Contrasts across Caribbean countries in population density:
- Similar to global patterns, the Caribbean's approximately 44 million people are unevenly spread across the region.
- Mainland countries such as Guyana and Belize have low population densities of 4 and 16 people per square kilometre respectively.
- Other countries such as Barbados and Bermuda have high population densities of 667 and 1,184 people per square kilometre respectively.
- Population distribution (how people are geographically spread out) within countries is also varied.
- In countries such as Dominica and Guyana, forests, rugged terrain and rivers deter settlements in vast areas of the country, forcing people to occupy a relatively small geographic area of their total land space.
- Other countries such as Jamaica and Trinidad, people settled in areas near to mineral deposits where industries sprung up in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Yet other people moved to the towns to find work when agriculture declined.
- Most capital cities in the Caribbean were the sites of old colonial ports.
- People's cultural practices also play a role in deciding where they live. Fisher folk and their families would settle near to coastal areas. Some Amerindian tribes of Guyana as well as the Maroons of Jamaica prefer simple living in forested areas, away from cities.
TASK: 1. Using the format above, draw a square in your note books and try to come up with as many factors as possible to explain why the population of Trinidad and Tobago is distributed in the way it is today.
2. Which factor do you think is the most important and which in your opinion is the least important factor that should decide where one lives and why?
2. Which factor do you think is the most important and which in your opinion is the least important factor that should decide where one lives and why?