Population Flashcards
Population pyramids
NARROW BASE= shows a small number of of children born(low birth rate)
WIDE BASE=high birth rate
INDENTS =show higher death rates than normal, through war, famine,disease,emigration
BROAD TOP=Shows a high proportion of people living longer
NARROW TOP=shows a low proportion of people living into old age and a high heath rate
Reasons for low birth rates in MEDC’s
1) more woman have successful careers, so don’t want to give it up in order to have a family
2) children are seen as expensive, as they have to be paid for, and many people do not want to give up their lifestyle(holidays etc) in order to afford them
e. g- in Japan, young people are choosing not to settle down
- people are also deciding to settle down later, so as a result are having kids later
3) Neo-natal care(care during/after pregnancy) is very advanced; so more children are surviving
Reasons for high birth rates in LEDC’s
1) in these countries, there is a lack of access to contraceptives, family planning+education on this.
2) In some areas, contraceptives may not be used due to religious beliefs. Having more children may also increase how strong a man is seen to be.
3) Children can help on farms in rural areas or get jobs to add to family income.
4) People may have more children in order to support parents in old age.
Problems associated with a declining population
- There is an increased demand for health and social car.
- It becomes increasingly difficult for the government to provide pensions which are funded by taxes paid by the working population. Governments might encourage immigration, but this can lead to social tensions, especially in times of recession.
- Less need for schools and teachers
- Industries which provide products for children might suffer
- Longer term companies might struggle to recruit young workers, and so a small economically active group has to support the growing dependant population. The government therefore might have to raise the retirement age.
Problems associated with a rapidly increasing population
- More need for schools/teachers. Often this need is not met and so there i not adequate schooling and literacy rates are low.
- Widespread poverty as population outstrips resources (food/clean water)
- Lack of services- housing and jobs for the growing population. This can lead to the development of makeshift shanty towns with no clean water and these are also overcrowded, which in turn leads to the spread of disease
- Not enough jobs available results in high unemployment. Supporting a large population could lead to an increase in national debt, or increased reliance on overseas aid. There might be overseas emigration of the economically active to find work.
On the positive, if they have a healthy workforce, they could utilise this, as they could, on the future, have a large economically active population providing a workforce to help grow the economy.
Reasons to carry out a census
- imports of food
- building houses
- different job sectors
- differences in wealth
- education
- heath care
- transport
Problems with carrying out a census:
Australia
Numerous languages
There are numerous distinct languages and cultural groupings and several languages are spoken
the population is also highly mobile, therefore meaning more census takers are required
Problems with carrying out a census:
Brazil
inaccurate information
in the 2002 the reported number of indigenous indians was much more than the figure which had been estimated 2 years earlier. some statisticians believe the figure was so high because there was no real way to check
Problems with carrying out a census:
China
lanscape
the size of a country makes collecting census data difficult. China stretches over a wide area and takes in huge tracts of desert and mountain ranges (part of the Himalayas. There is also grassland areas which support “herders” which migrate with their animals. Its difficult to collect accurate information
Problems with carrying out a census:
India
the caste system
each person is a member of a caste (group) based around birth, region and occupation, Each cate is a kind of social league table.
People in jobs handling leather, dealing with human waste and cleaners are known as ‘dalits’, and they are low ranking, and they have trouble getting better jobs
the 2001 aimed to combat this, but dailits completing the census could only choose between Hindu, Sikh or Buddhist, so muslim/christian dailits are disadvantaged.
Problems with carrying out a census:
Mexico
language
there are a large number of languages spoken in Mexico.
specialists have identified 12 distinct mexican linguistic families, more than 40 subgroups and more than 90 individual languages.
this makes it difficult to make sure that everyone has the opportunity to take part as many people may not understand the questions
Problems with carrying out a census:
Nigeria
false information
for many developing countries, budgets for health care,eduacation and other government services are allocated according to population.
to get a larger share of the budget, ethnic groups often inflate their numbers by including dead people and animals in the count.
Problems with carrying out a census:
Poland
fear ethnic persecution
national minority activists in Poland argue that no poles would would be afraid to declare their true ethnicity in the census for the fear that they would be discriminated against
Problems with carrying out a census:
Russia
isolation/ inaccuracy
In 2002, 600,000 census takers gathered information across 11 time zones and 8 different regions. sometimes they had to travel by foot/boat to get to the remove villages.
35,000 villages had no more 10 inhabitants
Problems with carrying out a census:
Sudan
impact of a cicil war
in MEDCs it is vitally important for relief agencies to have up to date information for population figures
- mass movements of people fleeing danger makes collecting data hard
- civil servants may be put in danger if they enter anti government ones to collect data
Problems with carrying out a census:
UK
mistakes
2 months after a census, there is a check to see if the count accurate
this is called the census coverage survey
after a check in 2001, the results were analysed and the census office announced they had been an undercount in 15 cities
Manchester, for example, added 26,000 (6.7%) to its number
