Demographic change describes a population’s age structure adjusting to changes in living

conditions. Consequently, changes in the composition of a society’s age structure are the result of
social shifts.

Types pf population pyramids:

There are generally three types of population pyramids created from age-sex distributions--

expansive, constrictive and stationary.

 EXPANSIVE: expansive population pyramids show larger numbers or percentages of the

population in the younger age groups, usually with each age group smaller in size or
proportion than the one born before it. These types of pyramids are usually found in
populations with very large fertility rates and lower than average life expectancies. The
age-sex distributions of Latin American and many Third World countries would probably
display expansive population pyramids.
 CONSTRICTIVE constrictive population pyramids display lower numbers or percentages of
younger people. The age-sex distributions of the United States and Pennsylvania fall into
this type of pyramid.
 STATIONARY stationary or near-stationary population pyramids display somewhat equal
numbers or percentages for almost all age groups. Of course, smaller figures are still to be
expected at the oldest age groups. The age-sex distributions of some European countries,
especially Scandinavian ones, will tend to fall into this category.

Population and resources:

Scientists have adopted a variety of perspectives to examine the relationship between population
and resources in closer detail. Scientists believed the relationship contained a fundamental
contradiction: while population has the potential to grow exponentially, the use of natural
resources to serve human ends could at most grow arithmetically.

The rapid expansion in the use of fossil fuels, however, and the vast range of industrial
technologies this brought about, soon showed that in the modern era the exploitation of
resources could grow exponentially too, at least for many decades. Although non-renewables are
finite economists are quick to point out that technological innovation usually means substitutes
can be found to ameliorate scarcity. Meanwhile environmental scientists point to the disastrous
unintended consequences for ecological systems and human wellbeing of the way many resources
are actually used, mainly because of the resulting pollution and the fact that even so-called
renewables are being harvested unsustainably, sometimes to the point of extinction.