The way in which people are spread across the earth's surface is known as the pattern of population distribution. More than 90 percent of the world�s population lives in about 10 percent of the land surface. The distribution of population in the world is extremely uneven.

Some areas are very crowded and some are sparsely populated. The crowded areas are south and southeast Asia, Europe, and northeastern North America. Very few people live in high latitude areas, tropical deserts, high mountains, and areas of equatorial forests.

Many more people live north of the Equator than south of the Equator. Almost three-quarters of the world�s people live in two continents, Asia and Africa. Sixty percent of the world�s people stay in just 10 countries. All of them have more than 100 million people

DENSITY OF POPULATION

Population density is the number of people living in a unit area of the earth�s surface. It is normally expressed as per square km. The average density of population in the whole world is 45 persons per square km. South-Central Asia has the highest density of population followed by East and Southeast Asia

PATTERNS OF POPULATION CHANGE

Rates of population growth vary across the world. Although the world�s total population is rising rapidly, not all countries are experiencing this growth. Some countries like Kenya have high population growth rates. They had both high birth rates and death rates.

Now, with improving health care, death rates have fallen, but birth rates still remain high leading to high growth rates. In other countries like the United Kingdom, population growth is slowing because of both low death and low birth rates.

Read More: Population Composition - Human Resources - Social Science Class 8