NCERT Solutions for Class 8 Social Science Chapter 6 : Human Resources

Solution:

People are considered as resource because with their demands and capabilities they can create new resources. Nature’s bounty becomes important only when people find it and make it useful for them. Through education, good health and motivation they develop skills and aptitudes, which enable them to become more proficient in overcoming problems and hurdles and carry out more tasks effectively. Hence, human resource is also considered as an important and potential resource for the society.

Solution:

The distribution of population in the world is uneven. Some areas are very crowded while some are sparsely populated. There are various reasons behind this uneven distribution:

(i) Geographical factors: Favourable topography, availability of mineral and fresh water resources, favourable climate and soil fertility are some of the reasons affecting population distribution. e.g., Indo Gangetic Plains, Diamond Mines of South Africa etc are densely populated.Whereas desert regions like Sahara,mountainous regions like Himalayas and cold regions like Antarctica,etc are sparsely populated.

(ii) SocialandCulturalfactors:Areas of better housing, education and health facilities are more populated. eg. Pune. Places of religious and cultural significance also attract people e.g., Varanasi, Jerusalem etc.

(iii) Economicfactors: Places having more industries, transportation and communication facilities provide better employment opportunities. People are attracted to these places because of the above reasons e.g., Mumbai, Osaka etc.

Solution:

The world population has grown very rapidly because the death rate has gone down as a result of the growth of food supplies and the improvement of medical facilities. Also, unlike the death rate, the birth rate has remained quite high.

Solution:

The phenomenon of knowing whether the population increased, decreased or remained stable is called population change. The two major factors are natural growth and migration. The natural growth is the difference between the birth rate and the death rate. The birth rate is the number of live births per 1000 people, while the death rate is the number of deaths per 1000 people. These are the natural causes of population change. When the birth rate is higher than the death rate, population increases. When the death rate is more than the birth rate, population decreases. When the two rates are equal, the population remains constant. Thus, the birth and death rates affect the balance of population. People may move within the country or between the countries. Thus migration is another factor that influence population change.

Solution:

Population composition refers to the basic structure of the population. Population composition helps to know the number of males or female, their age-groups,ethnicity, tribe, language, religion, literacy, their occupation, their income level and health conditions etc.

Solution:

The graphical illustration that is used for studying the population composition of a country is called population pyramids. It shows the present number of males and females in a country along with their age groups. The age-group distribution of population tells us the number of dependents and the number of economically active individuals present in the population.

Question 1: Which does the term population distribution refer to?

(a) Howpopulation in a specified area changes over time.

(b) The number of people who die in relation to the number of people born in a specified area.

(c) The way in which people are spread across a given area.

Solution:

(c) The way in which people are spread across a given area

Question 2: Which are three main factors that cause population change?

(a) Births, deaths and marriage (b) Births, deaths and migration (c) Births, deaths and life expectancy

Solution:

(b) Births, deaths and migration

Question 3: In 1999,the world population reached

(a) 1 billion (b) 3 billion (c) 6 billion

Solution:

(c) 6 billion

Question 4: What is a population pyramid?

(a) A graphical presentation of the age, sex composition of a population.

(b) When the population density of an area issohighthat people live intall buildings.

(c) Pattern of population distribution in large urban areas.

Solution:

(a) A graphical presentation of the age, sex composition of a population.

Solution:

When people are attracted to an area it becomes densely populated. Factors that influence this include favourable climate; good supplies of natural resources and fertile land.