Factors influencing population distribution

• Climate: Many people settle in areas that have enough rainfall for farming.
• Relief: People like to settle in areas where they can construct houses, railways and roads.

• Vegetation: Dense forests do not attract people because such forests have dangerous wild animals. Governments often protect forest reserves.

• Soils: Areas with rich and fertile soils, especially if they are found in high rainfall areas attract settlements.
• Pests and diseases: When pests are common in a place, they cause diseases which kill people and animals.
• Economic factors: These are factors like the presence of transport lines, administrative centres, a factory or a mining activity.

• Government Policy: The government can decide to move people away from one part of the country to another
• Urbanisation: People migrate from rural areas to look for jobs in towns.
• War: Movement of refugees into a country in large numbers can increase its population significantly
• Historical factors like colonisation: In some cases, the colonial government set up reserves where there was high population and set aside large areas of land for plantations where the population was low
• Slave trade: During slave trade many people were taken away from some countries and sold away as slaves. This left some areas with low population.
• Social factors: People like to settle where they can reach social facilities like schools, hospitals, shops and markets.

Reminder - Push and Pull Factors

Push factors are things that force people to move away from a place.

Pull factors are those that attract people to migrate.

Population distribution of Eastern Africa.

Population distribution of Africa