Demographic Cycle And Trends Flashcards
What is a demography?
This is a study of a countries population in terms of its size, composition, behaviour and distribution.
What do trends or distribution mean?
This refers to the rural- urban or dense/ sparse scattering of the population.
What is demographic size?
This implies the magnitude or quantity constituting the population, determining the size is usually carried out by Census.
What is Census?
A process that involves counting a certain population at a given time.
What is demographic composition?
This referees to the populations specific variables in terms of age, sex, occupation, religion, literacy and so on.
What is the most important part of the population composition?
Age and sex which enable us to identify the quality of the population.
What is demographic behaviour?
This is the growth of a population from one decade to another often deduced by population graphs.
What is the demographic cycle ?
This is a five stage transition that populations of a given geographical region experience.
What does the demographic cycle explain?
It explains the movement of populations experiencing high mortality and birth rates to experiencing low mortality and birth rates.
What are the 5 stages of population change?
Stage 1 High fluctuating
Stage 2 early expanding
Stage 3 late expanding
Stage 4 low stationary
Stage 5 declining
What constitutes stage 1?
birth rate and death rate are both high population growth is slow and fluctuating
REASONS
High Birth rate is high as a result of
Lack of family planning
High infant mortality rate
Need for workers in agriculture Religious beliefs
Children as economic asset
Death rate is high due to:
High levels of disease
Famine
Lack of clean water and sanitation
What constitutes stage 2?
Birth rate remains high
Death rate is falling
Population begins to rise steadily
Reasons :
Death rate is falling due to:
Improved healthcare (vaccines eg small pox vaccine)
improved sanitation
Improved food production and storage Improved transport for food Decreased infant mortality rates
What constitutes stage 3?
Birth rates starts to fall
Death rate continues to fall
Reasons:
Family planning available
Higher infant mortality rate
Increased mechanization reduces need for workers.
Increased living standard of living Changing status of women
What constitutes stage 4?
Birth and death rates are much lower, resulting in steady population growth.
What constitutes stage 5?
Birth rate is lower than the death rate fall of the population.
What are demographic tends concerned with?
This is concerned with political, economic and social trends which make a dynamic context for the functioning of cities, towns and metropolitan area.
Give an example of trends
Practical examples of demographic trends include : wealth index, housing and sanitation, population age and employment
What is wealth index?
This is defined as the measure of a households cumulative living standard.
How do you calculate wealth index?
It is calculated by using easy to collect data on a household’s ownership assets such as televisions, vehicles and materials used for construction.
What do we look at under housing and sanitation?
This studies the trends in access to safe water and sanitation facilities in specific area.
What are some factors faced in housing and sanitation?
This can be affected by different factors such as soil type and porosity, groundwater level hydraulics and distance to surface water.
What is population age?
This refers to the age structure of a population at a defined time.
The broad base of the pyramid indicates that Zambia’s population is largely
young. Almost half (48%) of the population is under age 15. This kind of distribution is characteristic of developing countries with high fertility and low life expectancy.
Employment?
This shows the trends of employment between men and women as well as in general
Men are more likely (75%) to be currently employed than women (45%).
Trends: The percentage of women who are currently employed decreased from 46% in 1996 to 45% in 2018.
Among men, however, the percentage increased from 62% to 75% over the same period.
