People in the Mountains - Mountain Geography: Physical and Human Dimensions - page 482

About 10-12 percent of the global population lives in mountains, depending on the
definition of “mountain” and recognizing that such data have limited validity. This would
amount to a mountain population of about 700 million in 2011. This population is highly
concentrated in developing and transitional countries such as Nepal, Peru, India, and
China. Approximately half the mountain population is in Asia, followed by populations
in the mountains of South and Central America. These regions have also witnessed the
greatest population growth in mountain areas during the past 50 years. On a regional
basis, the largest proportion of mountain dwellers is found in Central America (>50 per-
cent). Although mountain populations in Asia account for only about 10 percent of the
region's total population, they include nearly half of the world's mountain population
(Huddleston et al. 2003). Globally, the distribution of the mountain population shows an
association with altitude, referred to as “hypsographic demography” (Cohen and Small
1998). Most people (70 percent) live below an elevation of 1,500 m; less than 10 percent
live above 2,500 m. Only in Latin American mountains is the trend somewhat different,
with some 24 percent living at altitudes above 2,500 m. In the Himalaya and the Andes,
a few people live permanently at altitudes above 4,500 m. The proportion of mountain
people as a share of the national population varies greatly. Of developing and trans-
itional countries, the following nations have the highest proportion of mountain people:
Bhutan (89 percent), Rwanda (75 percent), Lesotho (73 percent), Armenia (70 percent),
Guatemala (64 percent), Costa Rica (63 percent), and Yemen (61 percent) (Huddleston
et al. 2003).
In developing regions, a significant number of mountain people are the rural poor
who rely on scarce or dwindling resources and opportunities relative to demand, re-
sources derived from agriculture, animal husbandry, forestry, mining, industries, and a
variety of formal and informal service jobs. Many are unemployed or underemployed
and migrate temporarily or permanently to seek work in lowland industrial agriculture,
large cities, and abroad. The migration of mountain people may alleviate the population
pressure on the scant resource base of rural areas and generate additional income in
the form of cash remittances sent back to families. However, this may generate a some-
times precarious dependence on external resources, create social problems around di-
vided families and communities, and place added pressure on the remaining women,
children, and elders. In the economically developed mountain regions of Europe and
North America, many people now enjoy a relatively high standard of living, though pri-
or to the twentieth century, they generally experienced conditions of socioeconomic un-
derdevelopment. Much of this has come about through the development of roads (Fig.
10.1), railroads, and air links, which have facilitated a variety of new livelihoods, a topic
addressed below and in Chapter 12. Throughout the mountain world, in the twentieth
century and continuing, there have been enormous shifts in population numbers and
distributions, characterized by growth and urbanization in general, with some specific
cases of rural depopulation.
The cultural fabric of mountain populations is diverse. Many cultural groups have
been formally and informally identified in mountain regions. In most cases, they con-
stitute a minority of national populations, but they may be a majority locally. Examples
include: Quechua and Aymara in the Andes; Kurds in eastern Turkey and northern Iraq;
Amhars in Ethiopia; Tibetans, Naxi, Miao, Yi, and Ughuri in China; numerous tribal
groups in the Indian Himalaya; Sherpa and Bhoti in Nepal; and a multitude of First Na-