Measuring demographics Flashcards
What different rates can be used?
Period-measures: What is currently happening in a country in a given year?
E.g. the average age of death in year XX.
Cohort-measures: What is happening with a specific generation/cohort?
E.g the average age of death for people born in year XX.
Usually a more sophisticated and precise measure - however, you need to wait long for it to be available.
Crude rates vs standardized rates
Crude rates:
Plus: Easy to calculate - data i almost always available
Minus: Difficult to compare between countries at different stages of development
They can be affected by e.g. the age-structure of the population
Standardized rates:
Adjusted corrected rates
Plus: A more sophisticated measure + easier to do comparisons between countries
Minus: Harder to calculate - often data is not available
How do different age structures bias crude mortality rates?
Crude rates only tells us how many has been dying in a country pr. 1000 people in a calendar year - but not why.
Cannot compare crude rates between two countries, because the number will be higher/lower in a country depending on the age structure
- If many old people –> high crude death rate –> even though the country might be highly developed.
So crude rates can only be used to quantitatively and not qualitatively (to make interpretations)
Which measure of mortality can be used for comparisons between countries?
Standardized death rates:
Calculates death rates of different countries, where other factors, here age, is held constant (we use a standardized age structure) → good for comparison.
What is a standardized age structure: Can be many things
The age structure of one of the countries (used on both)
The age structure of a completely different country (used on both)
Total fertility rate
Definition: Average number of children per woman in the childbearing age in year XX.
Advantages of total fertility rate in terms of interpretation
Easy to interprete:
- Interpretation of a fertility rate of 2: The average woman in this country has 2 children.
- Can be compared between two countries, since it is not biased by the age structure –> It can only be high, if the actual individual fertility of each woman is high.
What are the disadvantages of total fertility rate?
Can be biased by tempo effects (changing in the timing of births)
Because you look at the rate in a specific year, it is very sensitive to things happening in that year
If there is an economic crisis e.g. that makes people decrease fertility behavior, then it shows in the measure.
But we never really know if these drops/sparks are temporary effects (tempo) or quantum effects (permanent effects)
Which measure is better when you want to know if a fertility effect is tempo or quantum?
Completed cohort fertility
We only observe women who have ended their child bearing age - so we know how many children they ended up with.
Problem: we have to wait until the cohort is old enough before we can say anything.
