| A | B |
|---|
| Assimilation | The acceptance, by one culture group or community, of cultural traits associated with another. |
| Boundary | The limit or extent within which a system exists or functions, including a social group, a state or physical features. |
| Capital | One of the factors of production of goods and services. Capital can be goods (e.g., factories and equipment, highways, information, communications systems) and/or funds (investment and working capital) used to increase production and wealth. Other factors are land, water and labor. |
| Climate | Long-term patterns and trends in weather elements and atmospheric conditions. |
| Country | Unit of political space often referred to as a state or nation-state. |
| Culture | Learned behavior of people, which includes their belief systems and languages, their social relationships, their institutions and organizations and their material goods—food, clothing, buildings, tools and machines. |
| Demographic change | Variation in population size, composition, rates of growth, density, fertility and mortality rates and patterns of migration. |
| Density | The population or number of objects per unit area (e.g., per square kilometer or mile). |
| Developed country | An area of the world that is technologically advanced, highly urbanized and wealthy and has generally evolved through both economic and demographic transitions. |
| Diffusion | The spread of people, ideas, technology and products among places. |
| Enclave | A country, territorial or culturally distinct unit enclosed within a larger country or community. |
| Map | A graphic representation of a portion of Earth that is usually drawn to scale on a flat surface. |
| Megalopolis | The intermingling of two or more large metropolitan areas into a continuous or almost continuous built-up urban complex; sometimes referred to as a conurbation. |
| Metropolitan area | The Federal Office of Management and Budget's designation for the functional area surrounding and including a central city; has a minimum population of 50,000; is contained in the same county as the central city; and includes adjacent counties having at least 15 % of their residents working in the central city's county. |
| Migration | The act or process of people moving from one place to another with the intent of staying at the destination permanently or for a relatively long period of time. |
| Municipality | A political unit incorporated for local self-government (e.g., Pennsylvania's boroughs, townships). |
| Nation | A cultural concept for a group of people bound together by a strong sense of shared values and cultural characteristics including language, religion and common history. |
| Natural resource | An element of the physical environment that people value and use to meet a need for fuel, food, industrial product or something else of value. |
| Population density | The number of individuals occupying an area derived from dividing the number of people by the area they occupy (e.g., 2,000 people divided by ten square miles = 200 people per square mile). |
| Pull factors | In migration theory, the social, political, economic and environmental attractions of new areas that draw people away from their previous location. |
| Push factors | In migration theory, the social, political, economic and environmental forces that drive people from their previous location. |
| Region | An area with one or more common characteristics or features that give it a measure of consistency and make it different from surrounding areas. |
| Resource | An aspect of the physical environment that people value and use to meet a need for fuel, food, industrial product or something else of value. |
| Settlement pattern | The spatial distribution and arrangement of human habitations (e.g., rural, urban). |
| Suburbanization | The shift in population from living in higher density urban areas to lower density developments on the edge of cities. |
