Observing the pyramid it is clear that the age between 20 and 39 there has been a population increase, where a baby boom had been taken place roughly back in the 60’s and 70’s maybe due to the aftermath of a war or the other perspective could be that immigrants came in so the working/productive age increased. Better medical care is evident in this country due to the high age range between 60-80, so this country is obviously a developing nation e.g. Mauritius.
Observing ‘Country C’ there is a high population of 33.7 million, where it is apparent to have a similar birth rate to ‘Country B’. It also suggests that more people are surviving to old age, which again maybe due to better medical care, services for the elderly etc. A reasonably developed country in the Stage 3 f the DMT, for example, countries like Brazil, Korea would all have these similarities.
‘Country D’ has a very large population of 124.5 million, so it is clear this country is overpopulating, e.g. China. It is clear there is a very low birth rate and is decreasing, e.g. 4% of the population is between the age range of 0-4. This maybe due to campaigns like the ‘One Child Policy’ that is occurring in China, or the empowerment of women has increased in the country, so women are less concerned with having children and more concentrated on having careers. The pyramid is at Stage 4 of the DMT, with a regressive/aging population, e.g. China, Britain, France, USA will all again have similarities.
b) With reference to named examples, discuss the geographical issues arising from challenging population structure. (13 Marks)
Firstly a population structure is the make-up of the population of an area, in particular the age structure and gender structure.
In the UK, there is a ageing population with growing umbers of elderly people, and fewer young people. This maybe due to better health care, and a falling birth rate due to the changing roles of women. The elderly population are becoming increasingly dependent where there is a need for healthcare, nursing care, and medical care. To make these efficient, nursing homes will need to be built alongside staff to operate them, which is all a pressure on the government to provide the needed facilities. With an elderly population, becomes a welfare burden, for example, the need for pensions, benefits, transportation and leisure faculties. If there is not enough young people being born to pay taxes for the elderly care, e.g. pensions, then there is a higher burden on the tax payer. There is also an another effect on the economy, with the lack of young people in the productive active age range then there is no people to drive the country forward along with the lack of talented and motivated professionals to take over occupations which the elderly are retiring from.
However in China, there has been a problem with the ‘One Child Policy’. The consequence is that there is an increase in the elderly population although not enough young people, so the replacement level of China decreases. There is also a problem that the people see male babies as of more value than female babies, with Chinese fathers can carry their name forward in the future. so sex selective abortion and abandoned rates increase, which all affects the sex ratio of the country, with more males than females in the population. This will have a dramatic affect on reproduction later down the line.
In the UK there has also been an increase in immigrants and also in Germany there government tried to increase there population structure by inviting Turkish guest workers in the 950’s 1960’s. However this had serious consequences. Young males were entering both countries, with the immigration of asylum seekers and refugees from Afghanistan mainly entering Britain. This caused a pressure on both governments to provide housing, benefits and occupations to place less pressure on their everyday life. The consequences of allowing immigration is it develops social and political unrest, along with overcrowding and an increase in crime rates are likely to occur.
