Impacts and Management of Population Change Flashcards
Who are classed as dependant?
Young people (age 0-14) and older people (over 65)
They need to be looked after or supported financially
What is the equation for the dependency ratio?
Dependency ratio =
Working age population (15-64)
What does a high dependency ration mean?
There’s a greater proportion of dependant people
E.g. Uganda has a high dependency ratio of 1.1, means there’s more than one dependant person per independent
What does a dependency ratio show?
How much of the population is dependant
Gives the proportion of the population that has to be supported by the working population
What are the social impacts of an ageing population
Increased pressure on public services - greater demand for hospitals, more needing care, pressure on children to care
Unequal distribution of older people - e.g. Eastbourne in UK is a resort with high proportion of older people, may have inadequate facilities for younger people
Reduced population growth or population decline - working population may have fewer children as they have older dependants to look after
Longer working life - low state pension as there’s so many retired people, too low to live off, many people stay in work
What are the economic impacts of an ageing population?
Reduced work force - smaller proportion of the population is working, slow economic growth
Increased taxes - pensions and services are paid for by taxes, more people claiming, higher taxes
Spending - elderly have savings and pensions to spend
What are the social impacts of a youthful population?
Increased pressure on public services - greater demand for services like schools and childcare
Rapid population growth- large numbers of children will grow up and have children themselves, increasing population, over population, aren’t enough resources
What are the economic impacts of a youthful population?
Too few jobs- aren’t enough jobs for young people when they grow up, more unemployed, need government support
Increased poverty - more young people are born into already poor families, more in poverty, some children have to work to support there families so don’t go to school, can’t break out of poverty
What are the political impacts of an ageing population?
Elderly issues are important to voters, e.g. changes to national pensions.
Immigration laws may be relaxed to encourage people of a working ave to enter the country
Important to get the grey vote as they are a huge part of the population and have time to think about their votes
What are the political impacts of a youthful population?
Youth issues will be important, e.g. student loans and childcare provision.
Government may need to increase teacher salaries to encourage more people into the profession
What are the four strategies used to manage an ageing population?
1) encourage larger families - more people to join the working sector
2) raising retirement age - people working longer paying taxes
3) encouraging the immigration of working-age people - bigger working sector, more taxes
4) increasing health care provision - doesn’t manage population but helps ease the problem of poor health in the elderly
What are the four strategies used to manage a youthful population?
1) controlling birth rate - introducing policies to limit number of children couples can have e.g. China
2) limiting the immigration of younger people - limit number of immigrants of reproductive age so birth rate isn’t made higher
3) encouraging family planning and use of contraception - government offer sec education and free contraception
4) increasing childcare provision - countries invest in more and better childcare, parents can work instead of caring for children. Doesn’t manage but helps address problems caused by youth
Define sustainable development in terms on managing populations
Developing and growing to meet the needs of people today, without hindering the ability of people on the future to meet their own needs
What two strategies may not help sustainable development? (Ageing)
1) encouraging larger families - creates an even larger population, isn’t sustainable unless the populations needs are met in a sustainable way e.g. Carbon neutral homes
2) encouraging the immigration of working-age people - more working people requires more jobs, can heavily pollute industries or use electricity in more offices
What strategy could be seen as sustainable? (Youthful)
Controlling birth rate - helps towards sustainable development as pop won’t get much bigger.
