Chapter 34: Population

Question 1

Emigration

Answer 1

Act of leaving the country to live in another country

Question 2

Birth rate

Answer 2

Number of births in a year per 1000 population in a year

Question 3

Death rate

Answer 3

Number of deaths in a year per 1000 population in a year

Question 4

Net immigration

Answer 4

More people coming to live in the country than people leaving the country to live elsewhere

Question 5

Infant mortality rate

Answer 5

The number of deaths per 1000 live births in a year

Question 6

Net migration

Answer 6

The difference between immigration and emigration.

Question 7

Population pyramid

Answer 7

A diagram showing the age and gender structure of a country’s population.

Question 8

Dependency ratio

Answer 8

The proportion of the population that has to be supported by the labour force

Question 9

Optimum population

Answer 9

The size of population which maximises the country’s output per head

Question 10

Factors that affect population growth

Answer 10

• Increase in net immigration
• Birth rate exceeds death rate

Question 11

Birth rate factors

Answer 11

• Average age of population
• Number of women in population
• Women’s fertillity rate (average number of children per woman)

Question 12

Death rate factors

Answer 12

• Nutrition
• Housing conditions
• Medical care
• Lifestyle
• Working conditions
• Involvement or non-involvement in military

Question 13

The reasons for different rates of population growth

Question 14

Reasons for high birth rate

Answer 14

• Young averaged population where women marry young
• High infant mortality rate
• Women not well-educated
• Women do not work and is cheap to raise children
• Lack or disapproval of family planning
• Government cash incentives to have children
• Lack of government help to care for the sick and elderly

Question 15

Reasons for low birth rate

Answer 15

• Expensive to have children (Legal requirement for school, expectation for higher education)
• Well paid jobs open to women
• Government does provide state pension, sickness, and disability benefits

Question 16

Reasons for low death rate

Answer 16

• Healthy diets
• Good housing facilities
• Access to high quality medical care
• No smoking or alcohol
• Regular exercise
• Good working conditions
• Country at peace

Question 17

Rate and pattern of net migration

Answer 17

• Relative living standards at home and abroad
• Persecution of particular group
• ## Extent of control on movement of people

Question 18

Reasons for a larger women population

Answer 18

• Women living longer
• ## Higher male infant mortality rates

Question 19

Dependency ratio

Answer 19

Number in dependent age groups/Number of labour force x 100

Question 20

Overpopulated

Answer 20

• May be considered overpopulated if there is a shortage of land, capital, and technical knowledge relative to the number of workers
• Government may try to reduce the population
• Government may try to increase investment

Question 21

Underpopulated

Answer 21

• A country is under-populated if it does not have enough of human resources to make the best use of its resources
• Government may encourage immigration

Question 22

Benefits of an increase in population

Answer 22

• If underpopulated, country is able to make better use of their resources
• Size of markets may increase giving firms greater economies of scale
• Increase in factor mobility (Immigration, birth rate means industries can recruit new workers. They may be familiar with the methods lowering training and lowering costs)
• Extra demand (Stimulate investment and lead to new techonology)
• ## Rise in the labour force (Rise in dependency ratio in the short term but increase in labour force in the long term)

Question 23

Disadvantages of an increase in population

Answer 23

• Concerns about famine
• Restrictions on improvement of living standards (Resources would have to be used on provision of goods and services for the extra people)
• Overcrowding
• Enviornmental pressure
• Pressure on employment opportunities
• Balance of payment pressure (More dependants in the population may result in a rise in imports and some products may need to be diverted from the export to the home market.)

Question 24

Ways of reducing birth rate

Answer 24

• Improvement of education and employment opportunities for women
• Better information and increased availability of family planning
• Improvement of healthcare and nutrition
• Setting up pension and sickness insurance
• Raise the cost of raising a child (Increase school leaving age)
• Reduce or stop benefits to having a child
• Make it illegal to have childrendf

Question 25

Consequences of ageing population

Answer 25

• Rise in dependency ratio
• A change in the labour force
• Higher demand for healthcare
• Greater need for welfare services
• Rise in cost of state and private pensions
• Change in the pattern of demand

Question 26

Coping with an ageing population

Answer 26

• Raise the retirement age (reduces the cost of pensions and increase tax revenue) (Can increase their lifetime income and keep them healthy for a longer period)
• Encourage or make it compulsory to save up for retirement
• Raise the productivity of workers by education and training
• Encourage immigration of young workers (Reduce dependency ratio in the SHORT TERM)

Question 27

Internal migration

Answer 27

• Migrants may supply growing industries and result in a better allocation of resources
• May also raise living standards in rural areas if initially there had
• No guarantee that enough jobs will be available in urban areas
• Overcrowding
• Increased pressure on social capital
• Congestion

Question 28

The effects of net emigration

Answer 28

• The size of the working population is likely to be reduced (Most emigrants working age)
• Bigger burden of dependency
• Average age of labour force (Less mobility)
• The gender distribution of the population may be affected. More men may emigrate than women.
• Shortage of skilled workers
• Underpopulated
• Those who emigrate may send money home to help their relatives. This money is called workers’ remittances