The population is ... Population groups. Composition of population

The population of the Earth is changing every year. In some regions there is a stagnation and even a decrease in the rates of natural increase, others are experiencing rapid growth and are forced to even limit the birth rate through legislation. A thousand years ago the population of the planet was estimated at millions of people, today we are already billions. Some scientists are worried about the overpopulation, others consider this a natural process, regulated by nature.

Characteristics of the concept

The population is a set of persons living in a certain, limited area or territory, the state. Applying additional criteria, it is possible to single out a group of citizens of a particular state or city, a particular continent or one of the races living on the planet.

The meaning of the word "population" can have a global scale. For example, the population of the planet, where all people living on the Earth will be counted. Many disciplines use indicators and characteristics of groups of inhabitants for their research. The main science for studying this concept remains the demography, which studies qualitative and quantitative indicators, population models, the ratio of rural and urban residents, and so on.

Categories

The population is a rather blurry term. Residents of the country will be people who have citizenship, as well as people temporarily residing in its territory. Even within the framework of this one state, people periodically change the cities of residence, leave it.

When conducting a population census, it is mainly established whether a person lives in a city or a rural area permanently or is temporarily here. In order to obtain clear, structured data in the study, the general population is divided into the following categories:

• Constant;
• Cash;
• Legal.

People living in the studied area get into a constant category, regardless of where they are at the moment, making up the main population of cities or villages. For this category, a time criterion is typical, by which it is determined whether it is possible to rank those absent from this locality or not. As a rule, we are talking about several months: in the Soviet Union a person was included in the population of a certain region, if his absence lasted no more than 6 months. Legal population officially (residence permit) is assigned to a certain territory.

Demographic characteristics of the population

Demography studies the population. This is an interesting science devoted to the study of its characteristics, the dynamics of growth or contraction, the processes of motion. The main tool of demography is a census of residents, as well as sociological research aimed at identifying demographic characteristics. Thanks to this science, not only data on the population, but also on its age characteristics, sex, marital status, etc., are available.

The movement of the population within the country can be natural, mechanical and social. Under natural understand the changes in the status of a person - marriage, or, on the contrary, divorce, fertility and mortality. The mechanical movement to which the population is exposed is the migration processes, the influx of residents from other regions, countries and cities. This movement can be seasonal, when people come to rest during the summer period, or, on the contrary, leave in large numbers at the end. The social movement determines the movement of a person from one social group to another.

Another important criterion is the division into classes of the population. The so-called social stratification was a key factor in creating a society within the country at all times. Traditionally, the main classes are the lower, the worker, the middle and the higher. In different years they could be called differently: the bourgeoisie, the working aristocracy, the clergy, etc. However, the key parameter determining the person's adherence to this or that class was his social status, income and sphere of employment.

Settlement of people

The main criterion for classifying the inhabitants of the planet is the division into the urban and rural population, as well as the dispersal of citizens in different settlements: villages, villages, cities. The main difficulty in studying this concept is the high migration of people from one region to another: for example, to work or study.

With the division of the population into urban and rural, the division of labor into industrial-craft and agricultural production is connected. Currently, the worldwide trend is towards urbanization of the population, the influx of residents in many cities is carried out through the migration of people from the villages. The decrease in the number of villagers testifies to the development of the country's production and industry, points to its high culture and educational level.

The population of the Earth

Today there are more than 7 billion people on the planet. The biggest jump in population growth in the history of Earth's existence fell on the twentieth century: if at its launching stage there were about 1.6 billion people, then by the end this figure exceeded 6 billion.

At present, the rapid growth of mankind has stopped, it is expected that in 40 years the world's population will be more than 9 billion individuals. The increase in the number of citizens raises fears among the majority of scientists: there is a huge probability that soon on the planet there will be practically no areas with untouched nature. Leaders in terms of population are China, India, USA, Indonesia and Brazil.

Population of Russia

In the list of countries by the number of people living in them, our country ranks ninth with an indicator of 143 million people. Most of the citizens are localized in the European part. In the 1920s, the country's population declined by 2 million people, despite the fact that the natural increase in people due to fertility was about 5 million. Thus, during the years of the revolution and World War I, the country lost at least 7 million people.

After these tragic events, there was a rapid growth of the population. If in 1920 the population in Russia was about 90 million, then in 30 years its number exceeded 100 million. The population of the country is extremely diverse and multifaceted: representatives of 140 different nationalities live here , the Russian people make up about 80% of the total number of inhabitants of the country.