Question

What is the meaning of the Age Structure of population? Describe in brief four main characteristics of the age structure of the world population.

Answer 1

Age structure represents the number of people of different age groups. This is an important indicator of population composition.
Following are the four characteristics of the age structure of age composition of the world population:

• Population composition: The age group 0-15 is called the young population, the 15-59 age group of the working population, and above 60 years represents an aging population that requires more expenditure on health care facilities.
• Age-Sex Pyramid: The age-sex structure of the population refers to the number of females and males in a different age- groups. ’
• Expanding population: Nigeria, Bangladesh, Mexico, India, and other developing and underdeveloped countries of the world is having the characteristics of expanding population which have a triangular-shaped pyramid with a wide box. These have a larger population in lower age groups due to the high birth rates.
• Constant population: The developed countries like Australia have an age-sex pyramid bell-shaped and tapered towards the top. It shows birth and death rates are almost equal leading to a near-constant population.
• Declining population: The developed countries having low birth and death rates come under this category which shows the pyramid of narrow base and a tapered top. The population growth in developed countries is usually zero or negative. Example; Japan, Britain, France, etc.