Introduction

Question 1

What is demography?

Answer 1

• The scientific study of human populations
• Concerned with the ‘numbering of people’
• Concerned with understanding population dynamics
• How populations change in response to the interplay between fertility, mortality, and migration
• HOW populations change
• The measurement of population
• Components of population chnage

Broader field of population studies:

• Why these changes occur
• What consequences these changes have
• Characterisitcs and behviour of populations and population sub-groups

Population size/ population growth or decline/ population processes/ population spatial distribution/ population structure/ poulation characteristics

Question 2

What is ‘population size’?

Answer 2

• How many poeple there are in a given place

Question 3

What is population growth/decline?

Answer 3

How the number of people in a given place is changing over time

Question 4

What are population processes?

Answer 4

The level and trends in fertility, mortality, and migration that are determining population size and change and that can be thought of as capturing life’s three main moments: hatching, matching, and dispatching

Question 5

What is population spatial distribution?

Answer 5

Where populations are located and why

Question 6

What is population structure

Answer 6

How many males and females there are of each age

Question 7

Population characteristics

Answer 7

What people are like in a given place, in terms of variables such as education, income, occupation, family, and household relationships, immigrant and refugee status, and the main other characteristics that add up to who we are as individuals or groups.

Question 8

What is the population balancing equation

Answer 8

Question 9

In most parts of the world we are still experiencing natural increase as opposed to natural growth. In which type of population are we more likely to observe a natural decrease?

Answer 9

The total number of births and deaths depend on the age structure of a population. An older ageing population may have a natural decrease.

Question 10

How do global forces of change impact population change?

Answer 10

Much of our actions and the actions of our parents are influenced by population dynamic. There is a complex interlinkage between population dynamic and broader forces of change in our community. Our individual actions and decisions are interlinked with the global forces of change

Question 11

What is crude death rate

Answer 11

Number of deaths per 1000 population

Question 12

What is crude birth rate

Answer 12

Number of live births per 1000

Question 13

What is the total fertility rate?

Answer 13

The average number of children a women would have over her reproductive lifetime

Question 14

What are the advantages and disadvantages of using crude birth rate?

Answer 14

Using per 1000 enables us to compare countries that have different population size - cbr does not take into account the dif age structure across dif populations - if u have a nation where many women r in the child bearing stage then u would expect a high cbr

Question 15

What is a more accurate definition of total fertility rate?

Answer 15

Total fertility rate represents the number of children that would be born to a women if she were to live to the end of her childbearing years and bear children in accordance with age- specific fertility rates of the specified year.

Question 16

What is age specific fertility rate? What has been the trend in ASFR over the years?

Answer 16

The number of live births born to females of a specific age group, out of every 1000 females in the same age group.

Question 17

What is the conventional age range for reproductive ages in women? How is this set to change in the future?

Answer 17

15-49 is the conventional age range of reproductive ages in women - this may change over time w women delaying childbirth or entry into marriage - we may see a push in the outer range of age specific fertility rates w technology as well

Question 18

How to calculate total fertility rate using ASFR?

Answer 18

Question 19

What is the overall global trend in total fertility rate?

Answer 19

Everywhere, women are having fewer children on average. The speed in fertility decline is highest in upper middle income countries.

Question 20

Is TFR and life expectancy period data or cohort data?

Answer 20

Period data - it is based on a snapshot - its based on the number of ppl dying at specific ages for a particular yr - for cohort data u have to follow the same cohort of women across time until they reach the finish line. Period life expectancy assumes mortality rates remain constant into the future, while cohort life expectancy uses projected changes in future mortality rates.

Question 21

What is life expectancy?

Answer 21

The average number of years that a newborn is expected to live if mortality patterns at the time of birth remain constant in the future.

Question 22

What is a birth cohort?

Answer 22

People who are born in the same year (within the same defined period) in a defined geographical region. Likely to experience similar events through their life course.

Question 23

Why does the population continue to grow despite fertility rates declining?

Answer 23

Due to a phenomenon called population momentum ( more people born despite declining tfr) and longer life expectancy.

Question 24

What can you do to curb population growth?

Answer 24

Question 25

What is the demographic transition theory?

Answer 25

Question 26

Give a brief outline of what occurs through the four stages of economic development in the demographic transition theory.

Answer 26

Question 27

Explain population momentum

Answer 27

The replacement level fertility rate is 2.1 children per women. This is the “average number of children born per women” that would be required to replace the number of people in one generation to the next (without migration). The common misconception is that population size will decrease if fertility falls below replacement level. But it is important to remember that zero net migration and a decline in TFR does not automatically translate to declining population size. Population growth depends on age structure. If you have a large number of women in the reproductive age group that could be potential mothers then you will have a lot of births although the fertility rates for these women have been relatively low.