Issues relating to youthful and ageing populations

Which one is which? Youthful or Ageing? The population pyramid on the left is for Angola, that has a youthful population, whereas the population pyramid on the right is for Japan, that has an ageing population, and a population in decline – stage 5 of the DTM? What are the signs that these are typical population pyramid structures for youthful and ageing populations?

Learning Objectives To be able to identify what a population pyramid for an ageing and youthful population looks like. To be able to name 4 issues relating to youthful and ageing populations, with relation to named examples of Japan and Mexico.

What are the problems with having a youthful population? A very high percentage of people under the age of 15. Pressure on housing – not enough housing – people living in slums. This is very common in big cities (Mumbai, India) where millions of people live in shanty towns with no running water, roads, sewage of any kind. Pressure on schooling – illiterate (the ability to read and write) population. India’s literacy rate is only 60% whereas Cambodia is 69%. Pressure on local resources such as food supplies. Famine, food distribution difficulties. Natural disasters make this problem worse – eg droughts, flooding – EG Pakistan Pressure on health services – a growth in diseases being spread around and not being dealt with adequately to stop the spread. Eg – AIDS/HIV

What are the problems associated with having an ageing population? Having a large percentage of people over 65. People living longer Problems with health care -More health care needs to be provided as people get older. -More retirement homes, hospital beds, more undertakers. -More money spent on expensive medicines to keep people alive longer. -Need for more skilled workers – nurses, doctors, surgeons etc. Problems with finances Pensions – people living well into their retirement. Pensions need to be paid for longer amounts of time. Not enough younger workers to provide for pensions. 3 solutions -Increase taxes – not popular -Raise retirement age – not popular – people have been working hard all of their life looking forward to the day they retire to be told to work another 5 years? -Abolish state pensions – not popular – people would suffer – poor not able to fund private pension?

Contrasting Countries: Japan v Mexico Which one is ageing? Which one is youthful? We are going to look at these two countries in more detail to look at the causes and the effects of having an ageing population in Japan’s case and a youthful population in Mexico’s case. These are case studies so will need to be learnt for the exam.

Japan – Ageing Population FactsCausesEffects 20.8% of the population are aged 65 or over million pensioners. Birth rate below replacement level. -Life expectancy increasing, people living longer. (79 for men, 85 for women). -Healthy diet and lifestyle -Birth rate declining due to increase in the age of a woman having her first child (in 2006 this was 29.2 years). -Number of marriages decreasing. -Government raised retirement age from 60 to 65. -Increasing costs of medical care -Increase in numbers of people in nursing homes -Increase in costs of pensions as they are fewer people of working age to contribute – high dependency ratio.

Japan – Ageing Population FactsCausesEffects 20.8% of the population are aged 65 or over million pensioners. Birth rate below replacement level. -Life expectancy increasing, people living longer. (79 for men, 85 for women). -Healthy diet and lifestyle -Birth rate declining due to increase in the age of a woman having her first child (in 2006 this was 29.2 years). -Number of marriages decreasing. -Government raised retirement age from 60 to 65. -Increasing costs of medical care -Increase in numbers of people in nursing homes -Increase in costs of pensions as they are fewer people of working age to contribute – high dependency ratio. ingzone/clips/japan- tackles-ageing- society/7578.html

Japan – Ageing Population FactsCausesEffects 20.8% of the population are aged 65 or over million pensioners. Birth rate below replacement level. -Life expectancy increasing, people living longer. (79 for men, 85 for women). -Healthy diet and lifestyle -Birth rate declining due to increase in the age of a woman having her first child (in 2006 this was 29.2 years). -Number of marriages decreasing. -Government raised retirement age from 60 to 65. -Increasing costs of medical care – mental health in the very old -Increase in numbers of people in nursing homes -Increase in costs of pensions as they are fewer people of working age to contribute – high dependency ratio.

Mexico – Youthful Population FactsCausesEffects 31% of population under the age of 15. Population has grown by 50 million over the last 40 years. Average age in the country of 26 years. -Low death rate at 4.78 deaths per 1000 people due to improvements in healthcare. -Falling birth rate but still a large percentage of young people. -Will take Mexico 50 years to loose its youthful population as the birth rate was so high from Major need for school places – schools having to be built to accommodate pupils. -Young people have major competition for work so some emigrate to USA for work. -Growing manufacturing industry. -Strongly Catholic religion but abortion has been legalised to reduce number of children.

Mexico – Youthful Population FactsCausesEffects 31% of population under the age of 15. Population has grown by 50 million over the last 40 years. Average age in the country of 26 years. -Low death rate at 4.78 deaths per 1000 people due to improvements in healthcare. -Falling birth rate but still a large percentage of young people. -Will take Mexico 50 years to lose its youthful population as the birth rate was so high from Major need for school places – schools having to be built to accommodate pupils. -Young people have major competition for work so some emigrate to USA for work. -Growing manufacturing industry. -Strongly Catholic religion but abortion has been legalised to reduce number of children.

Mexico – Youthful Population FactsCausesEffects 31% of population under the age of 15. Population has grown by 50 million over the last 40 years. Average age in the country of 26 years. -Low death rate at 4.78 deaths per 1000 people due to improvements in healthcare. -Falling birth rate but still a large percentage of young people. -Will take Mexico 50 years to lose its youthful population as the birth rate was so high from Major need for school places – schools having to be built to accommodate pupils. -Young people have major competition for work so some emigrate to USA for work. -Growing manufacturing industry. -Strongly Catholic religion but abortion has been legalised to reduce number of children.

Homework VLE Question Using a named example, explain the causes and effects of a country that has an ageing population. Date due by: 27/09/10