Online Lab Eight -- Demographics

Katie Meyers

Online Lab Eight – Demographics

This is an image of a world population growth prediction above a prediction of Austria's population growth.

This is an image of a world population growth prediction above a population growth prediction of the country Yemen.

1) What was your high fertility rate country and what was its fertility rate?

My high fertility rate country was Yemen. Its fertility rate was 7.30.

2) What was your low fertility rate country and what was its fertility rate?

My low fertility rate country was Austria. Its fertility rate was 1.50.

3) The initial demographic "shape" of your high fertility rate country should have been a pyramid, with high population in young age groups. Explain why high fertility rate results in a high percentage of young people in the population. How does this affect future population growth?

When a country has a high fertility rate, it will have a greater ratio of adults to young people (e.g. 2:7). This will affect future population growth because if all seven children per couple survive, that means that each of those seven children will find a partner, making it seven pairs and fourteen people. If each of those pairs had seven children, that would be 49 children. Then, if all 49 children survived, and each found a partner and had seven children, the future population growth would obviously skyrocket.

4) Your low fertility rate country might have had a more oval-shaped curve with high population in middle age groups. This is especially exaggerated if the fertility rate is below 2.00. Explain why low fertility rate leads to lots of middle-aged people.

When a population is having less than two children per couple, it means the population will shrink per generation. Because each generation is smaller than the generation before it, the older generations will be larger than the younger generations. However, why are there more middle-aged people than old people? Simply because more old people die of diseases and natural causes than middle-aged people do. This results in the middle-aged generation being the largest in a low fertility rate country.

5) Write ten adjectives or descriptive phrases for what you might expect life, people's attitudes, conditions on the streets, etc. will be like in each of those situations. Imagine a situation with lots of middle-aged and older people in the population and write ten quick "brain-storm" descriptors for you think it would be like (Prescott, Arizona?). Then do the same for a situation with lots of children in the population.

a. Lots of middle-aged people (low fertility rate country): bad economy (much inflation), instability, terrorism (why bring a kid into the world?), lack of dollars to support a child, luxurious free life without child (and want to keep it that way), child too much responsibility, don’t like kids, parents have bad genes, infertility, school violence

b. Lots of children in the population (high fertility rate country): don’t believe in birth control (or not available/affordable), desire to carry on the family name, desire to enjoy having many children (valuable life asset in their eyes), religious beliefs to have many children, government subsidy (welfare), irresponsible sex, lots of school activities (e.g. car wash/baking fundraisers), hope for children to support you when they grow up, good business for child-related activities (e.g. movie theatre, fun farm, ice skating rink, mini-golf), widespread poverty and lack of education