Lesson video

Hello.

My name is Mrs. Grey.

I'm so excited that you've decided to look at Geography with me today.

So today's lesson is in our unit of "Population: where do people live?" And the title of today's lesson is "The population of the UK." By the end of the lesson, you will be able to explain where people live in the UK and how topography influences population distribution.

There are some keywords that we'll come across in today's lesson.

They are relief, population density, and population distribution.

Relief is the height and shape of land surfaces.

Population density is the number of people living in a defined area, such as 300 people per square kilometre.

And population distribution describes how the people in that population are spread out across the area.

Our lesson is split into two learning cycles.

The first, where do people live in the UK? And the second, how can relief impact population distribution? So let's look at where do people live in the UK? The UK population was around 68 million people in 2023.

Now, population distribution varies widely across the UK.

Some areas in the UK, for example, cities, they are densely populated.

And other areas of the UK, like rural areas, are more sparsely populated.

Can you see the difference between those two images? The top one of a city with lots and lots of buildings crammed together with lots of people in, so they're densely populated, and the bottom one, a rural area with hardly any houses and a lot of open space, so that's sparsely populated.

London is the capital city of the UK, and that's highlighted on the map on the screen.

It has around 10 million residents, and it's the UK's most populous city, which means it's the city with the most people living in it.

London is a major city for business, culture, and trade, and it attracts people from all across the UK and around the world, which is why so many people live there.

So, let's check what we've done so far.

How many people lived in the UK in 2023? Is it 50 million, 68 million, or 80 million? So pause the video, write down your answer, and then come back and let's see how you got on.

Okay, how did you do? How many people lived in the UK in 2023? The answer is 68 million.

Well done.

Okay, let's have a look at this map.

This is a choropleth map, which uses coloured shading to show how population density in the UK is different.

So, the darker colours show a high population density, and the lighter colours show a low population density.

Now, population density, remember, is the number of people living in an area.

And like I said, the darker the colour, the higher the population density.

Can you see which areas have got a darker colour and therefore a higher population density, and the areas with a lighter colour and therefore a lower population density? What does it tell us about population densities across the UK? Is it the same all across the UK, or is it different in different areas of the UK? What do you think? Okay, let's check what we've done so far, then.

Have a little look at this map.

Does this area have a high or low population density? What do you think? Pause the video, write down your answer, and then come back and let's see how you got on.

Okay, what do you think? Does it have a high or low population density? And the answer is low.

Well done.

And you can tell that because it's a lighter colour.

Remember, the darker the colour, the higher the population density.

And that particular area's got a low population density, and you can tell that because it's a lighter colour.

All right, so population density varies across the UK.

We've just been looking at this map, and you can see that there's lots of different shades all the way across the UK.

The darker shades show a higher population density, and the lighter shades show a lower population density.

And the map's got a variety of different shades, and so it varies all the way across the UK, the density of the population.

Northern Scotland at the top there, that has the lowest population density.

It's a big area at the top there, northern Scotland, which doesn't have very many people living in it.

But central and southern England have the highest population density, so the darker colours show the higher population density.

So there's a high population density in urban areas like London, Birmingham, and Manchester.

Let's have a look at this map.

This area here is Manchester.

That's a really dark colour and has a high population density.

There's Birmingham and London.

Those three cities have high population density.

Now, rural areas, such as parts of northern Scotland and central Wales, they have lower population densities.

Can you see northern Scotland there on the map, the light colour? And central Wales also has a lighter colour, and they have lower population densities.

Why do some places develop a high population density? Why do you think some areas have got more people living there than others? Let's have a look at some reasons.

Good access to healthcare.

If you've got good access to healthcare, people are gonna wanna live there because they're gonna be able to access any healthcare that they may need.

Good schools, that's a really important factor when choosing where to live so that children are able to go to good schools.

That attracts people and means that we have a lot more people living there, so a higher population density.

Good transport links.

So if there's lots of good transport links, like roads, railways, and airports, people are able to get to where they want to go really easily, so that attracts people.

Good jobs, it's important for people to be able to have jobs so that they can live and survive.

And so if an area's got good jobs, then that's gonna attract people.

Universities, that's another thing that attracts a lot of people, doesn't it? When students get to the age of going to university, that can attract lots of people to an area if that's got a university.

And then good leisure and entertainment facilities, that's important, isn't it? People want to be able to access good leisure facilities and entertainment.

So if an area's got those facilities, then people are going to want to live there.

So all of those different reasons lead to a high population density.

Okay, let's do another check and see what we've learned so far.

So true or false? Population density is the same across the UK.

Is that true or false? So pause the video, write down your answer, and then come back and see how you got on.

Okay, how did you get on? Population density is the same across the UK.

Is that true or false? It's false, but why is it false? Population density varies widely across the UK.

Do you remember that map that we looked at with the different shades? And the darker colours showed a high population density, and the lighter colours showed a low population density.

It was all different across the UK, wasn't it? And that shows that the population density isn't the same.

So population density varies widely across the UK.

There's a high population density in urban areas, such as London, Birmingham, and Manchester.

And rural areas, such as northern Scotland and central Wales, they have a lower population density.

Well done.

Okay, we've come to our first task of the lesson.

So, question one, use the map and an atlas to help you answer the questions.

A, which areas of the UK have a high population density? And B, which areas of the UK have a low population density? So how are we gonna answer this question? So here's that map again that we've been looking at.

Remember that the darker colours show a high population density.

So when you're answering part A of question one, you're looking for the areas that are darker in colour.

And then you can get your atlas out and look at what those areas are called, and that's gonna be the answer to A, the areas that have a high population density.

Now, the lighter colours, they show a low population density, so that's part B of question one.

So again, identify on the map the areas with a low population density, the lighter colours, and then compare that to what the places are called on the atlas that you've got, and then you can write those down for the answer for that.

And the second question is, give two reasons for a high population density in London.

So why has London got a high population density? And write down two reasons.

Okay, so pause the video, write down your answer for all of those questions, and then come back and we'll see how you got on.

Okay, how did you get on? So the first question was to use the map and an atlas to be able to answer these two questions.

So which areas of the UK have a high population density, and which areas of the UK have a low population density? So, central and southern England have the highest population density.

There's a high population density in urban areas like London, Birmingham, and Manchester.

Northern Scotland has the lowest population density.

And rural areas, such as parts of central Wales, have a lower population density.

Well done.

Now, the second question was to give two reasons for a high population density in London.

You might have written these.

Good access to healthcare, good jobs, universities, good schools, good leisure and entertainment facilities, good transport links.

Did you get some of those? Did you have any others of your own? Well done.

Okay, so we've finished the first learning cycle, the first part of the lesson, which is where do people live in the UK? We've looked at that.

And now we're gonna move on to look at how can relief impact population distribution? So relief refers to the height and shape of land surfaces, and it helps geographers describe features like mountains, valleys, and plains.

So that's what the shape of the land looks like and how high it is, and it can help us to describe how high or low the land is and describe different features.

Now, relief can significantly influence and impact where people choose to live in the UK.

The height and the shape of the land can really influence where people choose to live.

If you have a look at this image here, you can see an area of mountains and an area of valleys.

So we use the word relief to describe what the shape of the land is like so we can then describe mountains and valleys.

Okay, let's check what we've done so far, then.

So what is relief? Is it cultural festivals in a country, the height and shape of the land, or political boundaries in an area? What do you think? So pause the video, write down your answer, and then come back and let's see how you got on.

Okay, how did you get on? What is relief? It is the height and shape of the land.

Well done.

Okay, so what do you notice when comparing the relief map of the UK on the left with a map showing the population density? What do you notice? Can you see the areas of high and low population density? So the darker areas, which show a high population density, the lower areas show a low population density, can you compare that with the map on the left-hand side, which shows how high and low the land is? So the darker, orangey colours, that shows the high areas, so mountainous areas.

And the green areas show low land.

So once we get to the darker green colours, they're areas below sea level, so lower areas.

Can you see a difference between the two? Can you see any correlation? Can you see any areas that have high population density that have similar shapes and heights of the land, or a low population density with similar height and shape of the land? So areas with mountains tend to have low population densities.

Can you see the mountainous areas highlighted on the relief map? And those same areas on the population density map show low population density.

So mountain areas tend to have low population densities.

Areas with low-lying flat land often have higher population densities.

And can you see those highlighted on the relief map and the population density map? The higher population densities are often in low-lying and flat areas.

Areas like the Scottish Highlands, they have low population density due to difficult terrain, limited resources, and poor accessibility.

So the land is difficult, there's not very many resources, and it's not very easy to get to, so not very many people live there.

Steep slopes and rocky soil make building and farming challenging.

For example, in Glencoe.

So this image here is an image of Glencoe in northern Scotland, and it's got very, very steep slopes.

It doesn't look like it's gonna be very easy to build there or to farm there, so therefore not very many people live there.

Also, rocky soil, which again is difficult for farming and influences the amount of people who live there.

So, let's check again what we've done.

Why do mountainous areas have low population density? Is it because it has a difficult terrain, good accessibility, or plentiful resources? Which of those do you think it is? So pause the video, write down your answer, and then come back and let's see how you got on.

Okay, so why do mountainous areas have a low population density? The answer is A, because they have a difficult terrain.

Well done.

So, cities often develop where land is flat and suitable for building, and near resources like rivers or fertile land for agriculture.

So we often get a lot of cities in areas where it's flat so we can build on it, and near things like rivers and good fertile soil so that we can farm there and get food.

London, which is the capital of England, developed on flat land along the River Thames with good access to trade and resources.

And a lot of people live in London, and it developed there because it's got flat land and it's right on a river, so it's gonna have good access to trade and resources.

Okay, so the second task of the lesson.

We've got two questions here.

Question one, what is relief? What is relief? And question two, explain how relief can lead to, A, a high population density, and B, a low population density.

Okay, so you're gonna write down what relief means and then say how that can make an area have a high population density and can make an area have a low population density.

So pause the video, write down your answer, and then come back and let's see how you got on.

Okay, how did you get on? So what is relief? Relief is the height and shape of land surfaces, and this helps geographers describe features like mountains, valleys, and plains.

Relief can significantly influence where people choose to live in the UK.

And the second question was to explain how relief, how that height and shape of the land, can influence a high population density and a low population density.

So, places like the southeast of England have more people living there because the land is flat.

The flat land makes it easy to build houses and roads.

So that's a high population density.

Places like the Scottish Highlands don't have many people living there, so they've got a low population density.

That's because the land is very hilly and rocky.

This makes it hard to build houses or grow crops.

There aren't many resources, and it's tricky to get to some areas.

For example, Glencoe has steep slopes that makes it difficult for farming and construction.

How much of that did you get? Well done.

Okay, so what have we learned in our lesson today on the population of the UK? We've learned that the UK has a population of around 68 million people.

The population of the UK is unevenly distributed, with around 10 million people living in and around London.

And the population distribution of the UK is affected by the relief, with fewer people living in mountainous areas.

Thank you for joining me for our lesson on the population of the UK today.

I look forward to seeing you next time.