Demography

Question 1

What are the concerns of the individual perspective?

Answer 1

Focus on health, risk factors, exposures, causal mechanisms in people as individuals.

Question 2

What are the concerns of the population perspective.

Answer 2

Focus on disorders (“mass disease”), exposures, causal mechanisms in people as a group.

Question 3

What are the key events that drive a population?

Answer 3

Birth

Marriage

Migration

Aging

Death

Question 4

What are the key characteristics of a population?

Answer 4

Size/density

Age

Sex

Place

Ethnicity

Education

Economic resources

Question 5

What are the reasons women are chosing to delay conception beyond their 20s?

Answer 5

• Contraception – more accessible
• Education – both in terms of delaying marriage and providing skills to control contraception.
• Changes in support for families (for example maternity and paternity leave and tax credits)

Question 6

What is ‘birth rate’?

Answer 6

A birth rate is a ratio of the number of births during a period divided by a reference population. The most commonly-cited birth rates are “crude” birth rates for specific years, calculated as the total number of live births in the year divided by an estimate of the total population at mid-year.

Question 7

Why is the mid-year population used in the calculation of birth rate?

Answer 7

The reason for using the mid-year population is that if the population is steadily increasing, as is commonly the case, the mid-year population provides a close approximation to the average number of people in the population on any given day.

Question 8

How do you calculate a birth rate for any given year?

Answer 8

Birth/fertility rate for year x = births in year x/mid year population

Question 9

Why is overall death rate often not used as a statistic?

Answer 9

Because you would have to account for gender/ethnic/etc differences.

Question 10

What is cohort life expectancy?

Answer 10

Calculated using age-specific mortality rates which allow for known or projected changes in mortality in later years and are thus regarded as a more appropriate measure of how long a person of a given age would be expected to live, on average, than period life expectancy.

Question 11

What is period life expectancy?

Answer 11

At a given age for an area is the average number of years a person would live, if he or she experienced the particular area’s age-specific mortality rates for that time period throughout his or her life. Does not take into account changes in mortality rates over time.

Question 12

How would you calculate cohort life expectancy?

Answer 12

Cohort life expectancy at age 65 in 2000 would be worked out using the mortality rate for age 65 in 2000, for age 66 in 2001, for age 67 in 2002, and so on. i.e. calculated using age-specific mortality rates

Question 13

How would you calculate period life expectancy?

Answer 13

period life expectancy at age 65 in 2000 would be worked out using the mortality rate for age 65 in 2000, for age 66 in 2000, for age 67 in 2000, and so on.

Question 14

Why would you use cohort over period life expectancy?

Answer 14

Cohort life expectancy can account for future changes in age-specific mortality.

Question 15

What is a demographic transition?

Answer 15

A general pattern of changes in death rates, population growth, and birth rates that appears during the process of modernization.

Question 16

What is the total fertility rate?

Answer 16

Roughly speaking, the TFR is the number of babies that the average woman will have during her reproductive lifetime.

Question 17

What is the general fertility rate?

Answer 17

Expresses the number of births in a year relative to the number of women of reproductive age. Again, the estimated mid-year population is used, and the result is usually expressed per 1,000 women of reproductive age.

Question 18

What does the population pyramid for a rapidly growing population look like?

Answer 18

Widest at the bottom, growing steadily narrower up to the top.

Question 19

What does the population pyramid for a slow growth population look like?

Answer 19

Bars at bottom slightly narrower than the middle but similar. Slight bulge in the middle due to the baby boom. Narrow at the top.

Question 20

What does the population pyramid for a population in decine look like?

Answer 20

Narrower at the bottom and top with bulge in the middle.

Question 21

What is the first stage of demographic transition?

Answer 21

Stage 1: period before the transition begins. Birth and death rates high, so population size is stable.

Question 22

What is the 2nd stage of demographic transition?

Answer 22

Transition period: begins when death rates fall, as improvements in agricultural productivity, economic development, and introduction of modern sanitation, immunization, improved nutrition, and other public health measures become available. However, cultural values, considerations of personal security, personal preferences, and the priorities of the health professions continue to support the high birth rate. The population begins to grow rapidly.

Question 23

What is the 3rd stage of demographic transition?

Answer 23

Stage 3: begins when, under the influence of such factors as the effects of land shortages, urbanization, education of women, and introduction of family planning programs, the birth rate begins to decline. In stage 3, the decline in the birth rate exceeds that in the death rate, which comes to stabilize at a low level. Population growth continues, but at a declining rate.

Question 24

What is the 4th stage of demographic transition?

Answer 24

In stage 4, the transition has been completed, as the birth rate joins the death rate at a stable, low rate, and population size stabilizes. The lower birth rate can produce a “demographic dividend” from fewer dependents per working-age adult, giving a country the opportunity to invest in health care, education, economic development, and infrastructure before the population ages.