Welcome to People and the Earth’s Ecosystem, an interdisciplinary study of how the earth works, how

humans interact with it, and how we can address the world's environmental issues. The concepts, facts,
and issues presented in this module and the course you are taking will be beneficial to you now and in
the future since environmental issues touch every aspect of your life.

This module is designed to enhance students understanding of basic ecology concepts in three major
areas: (1) Population, (2) Ecosystem, and (3) The Anthropogenic Impact to Environment.

This module comprises of three series, module 1, module 2, and module 3 and it is divided based on the
grading period during the school term, prelim, midterm, semi- finals and finals.

This module is centered in addressing the concern of the changing environment due to climate change
and what can we do about it.

Varied activities are provided in each chapter to help the students to develop important 21st century
skills such as effective communications skills; learning and innovation skills; and information, media, and
technological skills despite the pandemic.

The components found in this module are as follows:

Core Case Study - This presents article or research or case study for additional information.

Key Questions & Concepts - These are essential questions that students need to answer and understand.

Big Idea - These are pop-up sections placed in the discussions to so that the students can easily identify
essential concepts.

Wordstorm - This is a vocabulary section to help the students to understand difficult terms.

Gear Up - This is a set of enrichment activities.

Self-Check - This is a 10-20 items test that includes formative and summative questions.

As the students go through the pages of this module, may it be their desire to explore the world around
them, observe the changes, and realize their role in protecting and conserving our ecosystem.

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Chapter 1
Unit 1
The Human Population
Population Characteristics
Objectives :
As you go through this chapter, you will be able to:
 Define what population is;
 Enumerate the different characteristics of population;
 Calculate the birth rate, mortality rate and natality rate of a population;
 Differentiate the two types of population growth curve, the S-curve and the J-curve;
 and Identify the two factors affecting the birth rate of a population
1 Are There Too Many Of Us?
CORECASESTUDY
Each week, about 1.6 million people are added to the world’s population. As a result, the
number of people on the earth is projected to increase from 6.7 to 9.3 billion or more between
2008 and 2050, with most of this growth occurring in the world’s developing countries. This
raises an important question: Can the world provide an adequate standard of living for a
projected 2.6 billion more people by 2050 without causing widespread environmental damage?
There is disagreement over the answer to this question.
According to one view, the planet already has too many people collectively degrading the
earth’s natural capital. To some analysts, the problem is the sheer number of people in
developing countries with 82% of the world’s population. To others, it is high per capita
resource consumption rates in developed countries—and to an increasing extent in rapidly
developing countries such as China and India—that magnify the environmental impact, or
ecological footprint, of each person.
Many argue that both population growth and resource consumption per person are important
causes of the environmental problems we face.
Another view is that technological advances have allowed us to overcome the environmental
resistance that all populations face and to increase the earth’s carrying capacity for our species.
Some analysts argue there is no reason we cannot continue doing so, and they believe that the
planet can support billions more people. They also see a growing population as our most
valuable resource for solving environmental and other problems and for stimulating economic
growth by increasing the number of consumers. As a result, they see no need to control the
world’s population growth.
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Some people view any form of population regulation as a violation of their religious or moral
beliefs. Others see it as an intrusion into their privacy and their freedom to have as many
children as they want. These people also would argue against any form of population control.
Proponents of slowing and eventually stopping population growth have a different view. They
point out that we are not providing the basic necessities for about one of every five people—a
total of some 1.4 billion. They ask how we will be able to do so for the projected 2.6 billion
more people by 2050. and environmental conditions in some areas, as is already happening in
parts of Africa.
Second, resource use and environmental degradation may intensify as more consumers
increase their already large ecological footprints in developed countries and in rapidly
developing countries, such as China and India. This could increase environmental stresses such
as infectious disease, biodiversity losses, water shortages, traffic congestion, pollution of the
seas, and climate change.
This debate over interactions among population growth, economic growth, politics, and moral
beliefs is one of the most important and controversial issues in environmental science. They
also warn of two serious consequences we will face if we do not sharply lower birth rates. First,
death rates may increase because of declining health.
Lesson 1 - Population Growth
Key Questions and Concepts
1. What is population?
2. What factors influence the size of the human population?
3. How does a population’s age distribution affect natality and mortality?
4. How can we slow human population growth?
Big Idea A population is a group of individuals of the same species that live together in a
region.
Each species in an ecosystem exist as a population. Members of a population rely on the same
resources, are influenced by similar environmental factors and are bred with one another. In
other words, a population (synonymous with biological population) consists of a group of
interbreeding or potentially interbreeding organisms found in the same space or area same
area at the same time. The study of populations (especially population abundance) and how
they change over time is called population ecology. It studies the spatial and temporal patterns
in the abundance and distribution of organisms and of the mechanisms that produce those
patterns. The study of population population ecology includes understanding, explanation and
prediction of population growth, regulation and dynamics or demography.
Multicellular organisms are of two kinds, unitary organisms and modular organisms. Most
animal populations are made up of unitary organisms. In unitary organisms, the form is highly
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determinate consisting usually of a strictly defined number of parts (such as legs or wings)
established only during embryogenesis. Their pattern of development and final form are
predictable. For example, all dogs have four legs, all squid have two eyes, etc. In modular
organisms, on the other hand, neither timing nor form is predictable. These organisms grow by
the repeated iteration of modules, usually to yield a branching pattern. Examples of modular
organisms include plants and many sessile benthic invertebrates. In modular organisms, a
single genetic individual (or genet) can consist of many modules (or ramets) capable of
existence as individuals. In plants, a genet is an individual that has arisen from a seed. A ramet
is a new plant which has arisen through vegetative propagation and is now a completely
independent plant with its own roots and shoots. For example, a population of grasses may
consist of several genets, each of which has several ramets.

POPULATION CHARACTERISTICS

A population has several characteristics or attributes which are a function of the whole group
and not of the individual. Different populations can be compared by measuring these attributes.
These attributes are population density, natality, mortality, distributions, etc. The study of the
group characteristics of a population, their changes over time and prediction of future changes
is known as demography.
I. Population Density
The size of the population is represented by its fundamental property called density. It is
generally expressed as the number of individuals or the population biomass per unit area or
volume.
Two Types of Densities
1. Crude Density
- Crude density is the density per unit of total space. Generally, populations do not
occupy all the space as whole because all area may not be habitable.
2. Specific (or Ecological) Density
- Specific density is the density per unit of habitable space. It includes only that portion
of total space that can actually be colonized by the population.
Determining Population Size
Population size can be measured by several methods:
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1. Abundance
- Absolute number of individuals in population.
2. Numerical Density
- Number of individuals per unit area or volume. It is expressed when the size of
individuals in the population is relatively uniform, as in mammals, insects and birds.
3. Biomass Density
- Biomass density is expressed in terms of wet weight, dry weight, volume, and carbon
and nitrogen weight per unit area or volume.
Population density can be calculated by the following equation:
Dp = N/A
In this equation, Dp is the density of population, N is the total population as a number of
people, and A is the land area covered by that population.
A is usually expressed in terms of either square miles or square kilometers, especially when
looking at human population. However, we could use smaller units as well. For example, if
we're looking at the population density of a type of insect on a tree, we would use square feet
or square meters, because kilometers would be far too large. We might also use acres if we're
looking at the population density of cattle on a ranch. The same population density formula
applies to both human and non-human populations.
II. Natality
Natality refers to the rate of reproduction or birth per unit time. It is an expression of the
production of new individuals in the population by birth, hatching, germination or fission.
Birth rate or Natality (B) = Number of births per year x 1,000
Number population per year

The maximum number of births produced per individual under ideal conditions of
environment is called potential natality. It is also called reproductive or biotic potential,
absolute natality or maximum natality. Natality varies from organism to organism. It
depends upon the population density and environmental factors. It is a general rule that if
the population density is usually low, the birth rate is also low. This is so because the
chances of mating between males and females are low. If population density is unusually
high, the birth rate may also below due to poor nutrition or physiological or psychological
problems related to crowding. The maximum or absolute natality is observed when the
species exists under ideal ecological and genetic conditions. The actual number of births
occurring under the existing environmental conditions is much less as compared to absolute

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 natality. It is referred to as ecological natality or realized natality. It is not constant for
population and may vary with the size of population as well as with the time.
III. Mortality
Mortality refers to the number of deaths for every 1,000 people per year. The death rate is
correlated with the conditions of country, for example, with the levels of prosperity, health,
or the occurrence of war.
Mortality rate = Number of birth per year x 1,000
Number of population per year

Mortality can be expressed in the following two ways:

1. Minimum or Specific or Potential Mortality:

- It represents the minimum of theoretical loss of individuals under ideal or nonlimiting

condition. Thus, even under the best conditions individuals of a population would die of old
age determined by their physiological longevity. So it is constant for a population.

2. Ecological or Realized Mortality:

- It refers to the death of individuals of a population under existing environmental
conditions. Since it varies with environmental conditions, it is never constant. The
maximum mortality occurs at the egg, larval, seedling and old age. Mortality is affected
by a number of factors, such as, density, competition, disease, predation and
environment. Death rates vary among the species and are correlated with birth rates.
When the rate of natality is equal to the rate of mortality the population is stationary. A
birth death ratio (Births/death x 100) is called vital index. For a population, the survival
of individuals is more important than the death. The number of births in relation to the
carrying capacity of the habitat is a fundamental factor influencing the mortality rate.
When more young’s are born than the habitat can support, the surplus must either die
or leave the area. Because the number of survivors is more important than the number
of dying individuals, mortality is better expressed as survival or as life expectancy. The
life expectancy refers to the average number of years the members of a population have
left to live.

IV. Population Growth

The growth is one of the dynamic features of species population. Population size increases in a
characteristic way. When the number of individuals of population is plotted on the y-axis and
the times on the x-axis, a curve is obtained that indicates the trend in the growth of population
size in a given time.
This curve is called population growth curve.

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There are two types of growth curves:

1. Sigmoid Curve (S-Curve) When a few organisms are introduced in an area, the population
increase is very slow in the beginning (positive acceleration phase or lag phase), in the middle
phase, the population increase becomes very rapid(logarithmic phase) and finally in the last
phase population increase is slowed down (negative acceleration phase) until an equilibrium is
attained and which the population size fluctuates according to variability of environment. The
level beyond which no major increase can occur is referred to as saturation level or carrying
capacity. In the last phase the new organisms are almost equal to the number of dying
individuals and thus there is no increase in population size. In this way, one gets sigmoid or 5-
shaped growth curve (Fig. 1).

2. J-Shaped Curve The second type of growth curve is J-shaped. Here in the first phase there is
no increase in population size because it needs some time for adjustment in the new
environment. Soon after the population is established in the new environment, it starts
multiplying rapidly. This increase in population is continued till large amount of food materials
exist in the habitat. After some time, due to increase in population size, food supply in the
habitat becomes limited which ultimately results in decrease in population size. This will result
in J-shaped growth curve rather than S-shaped (Fig. 1).

Figure 1, J-curved and S-curved population growth curves.

V. Age Distribution

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 Age distribution is another important characteristic of population which influences natality
and mortality. Mortality, usually varies with age, as chances of death are more in early and
later periods of lifespan. Similarly, natality is restricted to certain age groups, as for
example, in middle age-groups in higher
animals. According to Bodenheimer (1958),
the individuals of a population can be
divided into pre-reproductive,
reproductive and post reproductive
groups. The individuals of pre-reproductive
group are young, those of reproductive
group are mature and those in post
reproductive group are old. The
distribution of ages may be constant or
variable. It is directly related to the growth
rate of the population. Depending upon
the proportion of the three age-groups,
populations can be said to be growing,
mature or stable, and diminishing In other
words, the ratio of various age groups in a
population determines the reproductive
status of the population. Rapidly increasing population contains a large proportion of young
individuals, a stable population shows even distribution of individuals in reproductive age-
group and a declining population contains a large proportion of old individuals.

VI. Population Fluctuations

The size and density of natural population show a changing pattern over a period of time. This is
called population fluctuation.

There are three types of variations in the pattern of population change:

1. Non fluctuating
- When the population remains static over the years, it is said to be non-fluctuating.
2. Cyclic:
- The cyclic variations may be (a) seasonal, and (b) annual. Sometimes seasonal changes
occur in the population and there are additions to the population at the time of
maximum reproduction and losses under adverse climatic conditions. Common
examples of seasonal variations are met in mosquitoes and houseflies which area
abundant in particular season and so also the weeds in the field during the rainy season.
When the population of a species shows regular ups and downs over the years, it is
called annual cyclic variation. It appears in the form of a sigmoid curve with regular
drops in population after peaks.

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3. Irruptive
-When the change in population density does not occur at regular intervals or in
response to any obvious environmental factor, it is said to be irruptive fluctuation. In
this there is a sudden exponential or logarithmic increase in population density in short
time followed by equally quick drop in population density due to deaths, and final
return to normal level or even below that level.

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Chapter II
Birth, Death, & Changes
As you go through this chapter, you will be able to:
1. Cite factors that can affect the birth rate of a population;
2. Compare the changes of population's number added every eleven years in the world
using a table;
3. Identify the major causes of human population change;
4. and Enumerate different ways on how can we slow the growth of population.

Factors that Cause Populations to Change

Population Ecologists classify factors causing changes in populations as either

densitydependent or density in dependent factors.

Density refers to the number of animals per unit area (usually measured in animals/hectare or
animals/square kilometer).

 Density – dependent factor

As the density of a population increases, the amount of resources available to each individual
decreases, and the health of individuals decreases. As health decreases, mortality (death rate)
increases and reproduction decreases. Thus, we may talk about density dependent mortality or
density-dependent reproduction. Density-dependent forms of mortality include parasites,
disease, starvation, and predation.

 Density-independent factors

Are those factors that act on a population independent of the size of the population. Typical
density-independent causes of mortality are weather, accidents, and environmental
catastrophes like volcanoes, floods, landslides, fire, etc. The rate at which animals reproduce is
a basic component of population dynamics. The rate of natural increase is the difference
between birth and death rates. It measures the degree to which a population is growing. Since
birth and death rates are measured as the number of births (or deaths) occurring per 1000
population, the difference is divided by 10 to convert this rate into a percentage.

Are those factors that act on a population independent of the size of the population. Typical
density-independent causes of mortality are weather, accidents, and environmental
catastrophes like volcanoes, floods, landslides, fire, etc.

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The rate at which animals reproduce is a basic component of population dynamics. The rate of
natural increase is the difference between birth and death rates. It measures the degree to
which a population is growing. Since birth and death rates are measured as the number of
births (or deaths) occurring per 1000 population, the difference is divided by 10 to
convert this rate into a percentage.

Rate of Natural Increase = Birth Rate - Death Rate

10
Natality Wildlife biologists usually express birth rates as fecundity, which is the number of young
produced per female over a given time period. Usually one year is the time period considered, but for
smaller animals, especially those that may breed several times a year, a shorter time period may be
selected. Thus, if a population of 1,000 female grizzly bears produced 200 young in a year, the birth rate,
or fecundity, would be 200/1,000 = 0.2.

A number of factors affect a population's birth rate:

 The amount and quality of food available determines if an individual has enough energy to
reproduce. Animals that are in poor nutritional condition have fewer young and/or breed less
often.
 Age at first reproduction is also an important factor in determining birth rate. Large, long lived
animals typically do not become sexually mature until they are several years of age. A vole or
meadow mouse might become sexually mature and breed for the first time at 18 days. An Asian
elephant on the other hand will typically be 9-12 years old when it first breeds.
 The birth interval is also important in determining birth rates. A vole might produce a litter of
young every 30 days during the breeding season, but a grizzly bear may only reproduce every 3
or 4 years.
 The average number of young produced is of obvious importance in a population's birth rate.
Some animals such as fish or amphibians produce 100's or 1000's of eggs (not all of them hatch
of course), while many wildlife only have one young at a time.
 Potential population growth rates are related to fecundity rates. A doubling in the fecundity rate
will more than double the population growth rate.

Human Population Growth

Should we worry about human population growth or not? Why?

Man is relatively new in this world; although there are already animals of millions of years, modern man
evolved only four hundred thousand years ago. During most of this period people lived from hunting
and gathering of food. Our planet could feed about ten million people living in this way. Estimations say
that ten thousand years ago between five and ten million people lived on earth. Our planet was at that
time at or near the maximum population it could support. The average growth rate until then was
almost zero then 0.005 percent per year.

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Table 1. World Population Number of years to add each billion (1991 estimate)

Anthropologists believe the human species dates back at least 3 million years. For most of our history,
these distant ancestors lived a precarious existence as hunters and gatherers. This way of life kept their
total numbers small, probably less than 10 million. However, as agriculture was introduced,
communities evolved that could support more people. World population expanded to about 300 million
by A.D. 1 and continued to grow at a moderate rate, but after the start of the Industrial Revolution in
the 18th century, living standards rose and widespread famines and epidemics diminished in some
regions. Population growth accelerated. The population climbed to about 760 million in 1750 and
reached 1 billion around 1800.

Major Causes of Human Population Change

a) Agricultural Revolution

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Agricultural revolution, ten thousand years ago, made a great change to increase the human population.
This was a transition from hunting and gathering of food for subsistence. It has created settlement, easy
access for food and mortality reduction and increase life expectancy.

b) Industrial revolution

Around 1750 another revolution started in England, making an even faster growth possible: the
Industrial revolution. Giving an average growth rate of 0.84% since the beginning of the industrial
revolution, about seventeen times the previous rate.

c) Progressing growth

With the development and spreading of modern medicine and sanitation, the growth rate is still
progressing.

How Many People Can the Earth Support?

Human population growth continues but it is unevenly

distributed for most of history, the human population grew
slowly. But for the past 200 years, the human population
has experienced rapid exponential growth reflected in the
characteristic J-curve.

Three major factors account for this population increase.

First, humans developed the ability to expand into diverse
new habitats and different climate zones. Second, the
emergence of early and modern agriculture allowed more
people to be fed for each unit of land area farmed. Third,
the development of sanitation systems, antibiotics, and
vaccines helped control infectious disease agents. As a
result, death rates dropped sharply below birth rates and
population size grew rapidly.

About 10,000 years ago when agriculture began, there were about 5 million humans on the planet; now
there are 6.7 billion of us. It took from the time we arrived until about 1927 to add the first 2 billion
people to the planet; less than 50 years to add the next 2 billion (by 1974); and just 25 years to add the
next 2 billion (by 1999). The year 2012, the Earth is already supporting 7 billion people and perhaps 9.3
billion by 2050. Such growth raises the question of whether the earth is overpopulated

The rate of population growth has slowed, but the world’s population is still growing exponentially at a
rate of 1.22% a year. This means that 82 million people were added to the world’s population during
2008—an average of nearly 225,000 more people each day, or 2.4 more people every time your heart
beats.

Geographically, this growth is unevenly distributed. About 1.2 million of these people were added to the
world’s developed countries, growing at 0.1% a year. About 80.8 million were added to developing
countries, growing 15 times faster at 1.5% a year. In other words, most of the world’s population growth

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takes place in already heavily populated parts of world most of which are the least equipped to deal
with the pressures of such rapid growth. In our demographically divided world, roughly 1 billion people
live in countries with essentially a stable population size while another billion or so live in countries
whose populations are projected to at least double between 2008 and 2050.

This raises the question posed in the Core Case Study at the beginning of this chapter:
How many people can the earth support indefinitely? Some say about 2 billion. Others say as many as 30
billion. This issue has long been a topic of scientific debate.

Some analysts believe this is the wrong question. Instead, they say, we should ask what the optimum
sustainable population of the earth might be, based on the planet’s cultural carrying capacity. This
would be an optimum level that would allow most people to live in reasonable comfort and freedom
without impairing the ability of the planet to sustain future generations.

How Can We Slow Human Population Growth?

As countries develop, their populations tend

to grow more slowly demographers examining birth
and death rates of western European countries that
became industrialized during the 19th century
developed a hypothesis of population change known
as the demographic transition: as countries become
industrialized, first their death rates and then their
birth rates decline. According to the hypothesis, based
on such data, this transition takes place in four distinct
stages.

Some analysts believe that most of the world’s

developing countries will make a demographic
transition over the next few decades mostly because
modern technology can bring economic development
and family planning to such countries. Others fear that
the still rapid population growth in some developing countries might outstrip economic growth and
overwhelm some local life-support systems. As a consequence, some of these countries could become
caught in a demographic trap at stage 2. This is now happening as death rates rise in a number of
developing countries, especially in Africa. Indeed, countries in Africa being ravaged by the HIV/AIDS
epidemic are falling back to stage 1. Other factors that could hinder the demographic transition in some
developing countries are shortages of scientists and engineers (94% of them work in the industrialized
world), shortages of skilled workers, insufficient financial capital, large debts to developed countries,
and a drop in economic assistance from developed countries since 1985.

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 Figure 1.2 Four stages of the demographic transition, which the population of a country can
experience when it becomes industrialized. There is uncertainty about whether this model will
apply to some of today’s developing countries.

Family Planning

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 Family planning provides
educational and clinical services that help
couples choose how many children to
have and when to have them. Such
programs vary from culture to culture, but
most provide information on birth
spacing, birth control, and health care for
pregnant women and infants. Family
planning has been a major factor in
reducing the number of births throughout
most of the world, mostly because of
increased knowledge and availability of
contraceptives. According to the U.N.
Population Division, 58% of married
women ages 15–45 in developed
countries and 54% in developing countries
used modern contraception in 2008.
Family planning has also reduced the number of legal and illegal abortions performed each year and
decreased the number of deaths of mothers and fetuses during pregnancy. Studies by the U.N.
Population Division and other population agencies indicate that family planning is responsible for at
least 55% of the drop in total fertility rates (TFRs) in developing countries, from 6.0 in 1960 to 3.0 in
2008. Between 1971 and 2008, for example, Thailand used family planning to cut its annual population
growth rate from 3.2% to 0.5% and its TFR from 6.4 to 1.6 children per family. Another family planning
success involves Iran, which between 1989 and 2000, cut its population growth rate from 2.5% to 1.4%.

Despite such successes, two problems remain. First, according to the U.N. Population Fund, 42% of all
pregnancies in developing countries are unplanned and 26% end with abortion. Second, an estimated
201 million couples in developing countries want to limit the number and determine the spacing of their
children, but they lack access to family planning services. According to a recent study by the U.N.
Population Fund and the Alan Guttmacher Institute, meeting women’s current unmet needs for family
planning and contraception could each year prevent 52 million unwanted pregnancies, 22 million
induced abortions, 1.4 million infant deaths, and 142,000 pregnancy-related deaths.

Some analysts call for expanding family planning programs to include teenagers and sexually active
unmarried women, who are excluded from many existing programs. Another suggestion is to develop
programs that educate men about the importance of having fewer children and taking more
responsibility for raising them. Proponents also call for greatly increased research on developing more
effective and more acceptable birth control methods for men. In 1994, the United Nations held its third
Conference on Population and Development in Cairo, Egypt. One of the conference’s goals was to
encourage action to stabilize the world’s population at 7.8 billion by 2050 instead of the projected 9.2
billion.

The experiences of countries such as Japan, Thailand, South Korea, Taiwan, Iran, and China show that a
country can achieve or come close to replacement level fertility within a decade or two. Such
experiences also suggest that the best ways to slow and stabilize population growth are through
investing in family planning, reducing poverty, and elevating the social and economic status of women.

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Empowering Women

Studies show that women tend to have fewer children if they are educated, hold a paying job outside
the home, and live in societies where their human rights are not suppressed. Although women make up
roughly half of the world’s population, in most societies they do not have the same rights and
educational and economic opportunities as men do.

Women do almost all of the world’s domestic work and child care for little or no pay and provide more
unpaid health care than all of the world’s organized health services combined. They also do 60–80% of
the work associated with growing food, gathering and hauling wood and animal dung for use as fuel,
and hauling water in rural areas of Africa, Latin America, and Asia. As one Brazilian woman put it, “For
poor women the only holiday is when you are asleep.”

Globally, women account for two-thirds of all hours worked but receive only 10% of the world’s income,
and they own less than 2% of the world’s land. Also, about 70% of the world’s poor and 64% of all 800
million illiterate adults are women.

Because sons are more valued than daughters in many societies, girls are often kept at home to work
instead of being sent to school. Globally, some 900 million girls—three times the entire U.S. population
—do not attend elementary school. Teaching women to read has a major impact on fertility rates and
population growth. Poor women who cannot read often have five to seven children, compared to two or
fewer in societies where almost all women can read.

According to Thorya Obaid, executive director of the U.N. Population Fund, “Many women in
the developing world are trapped in poverty by illiteracy, poor health, and unwanted high fertility. All of
these contribute to environmental degradation and tighten the grip of poverty.”

An increasing number of women in developing countries are taking charge of their lives and
reproductive behavior. As it expands, such bottom-up change by individual women will play an
important role in stabilizing population and reducing environmental degradation.

Prepared by: Hafsah R. Arnorol, RSW, LPT

GEC -2 People and Earth’s Ecosystem
Instructor
 Chapter 3
Human Growth in the Philippines
As you go through this chapter, you will be able to:
1. Describe the situation of Philippines population as of the latest census; and
2. Identify which region is the most populated in the Philippines;

Human Population Growth in the Philippines

The Philippine population is projected to reach 142 million by 2045. This signifies about 49
million persons added to the country’s population from 2010 to 2045, equivalent to an average annual
growth rate of 1.21 percent. All regions are expected to increase in population but with varying rates of
growth. Ten regions are projected to grow faster than the national average with five of these regions
located in Mindanao.

Prepared by: Hafsah R. Arnorol, RSW, LPT

GEC -2 People and Earth’s Ecosystem
Instructor
 During the years 2010 to 2045, the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) is
projected to have the highest average annual growth rate of 2.12 percent. Caraga’s population growth
rate of 1.72 percent ranks second with SOCCSKSARGEN, Davao Region and Zamboanga Peninsula
following.

In terms of population, CALABARZON remains the largest in numbers by 2045 (20.1 million),
followed by the National Capital Region and Central Luzon with 14.5 million each. Western Visayas and
Central Visayas are the other regions surpassing the 10-million mark, with 10.4 million each in 2045.
Cordillera Administrative Region will continue to have the smallest population with 2.6 million in year
2045.

Philippine Population Density (Based

on the 2015 Census of Population) The
population of the Philippines as of August 1,
2015 based on the 2015 Census of Population
(POPCEN 2015) was 100.98 million persons.
With a total land area of approximately
300,000 square kilometers, the population
density of the Philippines in 2015 was posted
at 337 persons per square kilometer. This
represents an increase of 29 persons per
square kilometer (9.4 percent) from the
population density of 308 persons per square
kilometer in 2010. In 2000, there were 255
persons residing in every square kilometer of
land.

Among the country’s 18 administrative regions, the most

densely populated was the National Capital Region (NCR), with a
population density of 20,785 persons per square kilometer. This
figure is more than 60 times higher than the population density
of 337 persons per square kilometer at the national level. This
translates to an additional 1,648 persons per square kilometer
(8.6 percent) from the 19,137 persons per square kilometer in
2010. The population density of the NCR in 2000 was 16,032
persons per square kilometer. The most sparsely populated
region in 2015 was the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR),
with 87 persons per square kilometer.

Prepared by: Hafsah R. Arnorol, RSW, LPT

GEC -2 People and Earth’s Ecosystem
Instructor
Prepared by: Hafsah R. Arnorol, RSW, LPT
GEC -2 People and Earth’s Ecosystem
Instructor