AP Human Geography : Population & Migration

Study concepts, example questions & explanations for AP Human Geography

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Example Questions

Example Question #1 : Effects Of National Population Policies

A population policy derived from eugenics is designed to __________.

Possible Answers:

provide incentives to families who have a large number of children

provide incentives to families who have a small number of children

favor the growth of one race over others within a society

favor the growth of one gender over the other within a society

deter people from using contraception on religious grounds

Correct answer:

favor the growth of one race over others within a society

Explanation:

Eugenics is the “science” of improving the human population by encouraging only a specific group of people to breed. It generally favors the growth of one race over others within a society. Eugenics was popular in Europe in the early twentieth century, but continues to be influential in some parts of the world to this day.

Example Question #2 : Effects Of National Population Policies

In the United States, the census is conducted __________.

Possible Answers:

every six months

every four years

every ten years

once a year

every five years

Correct answer:

every ten years

Explanation:

A census is an official government survey of the population of a government’s country. It usually includes questions about race, gender, religious identity, income, and a great many other things. In the United States, it is conducted every ten years and is used to determine representation in Congress (among other things).

Example Question #1 : Effects Of National Population Policies

Countries that discourage or ban the use of contraceptives are more likely to experience which of the following?

I. Gender inequality

II. High birth rates

III. High death rates

Possible Answers:

I and III only

II only

I, II, and III

I only

II and III only

Correct answer:

I, II, and III

Explanation:

Countries that discourage or ban the use of contraceptives are more likely to experience all of the provided answer options. High death rates result from the rampant spread of sexual disease, particularly AIDS. High birth rates result from the inability of women to control the reproductive process, which is of course linked to gender inequality. Many sociologists and historians agree that the relatively rapid increase in gender equality in many parts of the world in the last fifty years has been primarily caused by the availability of contraception, which allows women to dictate when, and with whom, they have children.

Example Question #81 : Ap Human Geography

Which of these countries is most likely to have enacted “expansive population policies”?

Possible Answers:

Ghana

Sweden

Bangladesh

Uganda

Bolivia

Correct answer:

Sweden

Explanation:

An “expansive population policy” is an official government policy designed to encourage the population to conceive and raise multiple children. Unlike a “restrictive population policy,” its primary goal is to increase the rate of population growth to prevent the economic and social welfare problems that arise with an aging population. “Expansive population policies” are most common in Western and Northern Europe where birth rates are some of the lowest in the world. Countries like Sweden, France, the U.K., Germany, and Italy have some form of “expansive population policies” in place.

Example Question #6 : Effects Of National Population Policies

A country that makes universal public education a policy priority is likely to see __________.

Possible Answers:

a decline in the rate of population growth

an increase in the total fertility rate

a decline in the number of women in the workforce

an increase in the rate of population growth

an increase in the number of emigrants leaving the country

Correct answer:

a decline in the rate of population growth

Explanation:

Most studies and statistics on the subject demonstrate that any country that prioritizes education and providing universal access to education is likely to see a decline in the rate of its population growth. This is because as people become better educated they have more opportunities open to them and more control over their lives - this is particularly significant for women. Women who are well-educated are less likely to have unplanned pregnancies, less likely to have large families, and more likely to start those families at a later age. All of this contributes to a decline in the rate of population growth, or, in geographic parlance, a decline in the “natural increase rate.”

Example Question #81 : Population & Migration

Which of these has not been a feature of China's one child policy?

Possible Answers:

All of these options have been features of the one child policy.

Inspections

Awareness campaigns

Fines levied for violations

Forced abortions

Correct answer:

All of these options have been features of the one child policy.

Explanation:

China's one-child policy has historically featured all of the following: awareness campaigns, inspections, fines, and forced abortions.

Example Question #81 : Ap Human Geography

When did the eugenics movement occur in the United States?

Possible Answers:

1880s - 1930s

1770s - 1820s

1930s - 1960s

1820s - 1880s

2000s - present

Correct answer:

1880s - 1930s

Explanation:

Eugenics involve the set of beliefs and practices that aim to improve the genetic quality of the human race. During the Progressive Era eugenics was accepted as a method of preserving and improving the dominant population groups. Today, eugenics is associated with racist and nativist elements. 

Example Question #83 : Ap Human Geography

A potato famine in __________ in the nineteenth century reduced the population of that country by half as millions of people died of starvation or emigrated.

Possible Answers:

Ireland

Germany 

Colombia 

Italy 

Peru

Correct answer:

Ireland

Explanation:

The Irish Potato Famine began in the middle of the nineteenth century and by the end of that century, the population of Ireland had been reduced by half. The rural poor in Ireland (the vast majority of the population at the time) had become dependent on the potato to sustain themselves, and when the crop failed due to potato blight, people starved by the millions or emigrated in desperation to escape the same fate. This incident provides many lessons (not least of all to resist the urge to become dependent on one seemingly super-crop) and continues to inform political relations to this day (e.g. between Ireland and Great Britain, and Ireland and the United States).

Example Question #82 : Ap Human Geography

The introduction of this disease, carried by Europeans to the Americas, devastated the Native American population who had had no previous exposure to the disease and thus had developed no immunity.

Possible Answers:

Syphilis

Malaria

The Bubonic Plague

Smallpox

HIV

Correct answer:

Smallpox

Explanation:

When the Europeans arrived in the New World, the population of the Americas was somewhere between thirty and one hundred million people. (Scholars frequently disagree over this statistic.) They arrived bringing a type of systematic violence unfamiliar to many of the native people, and these atrocities were responsible for significant loss of life, but far more native people were killed by the diseases that the Europeans brought with them. When people have had no exposure to a disease in their history, they will not have developed any natural immunities or defences to it; this makes them much more vulnerable to the disease than the carriers. The Europeans had been living with, and dying from, smallpox for centuries, but the Native Americans had not. The disease spread rapidly through North and South America, usually faster than the Europeans could move themselves, and decimated the native population. By some estimates, as many as ninety percent of the native population succumbed to the disease.

Example Question #85 : Ap Human Geography

The most statistically significant epidemic to hit Europe in the last thousand years is called __________.

Possible Answers:

the French Pox

the Black Death

the Syphilis Panic

the Spanish Flu

the Typhoid Epidemic

Correct answer:

the Black Death

Explanation:

The Black Death was carried into Europe in the 1300s by fleas on rats aboard trading ships arriving in the powerful Italian city-states. The continent had experienced previous incarnations of “the plague” and would experience several more in the centuries to come, but this particularly incarnation spread like wildfire through the European population. Within five years the population of Europe was reduced by one-third; whole towns and regions were lost to history.

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