In World Geography you learned to read coordinates: every place on Earth has a latitude and a longitude. Human geography starts with a question that sounds simple: where is it? Geographers answer it in two ways, and each way tells you something different.
Key idea
Absolute location is an exact position that never depends on anything else: coordinates (41.9° N, 87.6° W) or a street address. Relative location describes a place by its connections to other places: "on the southwest shore of Lake Michigan, where railroads from the East met the farms of the West."
Why it works
Coordinates tell you where; relative location helps tell you why. In the 1800s, goods moved by water and rail. A spot where lake ships met railroads became a natural meeting point for grain, lumber and cattle from the West and factories and buyers in the East. Chicago's coordinates did not change while it grew from a small town into a giant city; its connections did.
Worked examples
Worked example: Which kind is it?
Sort each description: (a) 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, D.C.; (b) "two blocks north of the train station"; (c) 51.5° N, 0.1° W.
- A street address names one exact spot in a system everyone shares, so (a) is absolute.
- (b) only makes sense if you know where the train station is. It describes the place by its connection to another place, so it is relative.
- (c) is a pair of coordinates, so it is absolute.
Answer: (a) absolute, (b) relative, (c) absolute.
Worked example: Explaining a city with relative location
Singapore is a small island. Use relative location to explain why it became a busy port.
- Look at what is around it: Singapore lies at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula.
- Ships sailing between the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea pass through the narrow Strait of Malacca, right beside it.
- A port on that route can serve ships traveling between Europe, South Asia and East Asia.
Answer: It sits beside one of the world's busiest sea lanes, so ships stop there to trade and refuel.
Common mistake
Many students think relative location is the "less exact" kind and therefore less useful. It is less exact, but it is often more useful. "Just south of the Great Lakes, on the main rail lines" explains why a city grew; "41.9° N, 87.6° W" does not. Check yourself: if a description mentions another place (a river, a road, a neighbor), it is relative.
Relative location can change over time even when absolute location cannot. A town on a busy railroad may lose its advantage when a new interstate highway passes somewhere else.