AP Human Geography — Models & Vocabulary flashcards
10 of 60 cards free to study here · 7 topics · the whole deck is built into Willys
Classic models (demographic transition, Malthus and Boserup, von Thünen, the urban structure models, central place theory, Rostow, Wallerstein, Weber) and the core vocabulary from site and situation to gentrification, explained by what each one predicts.
Learn deck · part of AP Human Geography · written against: College Board AP Human Geography Course and Exam Description (seven units). Updated 2026-10-10.
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What is the difference between a place's site and its situation?Site is the physical character of the place itself (its harbor, hill, soil, water supply); situation is its location relative to other places and routes.Thinking Geographically
New York's site is a sheltered harbor at a river mouth; its situation at the Atlantic end of the Erie Canal route is what made it the nation's gateway. -
Why does the scale of analysis change the pattern a geographer sees?Data aggregated at the global, national, regional or local level can show different or even opposite patterns.Thinking Geographically
A country can look uniformly wealthy on a world map while a county-level map reveals deep regional poverty. Always state the scale at which a claim holds.
Watch out: on a map, a large-scale map shows a small area in detail; a small-scale map shows a large area with little detail. -
What happens in stage 2 of the demographic transition model, and why?Death rates fall sharply because of improved food supply, sanitation and medicine, while birth rates stay high, so population grows rapidly.Population and Migration
Europe entered it with the Industrial Revolution; as of the 2020s, many countries in sub-Saharan Africa are still in it because medical advances arrived before social change. -
Why do birth rates fall in stage 3 of the demographic transition model?Urbanization makes children costly rather than useful farm labor, women gain education and jobs, child mortality falls so families need fewer births, and contraception spreads.Population and Migration
Growth slows and in stage 4 births and deaths are both low; some countries go on to stage 5, where births fall below deaths and population shrinks without immigration. -
What is a lingua franca, and why do they arise?A language used for communication between groups who speak different native languages, usually for trade or administration: Swahili in East Africa, English in global business and aviation.Cultural Patterns
It spreads because of economic or political power, not because it is linguistically superior. -
How do ethnic religions differ from universalizing religions?A universalizing religion (Christianity, Islam, Buddhism) seeks converts, has a known founder and spreads widely through relocation and expansion diffusion. An ethnic religion (Hinduism, Judaism, Shinto) is tied to a particular people and place, does not actively proselytize, and therefore stays clustered near its hearth or spreads mainly as its people migrate, as Judaism did.Cultural Patterns
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What distinguishes a nation, a state and a nation-state?A state is a sovereign territory with a government and permanent population; a nation is a group of people united by a shared culture, history or identity; a nation-state is a state whose territory corresponds closely to a single nation (Japan, Iceland).Political Patterns
The Kurds are a stateless nation; Belgium is a multinational state. -
What does von Thünen's model predict about land use around a market, and what assumption drives it?Assuming a flat, uniform plain with a single market and transport cost rising with distance, farmers choose the use that pays most at each distance: perishable or heavy products such as dairy and vegetables nearest the city, then forest for fuel and lumber, then grain, then ranching on the cheapest outer land.Agriculture and Rural Land Use
Each ring is where that product's profit after transport beats all others. -
What does the Burgess concentric zone model say about city structure?Based on 1920s Chicago, it shows a city growing outward in rings: a central business district, then a zone of transition of industry and poor housing, then working-class homes, then better residences, then a commuter zone.Cities and Urban Land Use
Newcomers start near the center and move outward as they prosper. -
What are Rostow's five stages of economic growth?Traditional society, preconditions for takeoff, takeoff, drive to maturity, and the age of high mass consumption.Industrial and Economic Development
Rostow (1960) argued every country could climb the same ladder that Britain and the United States had; critics note it ignores colonialism, resource limits and the way rich countries shape poor ones.
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About these cards
Review status: Second-reader reviewed, with corrections applied.
Checked against:
- Checked against the United Nations Development Programme's Human Development Report 2025 technical notes (HDI and GII definitions), UN World Population Prospects 2024, UN World Urbanization Prospects 2025, World Bank World Development Indicators, FAOSTAT, the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, the open textbook Introduction to Human Geography (Dorrell and Henderson, CC BY 4.0), and the original works behind several models (Malthus 1798, Ravenstein 1876, 1885 and 1889, Burgess 1925, Hoyt 1939, Mackinder 1904 and 1919, Spykman 1944, Omran 1971, Olshansky and Ault 1986); reference only, no text copied.
- Unit order and topics follow the AP Human Geography Course and Exam Description (effective fall 2020); reference only.
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