WASSCE SHS
Population geography asks how many people there are, how fast the number changes, and how the number is spread across ages and across places.
Birth rate is live births in a year per thousand people. Death rate is deaths per thousand. Natural increase is the difference. Migration adds people who arrive and subtracts people who leave, so population change is natural increase plus net migration. A high birth rate and a falling death rate, which is the pattern when health improves before family size falls, produce rapid growth. The pressure shows up in schools, jobs, housing and on the land.
A population pyramid shows ages, usually with males one side and females the other. A wide base means many children. A narrow top means fewer old people. That shape is common where birth rates are still high. A narrower base means fewer children are being born. Density is the number of people per unit area. It is high where land is fertile, where there is work, or where a city has grown, and low in swamps, deserts and steep forest. Do not quote a national population total unless the question prints one.
Per thousand, not per hundred. Natural increase does not include migration. Say so if you define it. A pyramid question wants the shape read: wide base, narrow top, a bulge at a working age. Describe the shape and then the meaning. Density needs both the people and the area. "The population is dense" without a reason is thin when the question says explain.
These are practice questions in the style of the paper, with a model answer and a mark scheme. They are not a promise of what your paper will ask.
4 marks
(a) Define birth rate. (2 marks)
(b) Define natural increase. (1 mark)
(c) Name the other process, besides births and deaths, that changes a country's population. (1 mark)
(a) The number of live births in a year per 1,000 people.
(b) Birth rate minus death rate.
(c) Migration.
2 marks
A population pyramid has a very wide base and a narrow top. What does that shape suggest about birth rate and about the proportion of children? (2 marks)
The birth rate is high. A large proportion of the population are children.
2 marks
State two reasons population density is higher in some districts than in others. (2 marks)
Fertile soil supports more farming, and towns offer paid work. People gather where those are found.
More questions on this topic are inside GLearn, marked as you answer, with the reason written out. The first ones need no account.
Practise Geography freeBirth rate minus death rate. It does not include migration. Population change for a country is natural increase plus the net effect of people moving in and out.
Many children, which points to a high birth rate. A narrow top means fewer people survive to old age. Read the shape first, then say what it implies. Do not invent the country's population total. All WASSCE Geography past questions