Human Population Growth

The Table below shows the population (in millions) of the world and selected continents. On one single graph, plot the data for each region and for the world. You might want to use different colors for different sets of data.

Year	Europe	Asia	Africa	North America	South America	World Total
1650	100	327	100	12	1	545
1750	140	475	100	11	1	728
1800	190	597	100	19	10	906
1850	250	741	100	33	26	1171
1900	450	915	141	63	81	1608
1920	481	997	151	92	120	1834
1930	500	1069	164	110	134	2008
1940	518	1173	183	132	145	2216
1950	548	1272	219	162	166	2406
1960	605	1665	273	208	199	2972
1970	657	2027	352	283	226	3580
1980	693	2558	469	359	250	4416
1990	722	3475	743	389	298	5840
2004	727	3875	885	432	365	6396
2009	831	3879	1000	529	386	6869

Use your graph to answer the following questions:

1. What is meant by the term “growth rate”? What units are used to express growth rate?

2. Has the growth of any of the REGIONS graphed been constant? Explain.

3. Which REGION had the greatest growth rate for the entire period recorded? Suggest an explanation for this.

4. Which REGION has had the greatest growth rate for the 20th Century? Suggest an explanation for this.

5. For the decade 1980-1990, list the REGIONS in the order of growth rate with the fastest-growing region listed first.

6. It seems like there was rapid growth during the 20^th century. Why do you think this happened? Why did some areas start growing later than others?