Research direction of population geography

Population geography finds out the regularity of population distribution by counting the population number and population density of countries and regions, explores the reasons from the aspects of natural environment, social economy and population policy, and explores the primary and secondary factors from the perspective of historical development, revealing the differences of population geographical distribution among countries and regions.

The population change of a country or region is realized through the natural change of population's own reproduction and death and the mechanical change of migration. Statistics and analysis of the marriage, birth, illness, death, age and gender composition, emigration and immigration of residents in a region can grasp the basic characteristics of population changes in this region. To study natural population growth, we need to consider natural, biological, social, economic, technical and psychological factors, and the population policies of various countries also have a profound impact on population growth. In addition, we should compare and study the population growth patterns of various countries and regions, and look for advanced population growth patterns.

Population geography studies migration, including international migration, urban-rural migration, inter-city migration and seasonal and day-and-night population flow, estimates the total flow and peak flow of migrants, observes the flow direction, distance and mobility intensity of migrants, establishes an interregional population flow model, and analyzes the social, economic, religious, cultural and psychological reasons and consequences of migrants. Population geography not only studies natural composition such as age, gender and race, but also includes social composition such as nationality, occupation, class, religion and education level. Studying the regional characteristics of the total population composition in various countries and regions is helpful to reveal the regularity of the geographical distribution of population, analyze its causes and results, and predict the change and development trend of the composition.

The working-age population is an indispensable labor resource for social production. Analyze and evaluate the utilization degree, utilization potential and utilization effect of labor force in various regions and departments, and provide basis for solving the rational allocation and production layout of labor force between regions and departments. The emerging geography of labor resources has become a new branch of population geography. In the case of certain natural resources, the population and development speed of a country or region should adapt to the speed and scale of economic development, so as to effectively use resources and maintain the ecological balance of the environment. Therefore, a country or region has a certain population carrying capacity. It is also an important subject of population geography to analyze and calculate the appropriate population of a country or region under certain natural resources and technical level, including the largest population and reasonable population. The compilation of population map is a necessary means to study population geography. The spatial distribution of population is shown on the map, so as to understand the spatial differences of population phenomena in different regions and reveal the relationship between population and environment.

In addition, there is an inseparable relationship between population and residential areas. The distribution of settlements is the concretization of population distribution to some extent. Studying settlement geography is helpful to understand the geographical distribution of population. Modern urbanization has brought about great changes in the composition of urban and rural population. Therefore, it is a common concern of population geography and urban geography to study the urbanization process, the relationship between population geographical distribution and urban layout, the reasonable size of different types of urban population, the population flow between urban and rural areas, and the influence of population policy on urban population change. The distribution and density of the population in the city, the occupational composition of the population, the spatial structure of the city and the reasonable distribution of the population, and the regularity of the daily round-trip flow of urban residents are also the contents of the intersection of population geography and urban geography.

Population geography carries out spatial analysis on the basis of population data, and the research methods basically rely on demography and economic geography. Because the phenomenon of population space depends on the phenomenon of economic space, the role of population geography in economic development is not as extensive and effective as that of economic geography. Population geography is not as direct and extensive as demography in implementing family planning policy, controlling population growth and improving population quality. Therefore, there are still limitations in the study of population geography.

To sum up, the research contents of population geography mainly include: ① the development and change conditions and characteristics of population quantity, growth rate, composition and distribution in a country or region; ② Labor resources, including resource evaluation, regional and departmental distribution and rational utilization; ③ Population mobility and population agglomeration; ④ Regional system of population distribution.