Demographic Trends By Andrew, Emma and Jennifer

The Future Although HIV/AIDS is spreading and there is an increased use of contraception across the world, the rate of population growth is rapidly increasing and becoming more and more of a problem for the future. In order to try and control this growth, governments look at demographic trends to determine what steps they must take for the future so that population growht can be controlled.

Demographic trends show changes in human population within a country. The government of a country can use these to see their levels of development and what measures must be put in place to control population growth in the future. Demographic Trends

The Demographic Transition Model

The demographic transition model is a way of representing the birth and death rates, and therefore population growth of a country in different stages as the country develops. Most MEDCs are in stage 3 or 4 of the demographic transition model, whereas most LEDCs have reached stage 2 or 3.

Birth rate can be affected by many different things, for example, contraception, religion and improved medical facilities. Death rate can also be affected by many factors, such as poverty, the level of medical care within a country. Birth and Death Rate

Population Pyramids

The population pyramid is a graph with males on one side and females on the other. Running vertically up the centre is units of age. This allows for comparisons between the different trends of males and females within a country.

The population pyramid is a way of illustrating the distribution of different age groups within a country. LEDCs tend to have more of a pyramidal shape as the life expectancy is low, whereas MEDCs tend to have a slightly more even distribution as a lot more people live to be over 60. Population pyramids are a very useful tool in predicting future population structures in order to put in place measures to control population growth.