Chapter 3

POPULATION COMPOSITION

FACTS THAT MATTER

•People of any country are diverse in many respects. People can be distinguished by their age, sex, occupation, education and life expectancy and their place of residence.

Sex Composition

•The ratio between the number of women and men in the population is called the Sex Ratio. In some countries it is represented as number of males per thousand females

•In India, the sex ratio is worked out using the number of females per thousand males.

Age Structure

•It represents the number of people of different age groups. It is an important indicator- as large size of population in the age group of 15-59 indicates a large working population.

Age Sex Pyramid

•The analysis of population in terms of age and sex groupings is represented by Age Sex pyramid / population pyramid. It gives a clear idea about the proportion of people in different age groups, male female ratio, birth rate, death rate, trends etc. The proportion of male to female-affects the rate of population growth through the net reproduction ratio. This measures the rate at which the females is being replaced by girls who would in turn be wives.

•The shape & size of the age sex pyramid varies among countries with difference in socio economic status. Factors like birth rate, death rate, migration, war, famines, Population policy etc. affect the shape of the population pyramid.

Expanding Population:

•The less developed countries, generally in the 1st stage of Demographic transition have both high birth rate & death rate giving rise to a pyramid with wide base & sharply tapering tip with maximum population in the lowest age group & minimum at the top due to low life expectancy. This shape suggests growing population trend with a large share of youthful population.

Constant Population:

•In countries like Australia, with dropping with dropping death rate & birth rate the pyramid acquires a Bell shape- suggesting Constant population.

•3rd phase: - In the developed & stable economies both birth rate & death rate fall and as a result, the base becomes narrow while the upper part of the pyramid remains comparatively broad. The narrow base indicates Low birth

rate & the broad bulge in older age groups - reflects higher life expectancy i.e. better health facilities leading to ageing population.

Declining Population:

•In underdeveloped countries -the birth rate & Youth dependency ratio is high but old population is low and the shape is conical.

•In developed countries birth rate & Youth dependency ratio is low with high percentage of senior citizens this give rise to a less conical pyramid with narrow base & wide top.

•The shape varies with countries having variation in fertility, mortality, age sex structure and life expectancy.

•The youth population is highest in developing countries while the old population is lowest o here compared to developed nations.

•The developed world has less percentage of population in the under 15 age group & more in the above 65 years age group because of low B.R. & better longevity. There is very less variation in this context in the developed nations - the trend is more or less similar.

Rural-Urban Composition

•Population can also be categorized based on their place of residence into rural and urban. There is no fixed criterion to differentiate between rural and urban settlement patterns. A number of criteria are considered to categorise them in different parts of the world. They are based on the size of settlement, density of people, functions, social and cultural attributes, location, administrative divisions etc.

•Rural and urban lifestyles generally differ from the point of view of livelihood, age-sex occupational structures, density, level of economic development, social norms etc.

•Predominantly in the rural areas people are engaged in primary activities i.e. they are depended on nature for their livelihood, while in the urban areas they are mostly engaged in secondary and tertiary activities.

•Interestingly the rural urban sex composition reflects the opposite pictures for the developed and developing world. In countries like Bangladesh, Nepal females outnumber males in the rural areas while the males in the urban areas. This is just the opposite of the scenario of the developed nations like USA, Denmark where the females outnumber the males in the urban areas and the males in the rural areas.

In the western European countries, USA, Canada the desk job of the urban centres attract the females from the rural areas to settle in the urban centres. This is coupled with security of women in the urban areas. Moreover farming in these regions is mostly mechanized and is dominated by the male members of the family.

•In the developing countries of Asia and Africa the males migrate to the urban centres for job opportunities. In these countries women are still engaged in farming as well as household chores. Women are left behind in the villages by the men folk to look after their homes, children, parents and farming. So, in the developing countries lack of security, force the women to stay back in the villages.

Literacy

•In India - literacy rate denotes the percentage of population above 7 years of age who is able to read, write and have the ability to do arithmetic calculations with understanding.

•Proportion of literate population of a country is an indicator of its socio-economic development as it reveals the standard of living, social status of females, availability of educational facilities and policies of government.

Occupational Structure

•The proportion of working population engaged in the four sectors (Primary, Secondary, Tertiary and Quaternary) is a good indicator of the levels of economic development of a nation. This is because only a developed economy with industries and infrastructure can accommodate more workers in the secondary, tertiary and quaternary sectors. Any economy in the primitive stages, will have high proportion of people engaged in primary activities as it involves extraction of natural resources.

We hope CBSE/MP Board Class 12th "Geography" Chapter 3 "POPULATION COMPOSITION" will help you.

Written By - HIMANSHU SHARMA