Population composition
is the description of population defined by characteristics such as age, race, sex or marital status. Important characteristics of a population, besides its
size and growth rate, are the way in which its members are distributed
according to age, sex, and urban/rural status.These
descriptions can be necessary for understanding the social dynamics from historical and comparative research. This data is
often compared using a population
pyramid.
Population
composition is also a very important part of historical research. Information
ranging back hundreds of years is not always worthwhile, because the numbers of
people for which data are available may not provide the information that is
important (such as population size). Lack of information on the original data-collection
procedures may prevent accurate evaluation of data quality.
1. Age Structure:
The age structure of a population refers to the number of
people in different age groups. A larger size of population in the age group of
15-59 years indicates the chances of having a larger working population. On the
other hand, if the number of children in the population is high, the dependency
ratio will be high. Similarly, a growing population in the age group of 60 plus
indicates greater expenditure on the care of the aged.
There are three types of age structures, viz., (i) the
West European type in .which children constitute less than 30 per cent, and 15
per cent of the population are old; (ii) the North American type where 35-40
per cent of the population are children and ten per cent, old people; and (iii)
the Brazilian type where 45-55 per cent of the population are children, and old
people constitute only four-eight per cent of the total population. The type of
age structure has a direct influence on the future of a nation, since both
extremes, i.e., old age dependency as well as young age dependency proves to be
a severe burden on the economy of a country.
2. Sex
Composition:
Another structural feature of
populations is the relative numbers of males and females. Defined as the number
of females per 1000 males in the population, sex ratio is an important social
indicator of the equity prevailing between males and females at a given point
of time. Factors influencing the sex ratio are, mainly, the differentials in
mortality, sex selective migration, and sex ratio at birth and, at times, the
sex differential in population enumeration.
By nature, slightly more males
are born than females (a typical ratio being 105/106 males for every 100
females). However, males experience higher mortality at virtually all ages
after birth. By implication, during childhood males outnumber females of the
same age; the different decreases as age increases; at some point in the adult
life span, the numbers of males and females become equal; as higher ages are
reached, the number of females becomes quite large.
India shows an uneven
composition of population as compared to most of the developed countries. The
reasons put forward for such a state of affairs are: high maternal mortality,
female infanticide, sex-selective female abortions, neglect of the girl child
leading to a higher mortality among girls at a young age, and change in sex
ratio at birth.
The sex composition of the
population in India is a matter of concern, being much lower than 950 for a long
time.
3. Rural-Urban
Composition:
The division between rural and
urban areas is significant in terms of geographical distribution of population.
The percentage of rural population is higher in farm-based agricultural
countries, while industrially, developed regions have higher share of urban
population.
For a long time now, there has
been a nearly universal flow of population from rural into urban areas. The
most highly urbanised societies in the world are these of western and northern
Europe, Australia, New Zealand, temperate South America, and North America: in
all of these, the proportion of urban population exceeds 75 per cent.
In many of the developing
countries of Asia and Africa, the urbanisation process has only recently begun;
less than one-third of the population lives in urban areas. But the rate of
growth of urban areas has shown a great increase. The general rule for
developing countries is that the rate of growth of urban areas is twice that of
the population as a whole.
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