Name: ____________________
Population Pyramids
TASK: refer to page 80 in your textbook to answer the following questions.
1. What does a population pyramid tell you about?
 Structure of a population
 Age and sex distribution of the population of a region/country in a specific year
 Information is categorized by sex and age cohorts (5-year groupings)
 Cohort data can be represented in: actual numbers, or percentages
2. Look at the population pyramid titled “Population Pyramid for Canada, 2005” to answer the
following questions:
A) Are the female/male populations represented in actual numbers or percentages?
(in actual numbers, millions)
B) What is the general shape of the graph? Is it heavy on the top, heavy on the bottom, or
evenly distributed? Evenly distributed, but on its way to becoming top-heavy
C) How many females were aged 20-24 years in 2005? (note: the cohort should be labelled
as ’20-24’ instead of ’20-15’ in your textbook) =1.1 million
D) How many males were aged 5-9 years ?
=1 million
E) How many females were aged 40-44 years?
F) How many males were aged 75-79 years?
=1.4 million
=0.4 million
G) Which age cohort is the largest (for both males and females)?
=age cohort 40-44
3. Look at the population pyramid titled “Population Pyramid for Burkina Faso, 2005” to
answer the following questions:
A) What is the general shape of the graph? Is it heavy on the top, heavy on the bottom, or
evenly distributed? Heavy on the bottom
B) Which age cohort represents the largest proportion of the population? =0-4 years
C) Does Burkina Faso have more people in the 5-9 age cohort than the same cohort in
Canada? (yes, but not a lot more)
D) Does Burkina Faso have more people in the 75-79 age cohort than the same cohort in
Canada? (no, it has much fewer people in that cohort)
4. Compare the two population pyramids (Canada and Burkina Faso, 2005) to complete the
following chart by making point-form notes on the key ideas.
(these ideas are in the chart in the textbook)
5. Which country has an ageing population? What clues from the pyramid show this?
Canada has an ageing population. We can see this because the biggest/widest part (the
bulge) of the population is near old age (just below the mid-60s age group).
Ageing population means the majority of the population is ageing.
6. Which country has a high birth rate?
Burkina Faso (can tell by the wide base)
7. Which country has a low death rate?
Canada. – can tell by the many people living into very old age (80+)
8. Will Canada have a big or small dependency load when the ‘bulge’ reaches old age?
Canada will have a big dependency load. This means there will be many dependent
people who are not working, so they must rely on the working population for taxes,
social service. Etc.
9. What issues might an ageing population create for the working population?
 Workers must work more to pay taxes to the gov to support the dependent ageing
people (eg. Social security, medical…etc)
 May open up jobs for the young people
VOCABULARY
Birth rate
Death rate
Life expectancy
Dependency load
Ageing Population
Pyramid Bulge
The total number of live births per 1,000 of a population per year.
The total number of deaths per 1,000 of a population per year.
the number of years an individual is expected to live
The portion of the population that isn’t working (are financially dependent)
A population where the largest cohort is getting older and older.
The portion of the pyramid with a sudden ‘bump’ (indicates major event,
like the ‘baby boomers’ after war)