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Population Distribution: The pattern of human settlement, the spread of people across the earth. The following are factors that impact population distribution:
Physical Factors:
Fresh Water: Throughout the UK, rivers, streams, lakes, ponds, canals, and ditches abound. Fresh water is abundant in the UK. This map displays Important Freshwater areas in the UK. A few of these include, North and South Lakeland, Montgomery Canal, River Teifi Valley and Thames Basin.
This influences population distribution because people tend to flock to areas with fresh water, as it is a resource necessary to survival.
Midlatitudes: Located on the western seaboard of Europe, the United Kingdom lies between 49° and 61°N.
People usually settle in midlatitude areas because the climate is warm and steady, that's how it influences population distribution.
Agriculture: The UK is almost self-sufficient in food due to its rapidly growing agriculture sector. A few commonly grown crops include cereals, root vegetables, pulse crops, forage crops, fruit, and hay.
Agriculture influences population distribution because in places with better soil for crops they are more likely to survive longer.
Climate: The UK has a humid temperate oceanic climate. They get cool, humid winters and warm, humid summers. They very rarely face extreme hot or cold temperatures.
This influences population distribution because people tend not to flock to areas with extreme temperatures.
Landforms:
The Lake District, England
The Brecon Beacons, Wales
England's White Cliffs of Dover
The Scottish Highlands
Human factors:
Social factors: People want to live close to other people. This affects population distribution because people will settle in heavily or moderately populated areas.
Political Factors: People don't want to live somewhere with government instability. The chart below depicts UK's political stability throughout the years.
This affects population distribution because if a country's government stability is rapidly decreasing people might emigrate out of that country and into one with better political stability.
Economic Factors: One of the biggest causes for migration is job opportunities. This affects population distribution because people will migrate if they think they have better opportunities elsewhere. This graph depicts business investment growth and economic policy uncertainty throughout the years. Business investment growth has gone up recently and economic policy uncertainty has gone down. So you can assume that the population might have increased as a result.
War and Conflict: The most common factor when it comes to population distribution. This affects population distribution because people will flee countries that become dangerous and unlivable. They will find refuge in other, safer countries. The map below is a map from 2017 depicting all the current conflicts, at the time, across the globe. You can see that there are none in the UK, you can assume people are not fleeing the UK, instead refugees might seek safety in the UK.
Population density: There are three ways to calculate population density:
Physiological density: Number of people supported by a unit area of arable land. It is found by dividing the total population by the total arable lane area.
The United Kingdom's arable land (hectares per person) was reported as 0.09 as of 2020.
The map below displays the population density of the United Kingdom compared to that of other countries.
Arithmetic density: Density of people in a given area. To find the arithmetic density of an area you have to divide the total population by the total land area.
According to, “U.K. Population Density 1950-2022.” MacroTrends, https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/GBR/united-kingdom/population-density#:~:text=The%20current%20population%20density%20of,a%200.33%25%20increase%20from%202020.
"The current population density of U.K. in 2022 is 277.12 people per square kilometer, a 0.34% increase from 2021. The population density of U.K. in 2021 was 276.18 people per square kilometer, a 0.33% increase from 2020." The graph below displays the arithmetic density of the UK.
Agricultural Density: Ratio of the number of farmers to the amount of arable land. It is found by dividing the number of farmers by the total arable land area.
There are about 92,100 farmers in the UK as of 2022. There is approximately 6,037,787 hectares of arable land in the UK. This means the UK's agricultural density is around 0.015 hectares.
The map to the right displays the main farming types in the UK.
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