A Level Geography: Core Human Geography — Revision Notes

Condensed for the final weeks. For the full explanation, use the Core Human Geography study guide.

Population change (4.1–4.4)

Natural increase rate (NIR) = birth rate − death rate, usually expressed per 1,000 population per year.

Rate	Definition
Birth rate	Live births per 1,000 population per year
Death rate	Deaths per 1,000 population per year
Fertility rate	Average births per woman of childbearing age
Infant mortality rate	Deaths under age 1 per 1,000 live births

Fertility and mortality are driven by social (education, status of women), economic (cost of children, female employment), environmental (disease, sanitation, climate) and political (pro-/anti-natalist policy) factors — always link a named factor to the specific rate it changes rather than describing factors in the abstract.

Age/sex (population) pyramids — a wide base signals high birth rate; a narrowing top signals high death rate at older ages; bulges/dents mark migration or historical shocks (war, baby boom). Dependency ratio = (population under 15 + population over 64) ÷ population 15–64 × 100. A youthful population has a high dependency ratio dominated by the young; an ageing population has a high ratio dominated by the elderly — the policy response to each is opposite (schools/jobs vs. pensions/healthcare).

Demographic Transition Model (DTM), Stages 1–5: Stage 1 — high, fluctuating birth and death rates, low natural increase. Stage 2 — death rate falls sharply (sanitation, medicine), birth rate stays high, rapid natural increase. Stage 3 — birth rate falls (contraception, female education, urbanisation), natural increase slows. Stage 4 — both rates low and stable, near-zero natural increase. Stage 5 (where used) — birth rate falls below death rate, natural decrease. Link each stage transition to a cause, not just a description of the line moving.

Population–resource relationships: food security depends on production, access and stability of supply; shortages arise from war, climatic hazards (drought, flood) and land degradation; technology (irrigation, high-yield varieties) raises carrying capacity. Be able to evaluate — not just define — overpopulation (resources cannot sustainably support the population at the current standard of living), underpopulation, and optimum population (the population level that maximises resource use per capita).

4.4 Management of natural increase needs a named, locatable case study of a real country’s population policy (for example, an anti-natalist or pro-natalist programme), covering what the policy did and how effectively it worked — description alone answers AO1, not the AO4 evaluation the question is usually testing.

Migration (5.1–5.4)

Migration here excludes moves under one year’s duration. Push factors drive people away (conflict, poverty, environmental hazard); pull factors attract them (jobs, safety, services). Chain migration — later migrants follow an established social network from earlier migrants to the same destination. Migration is shaped by distance (distance decay — fewer migrants the further the destination) and age (young adults migrate most), and constrained by barriers — cost, visas, national borders, family ties.

Internal migration: rural–urban movement is driven by the urban pull of jobs and services against rural push of limited opportunity; urban–rural (counterurbanisation) reflects the reverse for some HIC groups. Stepped migration moves people up the settlement hierarchy (village → town → city) rather than directly to the largest centre. Urban–urban and intra-urban movements reshuffle population within the existing urban system.

International migration is either voluntary (economic migration, seeking better opportunity) or forced/involuntary (conflict, persecution — refugee flows). Both types have impacts on source areas (remittances but loss of workforce — “brain drain”) and destination areas (labour supply, cultural change, pressure on services).

5.4 Management of international migration needs a named case study of one migration stream — its cause, character, scale, pattern and impact on both ends — again assessed for how well any management response actually worked.

Settlement (6.1–6.3) and its management (6.4)

Rural settlement change: depopulation and declining service provision are common in LICs, MICs and HICs alike, driven by out-migration (often to cities) and the loss of a viable customer base for local shops, schools and transport. A required case study of one rural settlement or area should show cause and consequence together, not just describe decline.

Urbanisation = the increasing proportion of a population living in urban areas. Distinguish urban growth (the increase in absolute urban population, from natural increase and/or migration) from urbanisation (the shift in the rural/urban balance). Related processes: counterurbanisation (movement out of cities to smaller settlements/rural areas), re-urbanisation (renewed movement back into inner-city areas, often after regeneration), and urban renewal (redeveloping declining urban areas). A world city sits at the top of the global urban hierarchy through its concentration of finance, business headquarters and connectivity, not simply its population size.

Urban structure: the Central Business District (CBD) sits at the point of maximum accessibility, so competes hardest for space — this drives bid rent theory: land value (and therefore rent a use can afford to pay) falls with distance from the CBD, producing functional zonation (CBD → industrial/transitional zone → residential zones of varying density). Residential segregation by income or ethnicity arises from ability to pay, discrimination, and the pull of established communities.

6.4 Management of urban settlements requires two named case studies: a shanty town/squatter settlement in an LIC or MIC (its causes and a management response — upgrading, relocation, sites-and-services), and the provision of infrastructure (power or transport) for a city. Keep these as two separate, specific, locatable examples — conflating them, or substituting a generic description for a real place, loses marks.

Assessment objectives to keep in view

Paper 2 splits 30% AO1 (knowledge), 30% AO2 (application/understanding of process), 28% AO3 (data interpretation) and 12% AO4 (evaluation). Every “management” sub-topic (4.4, 5.4, 6.4) is where AO4 is concentrated — a revision note or answer that only narrates what a policy or scheme did, without judging how well it worked or whose interests it served, has answered the wrong assessment objective for that content.

Quick self-test

• Define natural increase rate and state the formula for the dependency ratio.
• Explain, with a cause, why the death rate falls sharply between DTM Stage 1 and Stage 2.
• Name one push and one pull factor for a real internal migration flow you have studied.
• Distinguish urban growth from urbanisation in one sentence.
• State the two named case studies required for 6.4 and what each must show.

Official syllabus

Cambridge International AS & A Level Geography (9696) syllabus for 2025 and 2026 — cambridgeinternational.org.