Deck 15: Population and Global Inequality

Question 1

Which term refers to the incidence of death in a country's population?

A)mortality
B)morbidity
C)the crude death rate
D)the infant mortality rate

Answer 1

A

Question 2

Over the course of the twentieth century, global population

A)stayed about the same.
B)doubled.
C)tripled.
D)quadrupled.

Answer 2

D

Question 3

For any country, as the number of women with access to contraception goes up, a woman's average number of children

A)stays the same.
B)goes up.
C)goes down.
D)cannot be predicted.

Answer 3

C

Question 4

A sharp increase in global population began about the time of

A)the Agricultural Revolution.
B)the Industrial Revolution.
C)World War I.
D)the Information Revolution.

Question 5

Subtracting a nation's crude death rate from its crude birth rate yields what?

A)rate of natural expansion
B)national expansion index
C)natural growth rate
D)refined demographic index

Question 6

There are many reasons that population increase has slowed in high-income nations. Which of the following is NOT one of them?

A)increased mortality rates
B)more families have both partners in the labor force
C)a trend toward later marriage
D)more widespread use of contraceptives

Question 7

The series of numbers 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, and so on reflect

A)a geometric progression.
B)an arithmetic progression.
C)a binary sequence.
D)a binomial distribution.

Question 8

Which term refers to the level of reproduction that maintains population at a steady state?

A)inert fertility
B)zero fertility rate
C)zero population growth
D)demographic balance

Question 9

Which term refers to the study of human population?

A)demography
B)popology
C)human ecology
D)ethnology

Question 10

The United Nations projects that global population in the year 2050 will be

A)9.6 billion.
B)11 billion.
C)13.6 billion.
D)greater than 15 billion.

Question 11

Who was the English economist, clergyman, and pioneer demographer who predicted in 1798 that population would increase geometrically, but food production would increase arithmetically?

A)Herbert Spencer
B)Charles Horton Cooley
C)Thomas Robert Malthus
D)Robert Michels

Question 12

Worldwide, what share of global population increase is taking place in the low-income nations of the Southern Hemisphere?

A)none
B)less than half
C)slightly more than half
D)almost all

Question 13

Malthus predicted that food production would increase

A) arithmetically.
B)geometrically.
C) little if at all.
D) to produce more than humanity could consume.

Question 14

Global population reached 1 billion about the year

A)1950.
B)1900.
C)1850.
D)1800.

Question 15

High-income nations such as the United States grow

A)as much from immigration as from natural increase.
B)almost entirely from immigration.
C)almost entirely from natural increase.
D)by means of demographic transition.

Question 16

Nafis Sadik, who heads the United Nations' efforts at population control, explains: "Give a woman more choices about how to live and she will

A)choose marriage."
B)stay single."
C)have fewer children."
D)have more children."

Question 17

Which rate results from dividing the number of deaths of children under one year of age by the number of live births during the same year, then multiplying the result by 1,000?

A)infant mortality rate
B)crude infant death rate
C)crib death rate
D)abortion rate

Question 18

In 2013, the human population of the planet was

A)20 billion.
B)14.2 billion.
C)7.2 billion.
D)10 billion.

Question 19

Which term refers to the incidence of childbearing in a country's population?

A)fecundity
B)fertility
C)reproduction
D)demography

Question 20

What is calculated by dividing the number of live births in a year by the society's total population, and then multiplying the result by 1,000?

A)refined fertility rate
B)crude birth rate
C)population-growth rate
D)childbearing rate

Question 21

In the United States, a home that lacks a telephone or a television set is the rare exception. Not being able to afford a television set in a wealthy country illustrates

A)immediate poverty.
B)temporary poverty.
C)absolute poverty.
D)relative poverty.

Question 22

In which one of the four demographic transition theory stages is Western Europe?

A)preindustrial
B)early industrial
C)mature industrial
D)postindustrial

Question 23

Demographic transition theory links demographic changes to a society's

A)level of schooling.
B)level of social inequality.
C)level of technological development.
D)cultural patterns.

Question 24

In 2014, the world's three richest people, each with at least $60 billion in wealth, have the same wealth as all the people in

A)the world's poorest country.
B)the world's two poorest countries.
C)the world's 25 poorest countries.
D)110 of the world's 194 countries.

Question 25

During Stage 1 (preindustrial, agrarian societies) of the demographic transition, birth rates are __________ and death rates are __________.

A)high/high
B)high/low
C)low /high
D)low /low

Question 26

A factory owner enslaves workers of all ages by paying them too little to cover their debts; this practice illustrates the concept of

A)servile forms of marriage.
B)child slavery.
C)debt bondage.
D)chattel slavery.

Question 27

According to the International Labour Organization, the number of people in the world living in conditions that amount to slavery is estimated to be about

A)20,000.
B)2 million.
C)20 million.
D)2 billion.

Question 28

What term refers to a lack of resources that most other people take for granted?

A)absolute poverty
B)temporary poverty
C)relative poverty
D)immediate poverty

Question 29

Most of the low-income nations of the world are located in

A)North America.
B)Latin America.
C)Africa or Asia.
D)Europe.

Question 30

In 2013, about 17 percent of the global population lived in low-income nations, but these people earned just ________ of the world's income.

A)3 percent
B)13 percent
C)23 percent
D)43 percent

Question 31

People living in middle-income countries have incomes ranging between

A)$2,500 to $12,000.
B)$5,000 to $15,000.
C)$15,000 to $25,000.
D)$25,000 to $50,000.

Question 32

The poorest 20 percent of the world's population earns what share of the world's income?

A)46 percent
B)26 percent
C)12.6 percent
D)1.6 percent

Question 33

Which region of the world faces the greatest problem of poor, homeless children?

A)Latin America
B)Europe
C)India
D)the Middle East

Question 34

Of the 194 nations in the world, how many are considered high-income?

A)74
B)42
C)22
D)12

Question 35

Some severe poverty exists in the United States; but in low-income nations, what the United Nations calls severe poverty may affect

A)5 percent of all people.
B)15 percent of all people.
C)40 percent of all people.
D)the entire population.

Question 36

How many nations fall within the category of "low-income countries?"

A)9
B)19
C)29
D)49

Question 37

In India, Thailand, and some African nations, families marry off women against their will, with many ending up as slaves performing work for their husband's family or forced into prostitution. This practice falls into which of the following categories?

A)servile forms of marriage
B)indentured slavery
C)chattel slavery
D)debt bondage

Question 38

During Stage 4 (a postindustrial economy) of the demographic transition,

A)birth rates are very low, but death rates increase.
B)the birth rate falls into line with the death rate, and population growth slows down.
C)birth rates remain very high, and the death rate declines even further.
D)birth and the death rates are both low, so there is little or no natural increase in population.

Question 39

A life-threatening lack of resources is called

A)relative poverty.
B)absolute poverty.
C)temporary poverty.
D)immediate poverty.

Question 40

High-income nations are home to what percentage of the earth's population?

A)3 percent
B)23 percent
C)43 percent
D)63 percent

Question 41

What terms are used by demographers to analyze population dynamics? Present the terms, define them, and explain what they can tell us about a society.

Question 42

How is the social standing of women related to a nation's rate of population increase? Why do population control experts claim that the social standing of women is one important factor that affects population patterns?

Question 43

How does modernization theory explain global inequality? How does world system theory explain global inequality differently? What can we learn from each approach that might help address the issue of global economic inequality?

Question 44

How and why do Malthusian theory and demographic transition theory lead to different conclusions about the future of global population? Which theory do you find more persuasive? Why?

Question 45

How does each of these political points of view-conservative, liberal, and radical left, understand global inequality and poverty in the world? What solutions are favored by each point of view?

Question 46

According to Immanuel Wallerstein, the world economy not only exploits poor nations, it also places them in what position with respect to rich nations?

A)a position of dependency
B)a position of dominance
C)a position of relative affluence
D)a position of cooperation

Question 47

Frank and Joe are hunger activists who point out that the world already produces plenty of food for everyone, and that the capitalist system of growing food for export in poor countries means there are too few staples like beans and corn for the poor to eat. Frank and Joe most likely agree with which political viewpoint?

A)conservative
B)radical right
C)liberal
D)radical left

Question 48

Critics of modernization theory

A)see the approach as an attack on capitalism.
B)claim that using developed countries as the standard for the rest of the world is helpful for less-developed countries' growth.
C)point out that the approach says little about the ways in which rich nations often prevent poor countries from developing.
D)agree that poor societies are responsible for their own poverty.

Question 49

Which term refers to the process by which some nations enrich themselves through the direct political and economic control of other nations?

A)modernization
B)neocolonialism
C)colonialism
D)assimilation

Question 50

Which of the following theories is a model of economic and social development that explains global inequality in terms of technological and cultural differences between societies?

A)social-conflict theory
B)modernization theory
C)world-system theory
D)cultural-transmission theory

Question 51

If you were a conservative, you would most likely see the solution to global poverty in terms of the productive power of

A)government.
B)the market.
C)tradition.
D)global cooperation.

Question 52

The first stage in W.W. Rostow's theory of modernization is

A)the take-off stage.
B)the drive to technological maturity stage.
C)the traditional stage.
D)the high mass consumption stage.

Question 53

Which political point of view accepts the fact that the capitalist market system is highly productive, but rejects the position that the capitalist market by itself is the solution to global poverty?

A)liberal
B)conservative
C)radical left
D)radical right

Question 54

According to world system theory, high-income nations occupy which part of the capitalist world economy?

A)the core
B)the periphery
C)the semi-periphery
D)the boundary

Question 55

Which theory is a model of economic development that explains global inequality in terms of the historical exploitation of poor societies by rich societies?

A)modernization theory
B)world system theory
C)neocolonial theory
D)structural-functional theory