Explain in detail economic and socio-cultural factors influencing the distribution of population in the world.

Economic factor which influences the distribution of population in the world are as follows:-

• Minerals- Areas which have a good deposit of minerals are a good location for industries and therefore it attracts more skilled and semi-skilled people for employment and thus makes it densely populated. For example the Katanga Zambia belt in Africa.

• Urbanisation- The cities which offer better facilities for lifestyle and better employment attract number of people. They offer better medical treatment, better education and modern means of transport, communication and modern technologies which make lives easy. Megacities attract many rural citizens every year.

• Industrialization- Industrial belts provide lots of job opportunities and attract a large number of people. These include industrial workers, shopkeepers, bank employees, transport operator, doctor, teachers and other professions. These make the areas densely populated. For example the Kobe-Osaka region of Japan is densely populated due to presence of large number of industries.

Social and cultural factors also affect population density. The places which have religious, cultural and historical significance tend to attract more people. People tend t move away from the areas which have social and political unrest.