POPULATION STRUCTURE

Refers to the make up or the composition of the population. The structure of a population is the result
of the processes of fertility, (births), mortality(deaths) and migration. The most studied aspects of
population structure are age, gender and life expectancy

POPULATION PYRAMID
The population structure of a country is best
illustrated by a population or age-gender
pyramid. Each bar represents 5year age group.
Males are represented on the left axis while
females on the right. Demographic transition
model shows natural change from the
difference between births and deaths where-as
the population pyramid shows effects of
migration, age/gender of migrants, effects of
wars and epidemics.
DEMOGRAPHIC TRANSITION AND THE
CHANGING POPULATION STRUCTURE
Population pyramids change significantly in
shapes a country progresses through DTM and
economic development
The fact that Niger and Bangladesh have large numbers of young people in their populations has
implications for both countries. Eg the young people need food, houses, education and health facilities
which costs the government money, conversely in UK and Japan have large numbers of order people
and have different needs such as pension schemes
Understanding the structure of the pyramid

DEPENDANCY RATIO

Dependents are people who are too young or old too work. Dependency ratio is the relationship
between the working or economically active population and the non-working population

Dependency ratio = % of pop aged 0-14 + % pop aged 65 and over x 100

% of population aged 15-64

Dependency ratio of 60 means for every 100 people in the economically active population there are 60
people dependent on them. In LEDCs it may reach over 100 while in MEDCs Is between 50 – 75.
Regulation of the dependency ratio is important because economically active population will contribute
more to economy of the country while e dependent population will drain the country’s economy.

Case study

A COUNTRY WITH HIGH DEPENDENT POPULATION –GAMBIA

Gambia is a small country found in the west Africa with a young population which has placed big
demands on the resources of the country. It has 1.8 million people. 95% of the people are muslims. For
long the religious leaders were against the use of contraceptives which lead to high population growth.
Additionally, in cultural traditions women have no say on the number of children the family can have.
Children are viewed as economical assets because of the help they do in the farms. The country also
suffered from high infant and maternal mortality. The dependency ratio is 85/100. Many parents
struggle to provide basic housing for their families. There are high rates of unemployment and those
employed receive very low wages.

The government has insufficient financial resources for education and health. Because there are no
enough schools, most schools operate on two shifts. The schools do not have adequate books and
teachers. There is also high deforestation for firewood. As a result desertification is increasing at a rapid
rate.
Recently government and an NGO called Futures through support of World Bank has introduced family
planning campaign which has been accepted by religious leaders. Contraceptives and family planning
methods are given to people. This has been successful in changing the altitude of males towards family
size and contraceptives.

Exercise