H2 Geography Flashcards

Which stage of the Demographic Transition Model (DTM) is characterised by high birth rates and rapidly falling death rates, causing rapid population growth?

Answer: Stage 2

Stage 2 of the DTM is defined by persistently high birth rates alongside falling death rates (due to improved sanitation and medicine), producing the fastest natural population increase.

Which composite index measures development by combining life expectancy, education level, and income?

Answer: Human Development Index (HDI)

The Human Development Index (HDI), published by the UNDP, combines health (life expectancy), education (mean and expected years of schooling), and standard of living (GNI per capita) into a single score.

What is the approximate Total Fertility Rate (TFR) considered to be at 'replacement level' for a population?

Answer: 2.1

A TFR of approximately 2.1 is the replacement level — each woman bears enough children to replace herself and her partner, with the extra 0.1 accounting for infant and child mortality.

Which population theory argues that population grows geometrically while food supply grows only arithmetically, inevitably leading to famine or war?

Answer: Malthusian Theory

Thomas Malthus (1798) argued that unchecked population growth would always outpace food production, resulting in positive checks such as famine, disease, and war to reduce population.

What does the Gini coefficient measure?

Answer: Income inequality within a population

The Gini coefficient measures income (or wealth) inequality within a country on a scale from 0 (perfect equality) to 1 (perfect inequality), where higher values indicate greater disparity.

Singapore's Total Fertility Rate is well below replacement level. Which government policy directly incentivises higher birth rates?

Answer: Baby Bonus Scheme

Singapore's Baby Bonus Scheme provides cash gifts and Child Development Account co-savings to parents, directly encouraging higher birth rates in response to the country's ageing population challenge.

Which development theory proposes that all countries must pass through five linear stages of economic growth from traditional society to high mass consumption?

Answer: Rostow's Stages of Growth (Modernization Theory)

Rostow's Modernization Theory (1960) outlines five sequential stages — traditional society, preconditions for take-off, take-off, drive to maturity, and age of high mass consumption — that all countries must follow.