Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Population Structures
Population Structures
POPULATION STRUCTURES
• The rates of natural increase, births, deaths, infant mortality and life expectancy all affect the population structure
of a country.
• The population structure of a country can be shown by a population or age-sex pyramid.
• While all countries' population pyramids differ, three types have been identified by the fertility and mortality
rates of a country
• Expansive pyramid - A population pyramid showing a broad base, indicating a high proportion of children, a
rapid rate of population growth, and a low proportion of older people. This type of pyramid indicates a population
in which there is a high birth rate, a high death rate and a short life expectancy. E.g. Kenya, India
• Stationary pyramid - A population pyramid typical of countries with low fertility and low mortality. E.g.
Argentina
• Contractive pyramid - A population pyramid showing lower numbers or percentages of younger people. The
country will have a greying population which means that people are generally older. E.g. Sweden
• They can also be related to the DTM
Population Pyramids in Transition
Population pyramids can tell us important facts about the structure of the population of that country. The
population structure is the amount of people in each of the main age groups – NOT the shape of the pyramid, but
this can give us clues about the structure. It can also tell us about the birth rate, death rate and life expectancy.
The main age groups you need to mention are the
a. young dependants (0-15s),
b. the economically active (16-64)
c. the older dependants (65+).
1. The birth rate – this is shown by the width of the base. The wider the base of the pyramid the higher the birth rate.
2. The death rate – this is shown by the sides of the pyramid. The more sloping it is the higher the death rate as there
are less people in each successive age group.
3. The life expectancy – this is shown by the how high the pyramid reaches and how many people have survived into
old age.
LDCs
MDCs
For example, in the UK, 1980, the dependency ratio was 55. This means that for every 100 people of working age in
1980, there were 55 dependents upon them.
When examining the implications of a “youthful” or “aging” populations, one must consider the following:
• Social ( Things that concern people)
• Economic (Things that affect money)
• Political (Things that affect governments or local councils etc)
• Any advantages?