Population Calculation and Demographic Structure Analysis

The Calculation of Population

Population Census

The population census is conducted every 10 years, providing required data, though only aggregate data are published.

What is the Census?

• Anticipating the needs of the population.
• Control Population Policy for the development of policies.

According to the UN, the Census Must Have:

• Total population and distribution by sex.
• Distribution of population by age.
• Marital Status.
• Place of Birth.
• Mother Tongue.
• Housing Information.
• Education Level.
• Economic Characteristics.

Census Conditions:

• The text must have comprehensible and clear questions.
• The population has to be predisposed to cooperate and provide the information.
• It must have the necessary resources for proper analysis of data.

From the Census Count: Knowing the Number of People is Needed:

• To determine the taxes which are charged.
• To organize agricultural activities.
• To form an army.

Example: China began regularizing its census in the nineteenth century, around 1200 years after its initial counts. Sweden regulated it after 1750. It has generalized worldwide since 1970, following a UN initiative.

The Structure of the Population Pyramid

A population pyramid is a graphical representation that allows an overall view of a given population at a specific time.

What Do We Study?

• The age structure and sex: young population, old population, aging population, etc.
• Its behavior: birth control?
• Level of development: life expectancy.
• Information on demographic history.
• Allows for short- and medium-term forecasting.

Effects of Population Increase on the Environment:

1. Reducing the amount of cultivated area per person, even with increases in acreage.
2. The need for non-agricultural land for industrial areas, roads, or housing.
3. Danger of overexploitation of cultivated land: less food per capita and the danger of undernourishment.
4. Increased soil erosion due to overexploitation.
5. Great demand for water for agriculture, human consumption, industry, and energy sources.
6. Increased demand for natural resources such as fossil fuels.
7. Deforestation of large areas of the world due to logging, wood for energy use, and destruction of forests for agriculture and livestock.

Malthusianism

Malthus argued that while food production grows in arithmetic progression, the population grows in geometric progression. What does this mean? That subsistence will soon run out.

Solution: Controlling Population Growth

How would these controls be implemented?

1. Preventive Checks: These are voluntary and implemented through human reason.
2. Positive Checks: These are factors that shorten human life, such as poor housing, strenuous work, poverty, life in big cities, disease epidemics, famine, and war.