Summary notes
Demographic attribute:
Demographic attributes are used to know the characteristics of the population of any geographic area. Some important demographic attributes are:
- Age Structure
- Literacy rate
- Sex ratio
- Dependency ratio
- Occupation
- Life expectancy
Sex composition:
Sex ratio= ratio between Men and WomenIn some countries,
Sex ratio=male population*1000/Female population
In India, It is measured by
Sex ratio=Female population * 1000/Male Population
Sex ratio gives important information about the status of a county:
Female to Male ratio is lower where gender discrimination, female foeticide, female infanticide, and domestic violence against women are high.
The reasons for the lower female to male sex ratio are:
- the lower socio-economic conditions of women in particular geographical areas.
- Male might have migrated to other locations for better job opportunities.
Females have a biological advantage over male as females are more resilient than males but female faces more social and gender discrimination than males.
The following are the data:
- World sex ratio: 102 males per 100 females
- Latvia (a Baltic country in Europe) has the highest sex ratio: 85 male per 100 Females
- Qatar has the lowest sex ratio: 311 males per 100 females.
As per the United Nations:
- The sex ratio is favorable to women in 139 Countries and unfavorable to 72 countries.
- Asia has a low sex ratio and the low sex ratio is recorded in China, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and West Asian countries.
- The greater part of Europe including Russia has a favorable sex ratio to women. The reason for the same is:
- Better status of women
- Excessively male-dominated out-migration.
Age structure:
Different age groups of the population are represented by age structure.
- Working-age population: 15 to 59
- Dependent population: 0 to 15 and 60 and above age.
- A large proportion of the population above 60 shows the aging population and requires high expenditures on health care facilities.
- A large proportion of 0 to 15 age if the young population shows a high birth rate and youthful population.
Population pyramid;
The population pyramid used to show the age-sex structure of the population.
The shape of the population pyramid shows the characteristics of the population.
Age sex Structure;
Age sex structure refers to the number of females and males in different age groups.
Expanding population:
This type of population pyramid is in a triangular shape with a wide base.
For example, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Mexico
It is generally in Less developed countries.
A large base shows a high birth rate.
Constant population:
It is shown in bell-shaped and tapered towards the top. The bell-shaped pyramid has birth and death rates almost the same and leading to a constant population.
Example, Australia
Declining population:
A narrow base and tapered top of the pyramid show the low birth rate and death rate.
For example, Japan.
Population growth in developed countries usually zero or even negative.
Rural-urban composition:
- Based on the resident population can be a divide between rural and urban. This division is needed because lifestyle, livelihood, occupation structure, the density of population, level of development, and social conditions are different in the rural and urban regions.
- Most of the population in rural areas dependent on primary activities whereas non-primary activities in urban areas.
- Rural-urban sex composition in Canada, USA, and European countries are different and exactly reverse of rural-urban sex composition in African and Asian countries.
- In western countries, Canada, and the USA female make ratio is low in rural areas and high in urban areas. This is because agriculture activities in rural areas are highly mechanized and largely done by the male. Hence, female migration is larger here from rural to urban.
- In Asia and African countries agriculture activities is not so mechanized and largely done by women. Thus women make the sex ratio is higher in the rural areas than in urban areas and large male migration can be seen from rural to urban for employment.
- In India, women's participation in farming activities is high. Shortage of housing, high cost of living, low job opportunity, lack of security in cities, discourages females to migrate to cities.
Literacy;
The proportional literacy rate of a country reveals the:
- Socio-economic development
- standard of living
- education facilities
- government policies
The level of economic development is both a cause and consequence of literacy.
- In India, literacy rate measured by the percentage of the population above 7 years old, who is able to read, write and have the ability to do the arithmetic calculation with understanding in any language.
Occupational Structure:
- The working-age population( 15 to 59 age group) takes various parts of occupation such as
- primary activities( agriculture, forestry, fishing),
- secondary activities( manufacturing, construction),
- and tertiary activities( services, IT, and communication).
In developing countries, the majority of the population is dependent on primary activities.
In developed countries, the majority of the population are working in secondary and tertiary activities.
Exercise
1. Choose the right answer from the four alternatives given below.(i) Which one of the following has caused the sex ratio of the United Arab
Emirates to below?
(a) Selective migration of male working population
(b) The high birth rate of males
(c) The low birth rate of females
(d) High out-migration of females
Answer. a
population?
(a) 15 to 65 years
(c) 15 to 66 years
(b) 15 to 64 years
(d) 15 to 59 years
Answer. d
(a) Latvia
(c) Japan
(b) United Arab Emirates
(d) France
Answer. A.
(i) What do you understand by population composition?
Answer.
With the help of population composition, we can get the following information about the particular geographical region :
- Age Sex structure
- Sex composition
- Literacy rate
- Occupation structure
- Life expectancy
- Socio-economic development
(ii) What is the significance of the age structure?
answer.
Age structure gives the details of the population of different age groups. The following are the importance:
- If the working-age population(15 to 59) has a larger composition then government income will be larger than the expenditure( education, health, and pension).
- If the population has a larger proportion of above 60 age then government expenditure would be larger in health and pension.
- If the population has a larger proportion of children then the government expenditure would be larger on education and health.
Answer.
The sex ratio is measured by females to males or males to females proportion of the population of any demographic areas.
Some region: It was measured by female to male
In India, the sex ratio is measured by the number of females per 1000 males. As per the 2011 census, India's sex ratio is 940 females per 1000 males.
(i) Describe the rural-urban composition of the population.
Answer.
- Based on the resident population can be a divide between rural and urban. This division is needed because lifestyle, livelihood, occupation structure, the density of population, level of development, and social conditions are different in the rural and urban regions.
- Most of the population in rural areas dependent on primary activities whereas non-primary activities in urban areas.
- Rural-urban sex composition in Canada, USA, and European countries are different and exactly reverse of rural-urban sex composition in African and Asian countries.
- In western countries, Canada, and the USA female make ratio is low in rural areas and high in urban areas. This is because agriculture activities in rural areas are highly mechanized and largely done by the male. Hence, female migration is larger here from rural to urban.
- In Asia and African countries agriculture activities is not so mechanized and largely done by women. Thus women make the sex ratio is higher in the rural areas than in urban areas and large male migration can be seen from rural to urban for employment.
- In India, women's participation in farming activities is high. Shortage of housing, high cost of living, low job opportunity, lack of security in cities, discourages females to migrate to cities.
Answer.
The following factors are responsible for imbalance:
Females to males sex ratio are favorable to developed countries in rural area due to highly mechanized agriculture farming whereas the reverse is found in developing countries( Asia, African nations)
Higher youth population composition is in developing countries due to the high birth rate whereas the aging population is found in a developed nation because of the low birth rate.
The high working-age population is found in higher growth countries.
Women to men sex ratio are favorable in 139 countries because of better women's social-economic status
occupational structures:
- The working-age population( 15 to 59 age group) takes various parts of occupation such as
- primary activities( agriculture, forestry, fishing),
- secondary activities( manufacturing, construction),
- and tertiary activities( services, IT, and communication).
In developing countries, the majority of the population is dependent on primary activities.
In developed countries, the majority of the population are working in secondary and tertiary activities.
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