Others might exclude Missouri or Oklahoma. It might include rural farmland, for example. Creating regions can often be a question of lumpers and splitters; who do you lump together and who do you split apart? The core, on the other hand, is the commercial focus for the area where most goods and services are exchanged. 
When we describe places, we can discuss their absolute and relative location and their relationship and interaction with other places. Human geographers essentially explore how humans interact with and affect the earth. In 2014, 54 percent of the worlds population lived in urban areas. This decline in death rates occurred as a result of agricultural productivity and improvements in public health. Today, it is quite easy for a businesswoman in the United States to video chat with her factory manager in a less developed country. Geography today, though using more advanced tools and techniques, draws on the foundations laid by these predecessors. For others, though, particularly those in the poorest, most debt-ridden countries, the world is not flat. A number of factors influence the total fertility rate, but it is generally connected to a countrys overall level of development. GIS essentially uses layers of information and is often used to make decisions in a wide variety of contexts. In developing countries, the total fertility rate is often 4 or more children, contributing to high population growths. The core areas are places of dominance, and these areas exert control over the surrounding periphery. All maps have a purpose, whether its to guide sailing ships, help students create a more accurate mental map of the world, or tell a story. The southeastern region of the United States is often referred to as the South, but where the exact boundary of this region is depends on individual perception (see Figure 1.16). The number of megacities, cities with 10 million people or more, has also increased. When converting the spherical Earth to a flat map, some distortion always occurs. Lines of longitude, on the other hand, converge at the poles and measure distances east and west of the prime meridian. In a unitary state, the central government has the most power. 95 percent of scientists agree that this global climate change has resulted primarily from human activities, particularly the emission of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide (see Figure 1.10). In the Middle Ages, as academic inquiry in Europe declined with the fall of the Roman Empire, Muslim geographer Muhammad al-Idrisi created one of the most advanced maps of pre-modern times, inspiring future geographers from the region. Subtracting the death rate from the birth rate results in a countrys rate of natural increase (RNI). Some argue that it benefits the core countries to keep the periphery peripheral; in other words, if the periphery can remain underdeveloped, they are more likely to sell cheap goods to the core. Regions simply refer to spatial areas that share a common feature. What unites all geographers, whether they are travelers writing about the worlds cultures or cartographers mapping new frontiers, is an attention to the spatial perspective. Convergent plate boundaries occur when two plates slide towards one another. In addition, while global economic integration has increased, most monetary transactions still occur within rather than between countries. The natural increase rate does not include immigration. We might instruct them to turn by the gas station on the corner, or say that we live in the dorm across from the fountain. Another way to describe a place is by referring to its absolute location. As a country develops and industrializes, it generally becomes more urbanized. Human geography is concerned with human activity, such as culture, language, and religion. The responses to global climate change, and the impacts from it, vary by region. Some geographers study geodesy, the scientific measurement and representation of Earth. Why is Russia its own region? Urbanization refers to the increased proportion of people living in urban areas. Thus, GDP per capita in terms of PPP simply refers to the amount of goods and services produced in a country divided by the number of people in that country and then adjusted for how much goods and services actually cost in that country. Geographic information science (GIS), sometimes also referred to as geographic information systems,uses computers and satellite imagery to capture, store, manipulate, analyze,manage, and present spatial data. Vernacular regions exist at a variety of scales. In these cases, a population will decline unless there is significant immigration. The list goes on and on, and as you might notice, incorporates a variety of historical, cultural, political, and physical features. Formal regions might also be established by governmental organizations, such as the case with state or provincial boundaries. All of the 10 most populous cities in the world are located in countries traditionally categorized as developing. These countries typically have high rates of population growth.
Scale is the ratio between the distance between two locations on a map and the corresponding distance on Earths surface. The Himalaya Mountains, for example, were formed from the Indian plate converging with the Eurasian plate. Many early geographers, like Eratosthenes, were primarily cartographers, referring to people who scientifically study and create maps, and early maps, such as those used in Babylon, Polynesia, and the Arabian Peninsula, were often used for navigation. This isnt to say that everywhere within a particular region will have the same temperature on a particular day, but rather that in general, a region experiences the same ranges of temperature.
Geography matters. What if a state declares itself independent, but is not recognized by the entirety of the international community? In middle school or high school, your answer might have been something to do with the study of maps, of where things were located in the world.
It doesnt refer to the size of the map itself, but rather, how zoomed in or out the map is. States are commonly called countries in the United States; Germany, France, China, and South Africa are all states. So how many states are there in the world? Political geographers ask questions like Why does a particular state have a conflict with its neighbor? and How does the government of a country affect its voting patterns? When political geographers study the world, they refer to states, which are independent, or sovereign, political entities recognized by the international community. Others study pedology, the exploration of soils. However, there is a matter of perception, as well. Earths climate has gone through significant changes historically, alternating between long periods of warming and cooling. As with map projections, the best scale for a map depends on what its used for. The Internet in particular has facilitated the rapid diffusion of cultural ideas and values. If youre going on a walking tour of a historic town, a 1:5,000 scale map is commonly used. Rather, functional regions are united by a particular function, often economic. As country industrializes, women enter the workforce and seek higher education. There is thus a tension between globalization, and the benefits of global connectivity, and local culture. Only 193 states are members of the United Nations. In stage three, urbanization and increasing access to contraceptives leads to a decline in the birth rate. Eratosthenes is also credited as the first person to calculate the circumference of the Earth. The map projection, color scheme, scale, and labels are all decisions made by the mapmaker. Every place on Earth has a precise location that can be measured with latitude and longitude. Thus, a 1:5,000 scale map is considered large scale while 1:50,000,000 is considered small scale. This figure is expected to increase to 66 percent by 2050. Functional regions, unlike formal regions, are not homogenous in the sense that they do not share a single cultural or physical characteristic. Often, answering the question of where relates to movement across space. Other formal regions might include religious or political affiliation, agricultural crop zones, or ethnicity. Political geography provides the foundation for investigating what many people understand as geography: countries and governmental structures. Similarly, there is much more to geography and geographic inquiry than the study of maps. You might be a physical geographer who studies hurricanes, but your research includes the human impact from these events. As people migrate out of rural, agricultural areas, the proportion of people living in cities increases. Women increasingly enter the workforce, which can delay childbearing and further restrict the number of children a family desires. Why is Pakistan, a predominantly Muslim country, characterized as South Asia and not Southwest Asia? In the case of Europe, for example, the Mediterranean Sea historically provided economic and cultural links to the surrounding countries though we consider them to be three separate continents. What if a state collaborates so closely with its neighbor that it gives up some of its sovereignty? No country remains in stage one today. There are also differences in income: around half of the world survives on less than $2 per day, and around one-fifth have less than $1 per day (see Figure 1.20). It is the uniqueness of the worlds regions, the particular combination of physical landscapes and human activities, that has captivated geographers from the earliest explorers to todays researchers. This shift in population characteristics as a country industrialized can be represented by the demographic transition model (DTM) (see Figure 1.13). In stage four, birth rates approach the death rates. If youre a geography student looking at a map of the entire world, a 1:50,000,000 scale map would be appropriate. An economic downturn in one country can affect its trading partners half a world away. Absolute location references an exact point on Earth and commonly uses specific coordinates like latitude and longitude. As the theory of plate tectonics describes, these rigid plates are situated on top of a bed of molten, flowing material, much like a cork floating in a pot of boiling water. One difficulty with map-making, even when using advanced technology, is that the earth is roughly a sphere while maps are generally flat. However, these interactions do contribute to economic stability in the periphery. Consider where the hinterland is located around your closest city; the hinterland is characteristically rural, while the core is urban. Geography has two primary branches, physical and human geography, but numerous sub-disciplines, many of which include both physical and human elements. There are currently around 7.4 billion people in the world, but these billions of people are not uniformly distributed.