NCERT Solutions
Class 8 Social Science
Human Resources

Q.1
Answer the following questions.
(i) Why are people considered a resource?
(ii) What are the causes for the uneven distribution of population in the world?
(iii) The world population has grown very rapidly. Why?
(iv) Discuss the role of any two factors influencing population change.
(v) What is meant by population composition?
(vi) What are population pyramids? How do they help in understanding about the population of a country?
(i) People are a nation’s greatest resource. Human being use their skills, knowledge and capabilities make the other resources useful. It is people with their demands and abilities that turn them into ‘resources’. Hence, human resource is the ultimate resource. Healthy, educated and motivated people develop resources as per their requirements.
(ii)
Geographical factors like topography, climate, soil, water, and minerals affects the population distribution.
Social: Areas of better housing, education and health facilities are more densely populated.
Cultural: Places with religion or cultural significance attract people.
Economic: Industrial areas provide employment opportunities. Large number of people are attracted to these areas.
(iii) The population increase in the world is mainly due to rapid increase in natural growth rate.
Also the death rate has gone down due to the rise in food supplies and improved medical facilities but birth rate on the other hand has remained the same thereby increasing the world population.
(iv) Births and deaths are the natural causes of population change. When the birth rate is higher than death rate, the population increases. Whereas when the birth rate is lower than the death rate then the population decreases. Migration is another way by which population size changes.
(v) Population composition refers to the structure of the population. It helps to know the number of males and females, age, sex, literacy level, health condition, occupation and income level.
(vi) An effective way of studying the population composition of a country is by looking at the population pyramid, also called an age-sex pyramid. It is a graphical presentation of the age, sex composition of a population. It shows the total population divided into various age groups, e.g., 5 to 9 years, 10 to 14 years. It also shows the percentage of the total population, subdivided into males and females, in each of those groups.