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Age Structure

The document discusses age structure and age pyramids, which illustrate the distribution of ages within a population. Age structure can take various forms depending on birth and death trends, including stable, stationary, expansive, and constrictive. Age pyramids graphically depict age structure with younger ages at the bottom and each additional layer showing the next oldest cohort. Fast-growing populations have a triangle-shaped age structure with many young people, while slow-growing populations have a more even, column-shaped distribution.

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185 views

Age Structure

The document discusses age structure and age pyramids, which illustrate the distribution of ages within a population. Age structure can take various forms depending on birth and death trends, including stable, stationary, expansive, and constrictive. Age pyramids graphically depict age structure with younger ages at the bottom and each additional layer showing the next oldest cohort. Fast-growing populations have a triangle-shaped age structure with many young people, while slow-growing populations have a more even, column-shaped distribution.

Uploaded by

Vasu
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Age Structure

The age structure of a population is the distribution of people of various ages. It is a useful tool for social
scientists, public health and health care experts, policy analysts, and policy-makers because it illustrates
population trends like rates of births and death

In graphic form, age structure is portrayed as an age pyramid that shows the youngest age cohort at the bottom,
with each additional layer showing the next oldest cohort

Both age structure and age pyramids can take a variety of forms, depending on the birth and death trends within
the population, as well as a host of other social factors.

They can be:

 stable: patterns of birth and death are unchanging over time


 stationary: both low birth and death rates (they slope gently inward and have a rounded top)
 expansive: slope dramatically inward and upward from the base, indicating that a population has both
high birth and death rates
 constrictive: signaling low birth and death rates, and expanding outward from the base before sloping
inward to achieve a rounded peak at the top

The age structure of a population is an important factor in population dynamics. Age structure is the proportion of
a population in different age classes. Models that incorporate age structure allow better prediction of population
growth, plus the ability to associate this growth with the level of economic development in a region.

The composition of a population in terms of the proportions of individuals of different ages; represented as a bar
graph with younger ages at the bottom and males and females on either side

Population dynamics are influenced by age structure, which is characteristic for populations growing at different
rates.

Age structure varies according to the age distribution of individuals within a population.

Fast-growing populations with a high proportion of young people have a triangle-shaped age structure,
representing younger ages at the bottom and older ages at the top.

Slow-growing populations with a smaller proportion of young people have a column-shaped age structure,
representing a relatively even distribution of ages.

Age Composition

There are three major age groups in a population. These are pre reproductive, reproductive and post
reproductive. These categories, proposed by Bodenheimer (1985), have considerable value in visualizing the
status of a population. In natural population, the age structure is almost constantly changing. In a rapidly growing
or expanding population as in the case of bacteria, yeast and housefly, birth rate is high and population growth
may be exponential. Under these conditions each successive generation will be more numerous than the
preceding one and, as a result, a pyramid structure results.

In a stable population, a bell-shaped age structure is obvious as the pre-productive and reproductive age groups
become more or less equal in size and the post reproductive group remains the smallest. In a declining
population, an um-shaped age structure is own (Fig. 3.1) indicating the smallest size of pre-reproductive category
or young individuals.

However, we rarely find a natural population having a stable age structure or a stationary age distribution. In
some long-lived species such as fish and trees, dominant year-classes may be In human population, differences in
mortality rates have little effect on age composition, while changes in birth rates have large effect on age
structure

(a)Pyramid age structure

(b) Bell-shaped age structure,

(c) Um-shaped age structure

age-sex structure of a population is often


shown as a population pyramid. The x-axis
shows the percent of the population in
each category, with males to the left and
females to the right. The y-axis shows age
groups from birth to old age.

It's common to see population pyramids used to


represent human populations. In fact, there are
specific shapes of pyramids that tend to be
associated with growing, stable, and shrinking
human populations, as shown below.

Countries with rapid population growth have a


sharp pyramid shape in their age structure
diagrams. That is, they have a large fraction of
younger people, many of whom are of reproductive age or will be soon. This pattern often shows up for countries
that are economically less
developed, where lifespan is
limited by access to medical care
and other resources.

Areas with slow growth, including


more economically developed
countries like the United States,
still have age-sex structures with a
pyramid shape. However, the
pyramid is not as sharp, meaning that there are fewer young and reproductive-aged people and more old people
relative to rapidly growing countries.

Other developed countries, such as Italy, have zero population growth. The age structure of these populations has
a dome or silo shape, with an even greater percentage of middle-aged and old people than in the slow-growing
example.

Finally, some developed countries actually have shrinking populations. This is the case for Japan cubed. The
population pyramid for these countries typically pinches inward towards its base, reflecting that young people are
a small fraction of the population.
The basic principles of these human examples hold true for many populations in nature. Large fractions of young
and reproductive individuals mean a population is likely to grow. Large fractions of individuals past reproductive
age mean a population is likely to shrink.

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