POPULATION AGE STRUCTURE
SECTION 10-2
What is age structure?
 Age structure – the distribution of males and females in
each age group
 Diagram made by demographers
 Plot the % or #s of males & females in each of 3 age
categories
 3 Age Categories
 Prereproductive = Ages 0-14
 Reproductive = Ages 15-44
 Postreproductive = Ages 45+
Population Histograms
 The following slide shows constructed Population
Histograms
 Notice their structure
 In creating these histograms, one starts from the center line,
and draws the “bar” out from that line
 Male data is to the left of the center line
 Female data is to the right of the center line
Major factor that determines
population growth?
 # of people under age 15!
 WHY?????
 Because a large number of females are moving
into their reproductive years
 The birth rate will increase (unless the death
rates rise sharply)
Population Histograms
 The next slide shows population histograms from France and
India
 Notice how, in India, tweens / teenagers are the biggest
groups on that histogram! (Approx 5.5 – 6% of the
population)
 The same is true in France! While not the largest group,
teenagers make up approximately 4 % of the population
 (The only group that’s larger than teenagers are the 30-
somethings!)
Boom or Bust?
 Population booms & busts both cause problems
 Baby boom population
 After WWII (1946-1964)
 Addition of 79 million people to the population
 Baby bust
 Between 1965-1976
 When the Total Fertility Rate (TFR) decreased
dramatically (people were having less children)
Population booms & busts both
cause problems
 Problems with declining population
 Baby boom generation is retiring:
 Smaller workforce (shortage of workers)
 Not enough money from taxes to support boomers (baby
bust generation will suffer…will have higher income,
healthcare, Social Security taxes)
 Trouble funding pensions
 Increase retirement age, raise taxes, etc
Population booms & busts both
cause problems
 At the same time…baby bust group has an easier
time (than baby boomers):
 Less people competing for education opportunities, jobs and
services
 Wages are higher due to labor shortages
 Many baby bust group members may find it difficult to
get job promotions when they hit middle age because:
 Baby boomers will be upper level management
 Baby boomers may delay retirement (if they’re in good health) or
need to accumulate more funds for retirement
Who comes after the baby bust
generation?
 The echo-boom generation
 Individuals born since 1977
 These predictions (baby boomers / busters) tell us
that ANY booms or busts in the age structure of a
population will create social & economic changes
that can cause problems throughout a society for
decades
Effects of Rapid Population Decline
 Ex: Increase in death rate due to AIDS
 Globally between 2000 and 2050, AIDS is projected
to cause the premature deaths of 278 million people
in 53 countries – 38 of them Africa. These premature
deaths are almost equal to the entire current
population of the United States.
AIDS TRAGEDY
 Harmful effects
 Drop in life expectancy
 Loss of productive workforce
 Loss of trained professionals
 Increase in # of orphans
 What can be done?
 Reduce spread of HIV through education & health
care
 Financial assistance to pay for the workers
 Is this our responsibility?