Miniature World

 An interesting starter activity for GCSE Geography on population.

 Hand students blank world maps and a sheet with 100 stickmen.

 Ask the following question: If we could compress the entire population of the world into 100 keeping the same proportions how many would live on each continent.

 Students work in groups to divide out the 100 stickmen and place them on the continents.

 How many would live in Asia, Europe, North America, South America, Africa and Oceania.

 The map they produce should give the students an idea of population distribution and density on our globe.

 Write up their answers and next show the following video.

 Now let them explore what 7 billion people looks like on one page.

 7 billion people on one page

 The final map below shows the 7 billion people on the earth divided into equal 1 billion amounts. For example The Americas and Australia in green make 1 billion so these countries are relatively sparsely populated. Compare this to densely populated areas such as the small area in orange which includes Southern India, Bangladesh and Myanmar.