What is the term for the way in which people are spread out over the earth's surface?

The term that describes how people are spread out over the earth's surface is global population distribution. This concept encompasses the patterns and trends of how populations are distributed, including factors that influence these distributions such as geography, climate, resources, and historical developments. Understanding global population distribution allows geographers and researchers to analyze where populations are concentrated or sparse, which is crucial for urban planning, resource management, and assessing socio-economic conditions.

Urbanization refers specifically to the process where an increasing percentage of a population comes to reside in urban areas, rather than describing the overall distribution across various landscapes. Population density, on the other hand, measures the number of people per unit area but does not capture the broader concept of how population is spread out globally. Settlement patterns focus more on the arrangement of human settlements—whether they are clustered or dispersed—rather than the wider distribution of populations across the planet.