Population Growth

A population is a group of individuals of the same species that lives in a particular area.  The population growth rate is the difference between the birth rate and the death rate in that population. Populations can grow rapidly if there is no resistance from the environment and resources are plenty. The carrying capacity of a population is determined by environmental resistance; if resources become scarce, a population's growth rate will decrease. If a population is not limited by the availability of resources, it can grow exponentially; in the past, human population growth has exceeded the rate of exponential growth.  


Can the planet sustain the growing human population or are we exceeding Earth's carrying capacity? Carrying capacity is the supportable population of a given species and is dependent upon the resources available in that location. The world's human population reached one billion people in 1802. By 1961, it had tripled to ~ 3 billion, and reached 7 billion by 2011. 


Watch the following video:

Source: Growth of Human Populations. Retrieved from http://www.ck12.org/book/CK-12-Earth-Science-Concepts-For-High-School/r16/section/13.1/ on December 27, 2013.