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Factors influencing population distribution in East Africa.

Answer Text:
Factors Influencing Population Distribution in East Africa.
- Distribution of population on the earth’s surface isn’t uniform due to the following factors:
Climate.
- Areas with moderate temperatures and high rainfall have high
population per unit area than those with extremely high or low temperatures and low unreliable rainfall because moderate temperatures give comfort to people and abundant rainfall favours growth of crops.
- Inadequate and unreliable rainfall does not support arable farming.
Relief
- High altitude areas have low population because of extremely low temperatures which doesn’t support growth of crops to ensure food sufficiency.
- Plains and gently sloping areas have higher population than steep areas due to fertile soils,
ease to erect buildings and construction of transport infrastructure.
Vegetation
- Dense forests are sparsely populated because they are habitat to wild animals and it’s difficult to develop transport and communication infrastructure and some are tsetse fly infested e.g. Miombo Woodland in Tanzania.
- Grasslands have high population if rainfall is favourable because they are easy to clear and relatively level or gently sloping.
Soils
- Areas with fertile soils and reliable rainfall have high population because they are agriculturally productive while those with poor soils e.g. savannah with leached soils have low population since they are agriculturally unproductive.
Drainage
- Well drained areas have high population than swampy areas because they support settlement and farming.
- Areas which are swampy have less population because it’s difficult to construct buildings, carry out agriculture and also mosquito infested.