Lesson 2:

Population Background

What you should know by the end of this lesson:

How Population data is collected

Digital Workbook and Paper Jotter

Collect notes on the information below
You need to be give up to 6 marks worth of detail about how population data is collected

Census

Census is the official count of a population. It is a household questionnaire that asks you to complete information such as:

Name
Date of Birth
Level of Education
Religious Belief
Ethnicity
Sexuality
Occupation
and many other questions

The census has been carried out every 10 years since 1801 (apart from 1941) 1921 is the first year you were legally required to complete the census our last census was 2011 and the next Census was supposed to be completed on 21st March 2021 in England with most people likely to complete it online for the first time ever but will be completed in 2022 by Scotland (the change was nothing to do with the pandemic).

Enumerator

this is the name for the people who are employed to issue and collect completed census surveys from households

Listen to "No such thing as a fish podcast" to find out about weird jobs people have put down on the census

Episode283Census1.mp3

Vital Statistics

As you can imagine, only collecting data every 10 years means that currently, our information should be outdated and inaccurate but it isn't due to vital statistics.

Births, Deaths, Marriages, Divorces and Adoptions Every time one of these happens you have to fully register it which informs the government of updates that occur.

Look at the birth and death certificate, what type of information does it contain?

Borders Agency

Every time you leave or enter a country, you have to scan your passport or I.D. this will then track and update how many people are in the country.

Your passport is another vital statistic, you have to submit your date of birth and address and other information to get one.

Sampling

Sampling is a data collection technique that can be used to ask a small amount of the population information and it is then extrapolated (expanded out) to take that into account on a national basis.

Extra - Why we collect data?

Did you know?

The population of most Academies increased by 30 pupils in 2020/2021 and will increase again by another 20 in 2021/22 and will continue again beyond that.

That is 2 extra classes which need, teachers, equipment and rooms to learn in these all need to be planned in before they arrive at the school.

This data is used by the government to make plans for maternity care, education, pensions, employment, housing and transport. The government need to know about changes in population so they can make plans for the use of their resources, for example, do they need more schools?

In some countries, the data is used to inform population policies. For example, when the Chinese government wanted to control population growth they brought in the one-child policy to reduce the birth rate.