Lesson video

Hello there.

Welcome to today's geography lesson with me, Ms. Roberts.

I'm really pleased that you've chosen to join me today for this lesson from our unit of work all about a country in Africa called the Democratic Republic of the Congo or the DRC.

This unit investigates the challenges and the opportunities that that country faces.

And in this lesson today we are going to look at the population of the DRC, the people that live there.

By the end of the lesson today, you are going to be able to describe where people live in the DRC and you'll be able to describe what the population structure of the DRC is like.

Now don't worry if you are not too sure exactly what that means at the moment, I'll be taking you through everything step by step today.

Let's begin by looking at our keywords.

Now this geographical terminology is going to be used a lot today, so it's important that you understand what these terms mean and it would be great for you to start using these terms in your work as well.

So let's begin with the term population density.

The population density of a country is the number of people that live in a defined area such as a kilometre square.

For example, a country might have a population density of 300 people per square kilometre.

Next we have a population pyramid.

Now this is not a pyramid made of people.

This is in fact a type of statistical diagram.

It is a chart that represents the population structure of any given location.

So this chart tells us what a population looks like and we'll be looking at a population pyramid for the DRC later in this lesson.

The next keyword is also to do with statistics.

It's a measure of average that you may have heard of or be familiar with from your mathematics lesson.

And this is the median.

Now the median value, the median average is the value that would land right in the middle when a whole set of data is placed in numerical order.

The next two key terms for today are measures, and these are the birth rate and the life expectancy.

The birth rate measures the number of live births per thousand people in a country per year, and the life expectancy is the average age that any person will reach in a given location.

We will be finding out more about the birth rate and the life expectancy of the DRC in this lesson.

There are two learning cycles in today's lesson.

First of all, we are going to investigate where do people live in the DRC? Later on we'll be looking into more detail at the population itself.

So let's get started then.

Where do people live in the DRC? Here you can see a map of Africa and we have shaded the DRC, the darker blue colour there.

The DRC is the second largest country in Africa.

Algeria just pip it to the post being slightly bigger, but they're very similar in size.

The DRC is about 2,345,409 square kilometres.

It really is a huge country.

Now the total number of population that live in that country is just over about 105 million and that's as of statistics we know from 2023.

So we're now going to think about where in the country we find those 105 million people.

Where do they choose to live? Now how can we find that information out? Well, one of the things we can do is look at a map like this.

This map is a special type of map called a chloropleth map and it shows us the population density of an area.

In this case, the map is for the whole of Africa.

And you can see we've circled the DRC here.

The playlist areas are the areas with the least population and the darker it gets, the higher the population there is.

Take a look inside that circle at the DRC, look at the pattern of the shading in that country.

You'll notice that it's uneven.

It's not the same all over.

There are some colours that are quite dark.

There are other areas that are very pale and that's because the DRC has what we call an uneven population distribution.

This means that some parts of the DRC are more densely populated than other parts are, and that's what is shown to us on this map here.

Now this happens for lots and lots of different reasons.

Some of them are to do with the natural environment, physical reasons that make it too hard for humans to construct settlements or live somewhere, for example, right in the middle of the tropical rainforest, which cover large areas of the DRC.

There are also human reasons for places where people live.

For example, cities that are growing because people are moving there hoping to find better paying jobs or education for young people.

So if we know the total number of the population and we know the total land area covered by a country, then we can do something with that information.

We can perform a calculation to help us find out something called the population density.

Now do you remember this from our key words? The density is the average number of people per square kilometre in a country or location.

And the calculation we do for that, you can see here we take the total population and we divide it by the total land area of the country and the result of that gives us the population density.

We are going to find out the population density of the DRC in just a moment.

But before we do that, let's just have a quick check on what we know so far before we move on.

So have you been paying attention what is represented as population density? Is it A, the total land area of a country in square kilometres? Is it B, the total population living in a country? Or is it C, the number of people per square kilometre in a country? Pause the video, make your choice and then I'll share the answer.

Ready? Did you choose option C? Well done, population density is a measure of the number of people per square kilometre in a country.

Well done.

Population density gives us more information about how tightly packed in or how far spread out a population is within a location.

Now that can vary from place to place.

Have a look at these photographs.

First we have got a rural area.

You can see lots of green vegetation there.

There's one road, there is some dwellings on the right hand side there we can see the roofs of a building and we can see a couple of people on that road.

The second photo is a city.

It's in fact Kinshasa, which is the capital city of the DRC.

We can see less green here and more buildings, lots and lots of buildings all on one on top of the other.

This tells us that the population here is more densely packed than it is in the rural area.

So although we can have one figure for a country or an area in reality within that country, we have areas that are more and less densely populated than others.

Here is our map of Africa again, this time I have highlighted the border of the DRC in white and the country next door has been highlighted in that darker blue shading.

That country next door is Uganda and I've chosen that country next door here to just give you an idea, if you compare how big the DRC is to how much smaller Uganda looks on the map.

The population density on average of the DRC is about 45 people per kilometre squared.

Now that's quite low and that is because the population is spread over that huge land area of more than 2 million kilometres.

Uganda, next door is a much, much smaller population.

However, the population density of Uganda, even though it is smaller, is going to be higher and that's because the population of Uganda is spread over a smaller land area.

The population of Uganda is about 240 people per kilometre squared.

So you can see that population density depends greatly on two factors, the total population of the country and the total land area over which that population is spread.

Let's have a quick check now on what we've done so far.

I know there's a lot to taken at the moment.

So here are a couple of tasks for you.

You can pause the video whilst you get on with these and then I will share the answers with you.

First I would like you to summarise in your own words what is population density? And then you have a ranking challenge there.

There are three countries, please rank them from most densely populated to most sparsely populated.

Pause the video now and when you're ready I will share the answers.

Ready? Let's take a look at those answers together.

So population density is the number of people per kilometres squared.

And now our ranking challenge, you should have number one, the UK.

Number two, Cuba.

And number three, Algeria.

The UK is the most densely populated and Algeria is the most sparsely populated.

Good job.

Okay, so let's think more in detail about the DRC itself and where people are living.

More than half of the population of the DRC actually live in small rural villages and settlements that are scattered across very wide rural areas like the one you can see in the picture.

Now, the reasons that there are many scattered settlements in the DRC in particular is to do with how people make money, how they earn a living and how they survive.

Lots of people in the DRC are employed in the mining industry because there are lots of natural resources.

Many people in the DRC also use subsistence farming to grow their food.

So we find that settlements in rural areas started to pop up and develop where we found opportunities for mining.

So there are scattered rural dwellings in different areas.

In the photograph you can see an area near Lake Kivu.

This is in the north province of the DRC and in this area, thanks to some very rich soils and the the warm tropical climate and the water supply here from the lake farming is done in this area and also some fishing.

So that's why lots of people choose to live in the scattered settlements that you can see here in this photo.

Now that's just over half of the population.

So where do the rest of the people live? And the answer is that they live in some growing urban areas around the DRC.

The biggest city in the DRC is the capital city Kinshasa, and you can see that by highlighted by the start on the map.

There it is there.

Now the population of Kinshasa is just over 17 million people at the moment, but Kinshasa is a rapidly growing city.

In fact, it's one of the fastest growing cities in the world with this ever increasing population as more and more people move in.

There are other urban areas in the DRC as well, but they are nowhere near the size of Kinshasa.

After Kinshasa, the next most populated city is Lubumbashi.

You can see I've circled that there.

It's in the south near the border with Zambia.

The population here is about 3 million people.

Now that's still a lot, that's still a very big population, but compared to the 17 million people that live in Kinshasa, it's much smaller.

So people are living all over the DRC in very specific areas.

They're living in accessible rural areas where they can mine and farm and they are living in bigger cities like Kinshasa and Lubumbashi.

So this brings us towards the end of the learning cycle.

So let's do some activities together.

First of all, let's have a check on what we know so far about population density.

Izzy and Sam here have been having a discussion.

Sam says that, "Population density will be higher in Kinshasa than it will be in rural villages." Whereas Izzy says, "The population density is the same all over the DRC, whether that's inner city or a village." Who do you agree with? Pause the video, chat to a partner if you like, and then when you are ready, come back and we'll look at an answer together.

Ready? Great.

So I agree with Sam and I hope you did as well and some of the reasons why I agree with Sam, you may have thought of as well.

Cities like Kinshasa have a large population that is tightly packed into a smaller city area.

So those specific locations like cities have a higher population density than other rural areas do.

So let's put everything we know from the first learning cycle to use by completing an activity together.

For this task, I want you to look at these two maps.

You've seen both of them already.

We have the population density map of Africa and we've zoomed in here on the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

And we also have a map showing you some of the larger urban areas of the DRC.

I would like you to use those two maps to help you to describe where people live in the DRC.

I would like you to make sure that you use the terms population density, rural and urban.

Pause the video, write your description, and then when you return I will share an example answer with you.

Good luck.

All done? Lovely.

Let's look at an answer together now.

Now your answer may include similar ideas to this one.

The Republic of the Congo is a large country in Central Africa.

The population is more than 100 million, but the country is so big, so the population is very spread out.

That's the idea of a large population being spread over a very large area.

This is indicated by the low population density of the DRC, which is about 45 people per square kilometre.

Many people live in villages in rural areas and that's places where farming or mining takes place that people rely on.

A growing number of people also live in urban areas in the DRC, for example, cities like the capital city of Kinshasa.

Well done and this brings us halfway through our lesson and we're about to start our second learning cycle and we're gonna look in some more detail at the population structure of the DRC.

We're gonna find out more about what the population of the DRC is like.

Take a look at the chart you can see here.

This is a statistical diagram.

It's a chart called a population pyramid, and you might remember that from our keywords at the start of the lesson.

These charts are used by geographers to represent the population structure of a country.

This chart happens to be the population pyramid for the DRC.

Charts like this can tell us an awful lot about what a population is like.

So let's look in some more detail here at the population pyramid for the DRC and ask ourselves exactly what this population pyramid is showing? Population pyramids show us two main things.

They show us the age ranges of the groups of people in the population and they show us the gender of the people, of the population.

All of these aspects are given as a percentage of the total population of a country.

So let's look at this chart for those features.

On the left hand side, this is the y-axis.

We have the age groups.

Then we can see how the chart is split into two sections for the genders.

And then on the x-axis, the horizontal axis at the bottom we can see the percentages of the total population.

Now we can also see here that this population pyramid for the DRC happens to be a lovely triangular shape like you would expect of something called a pyramid.

It's wide at the bottom and it goes up and gets narrower towards the top.

Now it isn't always the case that a population pyramid is shaped in this way.

There are examples of other countries around the world that don't have this wide base and narrow top structure.

There might be a bulge in the population in another age group.

Time for a quick check on what we know about population pyramids so far before we look some more detail at the population structure of the DRC.

Can you remember what is represented on the vertical axis, that's the y-axis of a population pyramid? Does that axis show the age groups, the gender, or the percentages of the population? Make your choice now.

Ready? It's option A.

On that vertical axis, we have the age groups that the population is split into.

So as we said, let's look some more now specifically at the population structure of the DRC.

One of the most noticeable things about this population period for the DRC is that it has this very wide base.

So that age group at the bottom is wider than any other age group on the pyramid.

And if you take a look at the percentages next to each age group that are given, you'll notice that this means the wider the bar, the higher the percentage of the total population.

So here in the DRC we have a very wide base and that's for the age range of nought to four.

So newborn babies up to four year olds, and they actually represent about 9% of the total population.

When we see a wide base like this on a population pyramid, it indicates that that country must have a very high birth rate.

The birth rate tells us how many births there are per thousand people in a country per year.

In the DRC, this is around about 50 births per thousand people, which accounts for the population of the DRC growing.

As we look at the population pyramid, then from that very wide base for nought to four year olds and move through from 5 to 9 and 10 to 14 and 15 to 19 year olds, we see those age brackets are the widest on the pyramid.

And this all tells us that the DRC has a very large youthful population.

In fact, it's true to say that around about half the population of the DRC is aged just 15 or under.

The median age in the DRC is 18.

8 years.

Do you remember the median is the value that falls right in the middle of a set of data when all of that data is put into numerical order.

So if we were to line up every single person that lived in the DRC, somebody whose age is approximately 18.

8 years would end up standing in the middle of that line.

The median age on the population pyramid is about there where the green line is now.

And that's not halfway up the axis, is it? It's not halfway up the axis because we have such a large youthful population.

So thinking about the population of the DRC and what we know so far, would you agree that this statement is true or false? The DRC has a large elderly population.

What do you think? Have you decided? I believe this statement is false.

Now can you explain why? Pause the video now and have a think perhaps chat to a partner and then I'll share some ideas with you when you're ready.

Ready? Okay, let's have a look at a suggestion together.

This is false and we know it's false because if we look at the population pyramid for the DRC, it's got a very wide base.

This means that the birth rate is high, there are lots of children being born.

That means the younger youthful population is greater than the narrow part at the top of the pyramid, which represents the more elderly population in the DRC.

So for the DRC, there is a large young population and not a large elderly population.

Well done.

Population pyramids also tell us about the life expectancy.

Do you recall what the life expectancy is? This is the average age at which a person is expected to live.

And for the DRC, the life expectancy is quite low at just 59 years old.

We can see this from the population pyramid because there is such a tiny percentage of the population that's over the age of 60, so the 60 to 64 age group where the green line is now on the pyramid, the percentage above that age is very, very small.

So we can see that very few people are living above that age bracket.

This graph shows the total population for the DRC.

We can see that between 1960 and 2020, the population of the DRC has continued to increase and that is due to the high birth rate and the low life expectancy.

The population of the DRC is continuing to grow and grow and grow.

Let's stop them for a quick question now, a multiple choice question for you.

What is the life expectancy of the DRC? Can you remember? Is it 18.

8 years? Is it 59 years or is it 90 years? It's 59 years.

18.

8, if you remember, is actually the median age of the population in the DRC.

This brings us nicely now to task B.

To bring this lesson to a close, let's think about what you now know about population structure and put it to use with this activity.

There are three things to do.

You will see a chart.

I want you first to name it.

Then I want you to complete the missing labels for the chart.

And finally, I want you to write about the population structure of the DRC using information that you can gain from the chart.

Pause the video now, complete the activity.

You can work with a partner if you wish to share your ideas.

And when you come back I will share an example answer with you.

Good luck.

Ready? Let's look at some answers together.

Okay, what's the name of the chart? It's a population pyramid.

Let's complete the missing labels, starting with the y-axis, the vertical axis, which shows us the age groups.

We have the labels for the genders, and we have the percentages of the population.

Did you get all three of those correct? Well done.

Now for a description of the population structure of the DRC, your answer might have been similar to this one.

The population pyramid shows the structure of the population of the DRC.

It has a wide base, which tells us that there is a large young population and indicates a high birth rate.

Half of the population is age 15 or under, and the median age of the DRC is about 18.

The narrow top and the small percentages over the age of 60 tells us that the life expectancy in the DRC is low and therefore there is a low percentage of elderly people in the population.

You've listened very well today to a lot of information about human geography in the DRC.

Let's summarise what we have gone over today.

We now know that the population density of the DRC is about 45 people per square kilometre.

We know that half of people in the DRC live in rural areas, and we also know that there are urban areas which are growing such as Kinshasa, the capital.

We know that geographers use statistical diagrams called population pyramids to represent populations.

We know that the median age in the DRC is 18.

8 years, but half of the population is under the age of 15.

There are high birth rates and a low life expectancy in the DRC.

We can ascertain those facts from the population pyramid.

And this means that the population of the DRC is continuing to grow year on year.

I hope you enjoyed learning about the Democratic Republic of the Congo today.

And I hope to see you again next time for another lesson to find out more about this interest in country.

Bye for now.