Population & Migration Flashcards
Data Gathering Methods
Census-It is done every 10 years and the last one was in 2021 the information that is collected is who lives in a household, their ages, types of property. In the UK it is a legal requirement to do this.
Civil registration -Birth , marriages and deaths must by law be registered and are ultimately collected by the registrar general of Scotland.
National insurance records - Can provide employment figures.
Vehicle licensing departments -Provide information on the number and type of vehicles currently in use.
Records from all sectors of education -give information about the numbers of people in full time education
Local governments -information about local building developments public and private
Police and associated authorities -details of crime rates, prison occupation and categories of crime
National, European Union and Global surveys -A wide range of demographic and related social and economic information is also gathered, collated and disseminated via the office for National Statistics, the Scottish Office, Euro stat and various UN organisations including UNESCO. Even businesses are now constantly gathering and collating data as well as data collected through internet users.
Scottish Household Survey is a continuous survey -based on a random sample of the population which is cheaper than carrying out a full census.
Governments - also collect data on migration, for example visa applications and NHS records provide health data.
Problems with gathering population data to their descriptions.
Language barriers - Countries with many official languages have to translate their census forms and employ enumerators who can speak multiple languages. For example, Nigeria has six major languages and hundreds of unofficial languages requiring more enumerators.
Literacy levels -Many people can’t read and write, and therefore are unable to complete the forms, or might make mistakes unintentionally.
Size of the population -The sheer size of some populations make it very difficult to conduct a census, eg in China and India.
Inaccessibility -The poor infrastructure and difficult terrain, for example in the Amazon Rain forest, may make it difficult for enumerators to distribute census forms.
Wars/civil wars - Conflict can make it too dangerous for enumerators to enter, or for data to quickly become dated.
Cost - Undertaking the census is a very expensive process, even for developed world countries. In developing countries, there may be higher priorities for spending, including housing, education and health care.
Migration
