching a larger and larger proportion of the population. In the long term education has a tremendously impor­tant role to play in the fields of agriculture, techni­cal training to equip people for industrial employ­ment and in spreading the idea of family planning.

All these changes in underdeveloped countries are gradual and the real test of Malthusian views of population and food supplies will depend upon the speed with which these countries can be modernized and the rate at which improvements in living stand­ards affect birth rates.

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2024 AP Human Geography Exam Guide

11 min read • june 18, 2024

Your Guide to the 2024 AP Human Geography Exam

We know that studying for your AP exams can be stressful, but Fiveable has your back! We created a study plan to help you crush your AP Human Geography exam. This guide will continue to update with information about the 2024 exams, as well as helpful resources to help you do your best on test day.  Unlock Cram Mode for access to our cram events—students who have successfully passed their AP exams will answer your questions and guide your last-minute studying LIVE! And don't miss out on unlimited access to our database of thousands of practice questions. 

Format of the 2024 AP Human Geography Exam

Going into test day, this is the exam format to expect:

• 60 multiple-choice questions with 1 hour to complete them.- - About 30-40% of these questions will have a stimulus attached (data, image, map, etc.).
• 3 free-response questions with 1 hour and 15 minutes to complete them.- - Question 1 will have text only.- - Question 2 will have one stimulus (data, image, or map).- - Question 3 includes two stimuli (data, images, and/or maps).- - Each question is worth 7 points. 👉 Check out the 2023 AP Human Geography Free-Response Section posted on the College Board site. 

Scoring Rubric for the AP Human Geography Exam

View an example set of questions and the  corresponding scoring guidelines (page 178) from the College Board to get an idea of what they look for in your responses! The first provided question models a free-response question with no stimulus, while the second provided question models an FRQ with two stimuli. 

Check out our study plan below to find resources and tools to prepare for your AP Human Geography exam.

When is the 2024 AP Human Geography Exam and How Do I Take it?

Tests will be taken in person at your school. Here is what we know from College Board so far:

• The exam will be in-person and on paper at your school on Tuesday, May 7, 2024, at 8 am, your local time. You will have 2 hours and 15 minutes to take the exam. We will have more updates from the College Board soon, but as of now, this is what we know!

How should I prepare for the exam?

• First, download the  AP Human Geography Cheatsheet PDF - a single sheet that covers everything you need to know at a high level. Take note of your strengths and weaknesses!
• We've put together the study plan found below to help you study between now and May. This will cover all of the units and essay types to prepare you for your exam. Pay special attention to the units that you need the most improvement in.- - Study vocab! The exam (especially the multiple-choice) is very vocabulary and terminology heavy, so make flashcards, Quizlets...whatever works best for you.
• Study, practice, and review for test day with other students during our live cram sessions via  Cram Mode . Cram live streams will teach, review, and practice important topics from AP courses, college admission tests, and college admission topics. These streams are hosted by experienced students who know what you need to succeed. 

Pre-Work: Set Up Your Study Environment

Before you begin studying, take some time to get organized. 

🖥 Create a study space.

Make sure you have a designated place at home to study. Somewhere you can keep all of your materials, where you can focus on learning, and where you are comfortable. Spend some time prepping the space with everything you need and you can even let others in the family know that this is your study space. 

📚 Organize your study materials.

Get your notebook, textbook, prep books, or whatever other physical materials you have. Also create a space for you to keep track of review. Start a new section in your notebook to take notes or start a Google Doc to keep track of your notes. Get yourself set up!

📅 Plan designated times for studying.

The hardest part about studying from home is sticking to a routine. Decide on one hour every day that you can dedicate to studying. This can be any time of the day, whatever works best for you. Set a timer on your phone for that time and really try to stick to it. The routine will help you stay on track.

🏆 Decide on an accountability plan.

How will you hold yourself accountable to this study plan? You may or may not have a teacher or rules set up to help you stay on track, so you need to set some for yourself. First set your goal. This could be studying for x number of hours or getting through a unit. Then, create a reward for yourself. If you reach your goal, then x. This will help stay focused!

🤝 Get support from your peers.  

There are thousands of students all over the world who are preparing for their AP exams just like you! Join  Rooms  🤝to chat, ask questions, and meet other students who are also studying for the spring exams. You can even build study groups and review material together! 

AP Human Geography 2024 Study Plan

🗺 unit 1: thinking geographically, big takeaways:.

The first unit of AP Human Geography contains an introduction in maps and how to understand geographic data. It also covers how to effectively analyze different factors of regional areas, as well as the role spatial concepts and identification have on the impacts of human and environmental changes and development.

Definitely do this:

🎥 Watch these videos:

• Everything You Need to Know about Maps

Overview of Unit 1 📰 Check out these Fiveable Study Guides:

• Unit 1 Overview: Thinking Geographically
• 1.1 Introduction to Maps and Types of Maps 
• 1.2 Geographic Data 
• 1.3 The Power and Uses of Geographic Data 
• 1.4 Spatial Concepts 
• 1.5 Humans and Environmental Interaction
• 1.6 What are Scales of Analysis? 
• 1.7 Regional Analysis ✍️ Practice:  
• Best Quizlet Deck:   AP Human Geography Unit 1 by kshi94033

If you have more time or want to dig deeper:

• How to Effectively Take Notes
• Unit 1 Review on Geographic Thinking

👪Unit 2: Population and Migration

Unit 2 focuses on the various patterns and processes that human populations demonstrate. It will also examine the various population distributions and population pyramids. Students must understand the short term and the long term impacts of population migration, as well as the impact on the culture’s economy and the society. 

Unit 2 Population Review

Population and Migration

• Causes of Migration

Population Growth and Decline

Population Pyramids

Malthusian Theory Explanation 📰 Check out these Fiveable Study Guides:

• Unit 2 Overview: Population and Migration Patterns and Processes
• 2.1 Population & Migration
• 2.2 Consequences of Population Distribution 
• 2.3 Population Composition 
• 2.4 Population Dynamics 
• 2.5 The Demographic Transition Model
• 2.6 Malthusian Theory and Geography
• 2.7 Population Policies 
• 2.8 Women and Demographic Change 
• 2.9 Aging Populations
• 2.10 Push and Pull Factors in Migration 
• 2.11 Forced vs. Voluntary Migration 
• 2.12 Effects of Migration

Unit 2 FRQ Review and Q&A

Unit 2 and 3 Complete Review ✍️ Practice:  

• Best Quizlet Deck:   AP Human Geography Unit 2 by carriebowman

🕌Unit 3: Cultural Patterns and Processes

This unit focuses on all of the patterns, conditions, and customs that create cultural identities throughout the world. You should be able to analyze and understand images and their roles in religion, language, attitudes, beliefs, and other cultural values. This unit also covers diffusion of culture, and how cultures grow, change, and spread as humans interact and become more technologically advanced. This unit creates a foundation for future units and makes sure that students are able to understand and identify the important cultural values and how those values impact politics, society, the economy, and other factors that are a part of a community.

What is culture?

Diffusion of Culture

The Role of Language and Culture

Race and Ethnicity Part 1 and   Part 2

Unit 3 Review of Cultural Patterns and Processes 📰 Check out these Fiveable Study Guides:

• Unit 3 Overview: Cultural Patterns & Processes
• 3.1 Introduction to Culture
• 3.2 Cultural Landscapes
• 3.3 Cultural Patterns
• 3.4 Types of Cultural Diffusion
• 3.5 Historical Causes of Cultural Diffusion
• 3.6 Contemporary Causes of Cultural Diffusion
• 3.7 Diffusion of Religion and Language
• 3.8 Effects of Cultural Diffusion
• Unit 2 and 3 Complete Review
• All about Diffusion
• The Cultural Landscape

🗳Unit 4: Political Patterns and Processes

Unit 4 focuses on the landscape of politics and how it impacts different cultures and relationships between different cultures. Students will work to understand the political boundaries and contemporary issues relating to both internal and international problems. This unit also covers devolution and the many different forms of government that are present throughout the world. Additionally, this unit highlights centrifugal and centripetal forces and puts emphasis on having students understand the causes and effects that lead to cultural shifts and changes.

What is a state?

Territories, Boundaries, and Governances 

Types of Boundaries, Disputes, and Territorial Morphology

Supranationalism 📰 Check out Fiveable Study Guides:

• Unit 4 Overview: Political Patterns and Processes
• 4.1 Introduction to Political Geography
• 4.2 Political Processes
• 4.3 Political Power and Territoriality
• 4.4 Defining Political Boundaries
• 4.5 The Function of Political Boundaries
• 4.6 Internal Boundaries
• 4.7 Forms of Governance
• 4.8 Defining Devolutionary Factors
• 4.9 Challenges to Sovereignty
• 4.10 Consequences of Centrifugal and Centripetal Forces
• Shapes of States
• Sovereignty and Centripetal and Centrifugal Force

👨‍🌾Unit 5: Agriculture and Rural Land-Use

This unit of AP Human Geography focuses on the impacts of agriculture and the changes as societies and communities have evolved. Students use their knowledge of spatial patterns to consider and understand the roles that various resources and agricultural techniques play in the contemporary world. Students will learn about the diffusion of agriculture and the important technological innovations that have changed global markets and individual communities. This unit will lay the foundation for an understanding of economic development and change, covered in later units, and will allow for new perspectives on modern problems.

Agricultural History and Revolutions

Changes in Agriculture

Spatial Organization and Settlement Patterns

The Green Revolution 📰 Check out these Fiveable Study Guides:

• Unit 5 Overview: Agriculture and Rural Land-Use Patterns and Processes
• 5.1 Introduction to Agriculture
• 5.2 Settlement Patterns and Survey Methods
• 5.3 Agricultural Origins and Diffusions
• 5.4 The Second Agricultural Revolution
• 5.5 The Green Revolution
• 5.6 Agricultural Production Regions
• 5.7 Spatial Organization of Agriculture
• 5.8 The Von Thunen Model
• 5.9 The Global System of Agriculture
• 5.10 Consequences of Agricultural Practices
• 5.11 Challenges of Contemporary Agriculture
• 5.12 Women in Agriculture
• The Development of Agriculture
• Rural Land-Use Patter__ns__

🌇Unit 6: Cities and Urban Land-Use

Unit 6 is all about cities, their development, and being able to understand the role globalization had in forming the contemporary world. Students should be able to use spatial distribution, census data, and other forms of information to gain a better understanding of urban settings and the patterns within them. In addition, this unit covers sustainability and the necessary steps on a local and global level. This unit ties together past units about politics and the economy, so students have a wider sense of the impacts and problems facing urban areas and cities today.

Globalization and Urbanization

Urban Challenges

Urban Location Theories

Sustainability and Challenges to Sustainable Cities 📰 Check out these Fiveable Study Guides:

• Unit 6 Overview: Cities & Urban Land-Use
• 6.1 The Origin and Influences of Urbanization
• 6.2 Cities Across the World
• 6.3 Cities and Globalization
• 6.4 The Size and Distribution of Cities
• 6.5 The Internal Structure of Cities
• 6.6 Density and Land Use
• 6.7 Infrastructure in Urban Development
• 6.8 Urban Sustainability
• 6.9 Urban Data
• 6.10 Challenges of Urban Changes
• 6.11 Challenges of Urban Sustainability
• Urban Models and the Hierarchy of Cities

💸Unit 7: Industrial and Economic Development

The final unit covers the industrial revolution and the continued industrialization occurring in modern day, as well as its impact. After this unit, students will be able to understand social, economic, and cultural growth and the impact of globalization, industrialization, migration, and other topics covered in this course. This unit will also teach you about the global and local markets, economies, and industries throughout the world and their relationships to one another. This final unit will pull together the rest of the topics so students leave the course with a well-rounded understanding of the global patterns and processes that fuel the growth of countries and their cultures.

The Industrial Revolution

Socioeconomic and Sustainable Development

Economic Interdependence

The Global Economy 📰 Check out these Fiveable Study Guides:

• Unit 7 Overview: Industrial and Economic Development Patterns and Processes
• 7.1 The Industrial Revolution
• 7.2 Economic Sectors and Patterns
• 7.3 Measures of Development
• 7.4 Women and Economic Development
• 7.5 Theories of Development
• 7.6 Trade and the World Economy
• 7.7 Changes as a Result of the World Economy
• 7.8 Sustainable Development
• Measures of Development
• Changes in Industrial Geography

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The Ultimate AP Human Geography Study Guide

Advanced Placement (AP)

In your AP Human Geography class, you'll learn about the dynamics of societies around the world in economic, social, political, and environmental contexts. This course focuses a lot on ideas and models, along with terminology that defines the ways in which we've chosen to inhabit and change our surroundings.

This AP Human Geography study guide is designed to guide you through all the big concepts covered in the course , with an emphasis on cumulative preparation for the AP exam.

How to Use This AP Human Geography Study Guide

This guide will help you review for assessments in your AP Human Geography class by providing links to practice resources and tips on effective study strategies. I'll also give advice that's specific to preparing for the final AP exam.

In the first section, I'll detail a step-by-step process you can follow to create and execute a customized study plan for the test. This process includes taking a diagnostic test, evaluating your weaknesses, studying the content areas you struggled with the most, and taking additional practice tests to check your progress.

To follow up the study plan, I'll list a few key study tips to remember as you revisit the course content and take practice exams. I'll also give you notes for each topic area that you can use to study for in-class tests and review for the AP exam.

Having all this information in one place will hopefully make studying for AP Human Geography much less stressful!

4-Step Study Plan for AP Human Geography

In this section, I'll go through the steps of a basic study plan for the AP Human Geography exam. Most of the principles will also apply to your studying for tests throughout the class, but full practice tests are only important when directly preparing for the final exam .

You can use shorter topic-specific quizzes to diagnose your weaknesses in different units of the Human Geography course earlier in the school year.

For planning purposes, here's the estimated time required for each step below:

• Step 1: 2.5 hours
• Step 2: 1 hour
• Step 3: 2 hours
• Step 4: 2.5 hours

It should take approximately eight hours to study for the AP Human Geography exam. Of course, you can always extend the time you spend reviewing content if you're rusty on a bunch of different topics or just want to be extra thorough.

Step 1: Take and Score a Full Practice Test

The first step is to take a full AP Human Geography practice test so you can get a better idea of your current score level . When you take the test, time it to the specifications of the real exam so you'll be able to tell if you have any issues with time management.

Keep in mind that on the test, you only have an hour to answer 60 multiple-choice questions ; this comes out to a minute per question. To be on the safe side, though, try to get your time down to around 45 seconds per question. The only way to get used to this pace is to take practice tests under realistic conditions.

While there are no official practice tests available, we've collected some of the best unofficial ones in our guide .

As you take the practice test, circle or make note of any questions for which you feel anything less than totally confident in your answer . Even if you end up getting these questions right, you should reexamine the content later in your review to increase your comfort level with the material.

When you're done, score your test so you can see where you fall in the AP range. You can use this online calculator for a decent score estimation based on how many raw points you earned.

Then, set a goal for improvement , and decide how many hours you'll need to put into your prep.

If you have a couple of months, you should be able to put in 20+ hours of study time. This will be an appropriate amount of studying if you're hoping to improve by more than one AP point.

If you only need to improve by one AP point or are just looking to raise your score within the same range, you might be able to wait until the month before the test to start the rest of the process. In total, you shouldn't need to study for more than 10-20 hours.

Step 2: Go Through Your Mistakes

If you decide to begin the rest of this process now, go through your mistakes on the Human Geography practice test and categorize them . This is how you'll decide which content and skill areas to focus on in your review.

There's no point in studying concepts and terms you've already mastered. If you want to see real improvements, this is the most important stage of the study process. You can't fix your mistakes unless you know what they are first!

Step 3: Study Appropriate Content

After you finish analyzing your mistakes, start looking at notes that correspond to the areas where you had the most trouble on the test . Make sure you're fully absorbing the information as you read.

In this case, flashcards might be useful because there are so many terms to remember for AP Human Geography. If you found the free-response questions especially challenging, practice a few more of those before you move on to the next step.

You can also use some of the sites I'll link to later in this article to review specific topics with short multiple-choice quizzes.

Step 4: Take a Second Full Practice Test

When you feel that you've fully addressed all your mistakes on the first practice test, you can take a second test to see whether your scores have improved . Compare your new score to the goal you set in the first step, and decide whether you want to go through the study process again or are happy with your current score.

If you're satisfied, you can take a break and just do a bit of light review up until the test.

If you haven't improved, reevaluate how you conducted this process and make some changes to your strategy in the next round. Were you in an environment that was too distracting? Did you skim over your notes without really absorbing them? Are you just generally a bit rusty? These are the kinds of things that can cause your progress to stall.

AP Human Geography: 3 Essential Study Tips

Below are a few of the most valuable strategies to keep in mind as you go through your study plan to prepare for the AP Human Geography exam. These tips should also be helpful for your prep for smaller assessments throughout the school year in your AP class.

#1: Know Your Regions

To get full credit for most free-response questions, you'll have to provide specific examples to support your answers . This means being able to identify the characteristics of world regions in terms of their various cultures, demographics, and physical environments.

You'll see a map of the major regions covered by AP Human Geography in the content section of this guide along with a list of seven units. You should be able to locate each region and identify the relationship it has with each of the seven topic areas .

#2: Memorize Terminology

While knowing your way around a map is important, much of AP Human Geography is about your knowledge of terminology. I highly recommend making flashcards or using online flashcards in your prep (I'll put a link to some of these in the upcoming content section!).

Many multiple-choice questions are essentially just asking for definitions, and some free-response questions begin by asking you to define a term that the rest of the question addresses in more depth.

Even if it's not this direct, knowing your way around the language of the field of human geography will make it far easier for you to understand questions without relying on shaky assumptions or inferences.

#3: Pay Attention to Important Models and Theories

Human Geography is mostly considered a humanities subject, but there are some scientific elements to it. These show up in the form of demographic models that are introduced throughout the course.

It's important to know how to read models and understand what they represent. You should also know how they connect to major theories in human geography and what those theories say about the development of society.

I'll give you a link to a comprehensive list of models and theories at the end of the next section.

Skylar, how many times do I have to explain homophones to you? YOU'RE. NOT. HELPING.

AP Human Geography Topics and Notes

AP Human Geography covers seven major topic areas, or units. In this section, I'll list each of them followed by notes that cover relevant subtopics. You can use these notes in the content review stage of your final study process and throughout the year as you review for in-class tests.

You might find these notes (from CourseNotes) difficult to get through because they're written in such a way that it's hard to pick out key concepts. There are a lot of long paragraphs with no bolding of important terms. If you find these notes borderline incomprehensible, you should try getting a review book that puts all the content in clearer terms . I think Cracking the AP Human Geography Exam is a good starting point.

As a precursor to the notes, here's a map of all the world regions that are discussed throughout the course. You'll need to consider how these topics apply differently to varying locations around the globe:

Unit 1: Thinking Geographically

• Geography and Human Geography

Unit 2: Population and Migration Patterns and Processes

• The Earth as Humanity's Home
• Fundamentals of Population: Location, Distribution, and Density
• Processes and Cycles of Population Change
• Where and Why People Move

Unit 3: Cultural Patterns and Processes

• Cultures, Environments, and Regions
• A Geography of Languages
• Diffusion of Languages
• Modern Language Mosaics
• Origins and Distribution of Religions
• Religion: Location, Diffusion, and Cultural Landscape
• Religion, Culture, and Conflict

Unit 4: Political Patterns and Processes

• Political Culture and the Evolving State
• State Organization and National Power
• Multinationalism on the Map
• The Changing Global Political Landscape

Unit 5: Agriculture and Rural Land-Use Patterns and Processes

• Livelihoods of Rural Peoples
• Rural Settlement Forms
• Commercial Agriculture
• Global Disparities in Nutrition and Health

Unit 6: Cities and Urban Land-Use Patterns and Processes

• Civilization and Urbanization
• Urbanization and Location
• Urban Pattern and Structure
• The Changing Nature of the Civic Experience

Unit 7: Industrial and Economic Development Patterns and Processes

• Industrial Activity and Geographic Location
• Resources and Regions: The Global Distribution of Industry
• Concepts of Development
• From Deindustrialization to Globalization

Because terms are so important on this exam, I also recommend checking out this full list of all vocab covered by the course (provided by Quizlet) so you can review all the vocab you'll need to know in one place.

In addition, take a look at this overview of the different human geography theories and models .

When lots of humans get together to form an urban community, they can't help but color on everything. What an adorable species.

Top Resources for Your AP Human Geography Review

Below are some resources you can use to test your knowledge of AP Human Geography content and take practice tests and quizzes.

Official Course and Exam Descriptions

Although there are no official AP Human Geography practice tests available, the College Board has released plenty of sample practice questions you can use in your prep through its free Course and Exam Description (CED) PDFs.

The current CED for 2020 , which has been fully updated for the new test format , contains 15 multiple-choice questions and two free-response questions, as well as a scoring guide.

There's also the 2015 Human Geography CED , which has 23 multiple-choice questions and six free-response questions you can practice with. Just be aware that this guide is not aligned with the new format of the AP exam.

Official Free-Response Questions and Scoring Guides

In addition to Course and Exam Descriptions, the College Board maintains a huge archive of free-response questions that have been asked on the AP Human Geography exam since 2001 . We recommend using these after you've practiced with the sample FRQs in the 2020 Course and Exam Description (see above resource).

Most of these FRQs also come with scoring guidelines and sample student responses so you can get a better sense of how to earn full points on them.

AP Classroom

AP Classroom is a new creation by the College Board that allows AP teachers to keep track of their students' progress through a virtual classroom. Here, teachers can test students' skills by sending them AP Human Geography practice questions on a regular basis.

Highly Rated Review Books

AP Human Geography review books are useful resources that provide access to additional practice questions and tests. They often include diagnostic tests that will help you determine your weak areas accurately and with less legwork on your part.

Especially in a subject like Human Geography that can be a little elusive, books will help you figure out exactly what you need to study and how you should study it.

Some solid review books for this exam include the following:

• The Princeton Review's Cracking the AP Human Geography Exam, Premium 2022 Edition
• Barron's AP Human Geography, Eighth Edition
• REA's AP Human Geography Crash Course

Sporcle Geography Quizzes

As I mentioned in the tips section, it's important to know your world regions for AP Human Geography so you can back up your answers with specific examples .

You don't need to be a complete expert on where every country is located, but these quizzes are both fun and educational, so I recommend checking them out (warning: super addictive!).

• Countries of the World
• Countries of Asia
• Countries of Europe
• Countries of Africa
• Countries of South America
• Countries of North America

Varsity Tutors Diagnostic Tests

Famed test-prep company Varsity Tutors offers four diagnostic tests for AP Human Geography, each with 75 multiple-choice questions . (Be aware that the current test format only consists of 60 multiple-choice questions, so you can skip 15 of these in your practice.)

The tests have automatic scoring, and each is given a preliminary difficulty level rating. There are also tons of mini-quizzes listed by concept if you want to practice topic-specific questions, as well as flashcards that will help you learn all the course terminology .

Albert Practice Questions

Albert offers quizzes on every AP Human Geography topic, with questions categorized by topic and unit. Quizzes here range in length from just three to as many as 62 questions , and the website keeps a running tally of how many questions you've answered correctly. You'll need to pay for an account to access most of the materials, however.

Chapter Quizzes for Human Geography: Landscapes of Human Activities

If you select a chapter of this book on the left-hand navigation bar, you can scroll down and click on a link for a multiple-choice quiz. These quizzes are helpful review materials, even if your class isn't using this particular textbook.

Recap: Using This AP Human Geography Study Guide

This AP Human Geography study guide has covered a review plan for the AP test, tips for success in studying throughout the year, and a list of all the topics covered in the AP Human Geography curriculum and on the exam.

The steps in a successful AP Human Geography study plan should look something like this:

• Step 1: Take and score a practice test
• Step 2: Go through your mistakes
• Step 3: Study appropriate content
• Step 4: Take a second practice test

Again, you can go through this process multiple times if you don't get the results you want in the first round. Just pay close attention to whether or not you're improving. If not, make changes to amp up the effectiveness of your content review.

Some study tips to keep in mind as you study for the AP Human Geography test and any in-class assessments include the following:

• Know your world regions
• Memorize terminology
• Pay attention to major geographic models and theories

After you're clear on the fundamentals of how to study, you can use the notes and prep resources in the second half of this article to prepare for unit quizzes, midterms, and the final AP exam.

What's Next?

Thinking about self-studying for this AP course—or other AP courses? Find out more about whether AP self-study is right for you and which AP classes are the most manageable options .

If you're still planning out your schedule for the future , check out our guide on which other history classes you should take after AP Human Geography.

You might also be interested in these articles that discuss AP credit policies at colleges and which classes you should take in high school based on your college goals.

These recommendations are based solely on our knowledge and experience. If you purchase an item through one of our links, PrepScholar may receive a commission.

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Samantha is a blog content writer for PrepScholar. Her goal is to help students adopt a less stressful view of standardized testing and other academic challenges through her articles. Samantha is also passionate about art and graduated with honors from Dartmouth College as a Studio Art major in 2014. In high school, she earned a 2400 on the SAT, 5's on all seven of her AP tests, and was named a National Merit Scholar.

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