UNIT- II | CHAPTER- 3
POPULATION
COMPOSITION
1. POPULATION COMPOSITION
Population composition is the description of population according to
characteristics such as age, sex, etc.
People of any country are diverse and unique in their own way.
People can be distinguished by their age, sex, occupation, education,
life expectancy and place of residence.
2. SEX COMPOSITION
The number of women and men in a country is an important demographic characteristic.
The ratio between the number of women and men in the population is called the sex ratio.
In India,
Male Population Female Population X 1000
X 1000
Female Population Male Population
2.1 STATUS OF WOMEN
The sex ratio is an important information about the status of women in a country.
Regions where gender discrimination is rampant, the sex ratio is bound to be unfavorable to
women. Such areas are those where the practice such as:
Female foeticide
Female infanticide
Domestic violence
Lower socio-economic status
More women in the population does not mean they have a better status. It could be that the
men might have migrated to other areas for employment.
NATURAL ADVANTAGE v/s SOCIAL DISADVANTAGE
Females have a biological advantage over males as they tend to be more resilient
than males yet this advantage is cancelled out by the social disadvantages and
discriminations that they face.
2.2 SEX RATIO AROUND WORLD
The world population reflects a sex ratio of 102 males per 100
females.
The highest sex ratio in the world has been recorded in Latvia,
Europe. (85 males per 100 females)
The lowest is in Qatar, where there are 311 males per 100 females.
The sex ratio is favorable for females in 139 countries of the
world and unfavorable in remaining 72 countries.
Asia has the lowest sex ratio. Countries like China, India, Saudi
Arabia, Pakistan, Afghanistan have a lower sex ratio.
On the other hand, Europe including Russia where males are in
minority. This results into better status of women and an excessively
male dominated out-migration to different parts of the world in the
past.
3. AGE STRUCTURE
Age structure represents the number of people of different age groups.
This is an important indicator of population composition.
A large size of population in the age group of 15-59 years, indicates a large working population.
A greater proportion of population above 60 years represents an aging population which requires more
expenditure on healthcare facilities.
Similarly, high proportion of young population would mean that, the region has a high birth rate and the
population is youthful.
3.1 AGE-SEX STRUCTURE
The age-sex structure of a population refers to the number of females and
males in different age groups.
It is used to show the age sex structure of the population.
The shape of the population pyramid reflects the characteristics of the
population.
The left side shows the percentage of males while the right side shows the
percentage of women in each age group.
There are three types of population pyramid: Expanding Population | Constant
Population | Declining Populations.
3.2 EXPANDING POPULATION
This pyramid is:
A triangular shaped pyramid
With wide base
Having larger population in lower age groups due to high birth rates.
It is typical of less developed countries.
Example- Nigeria, Bangladesh, Mexico.
3.3 CONSTANT POPULATION
This pyramid is:
Bell shaped.
Tapered towards the top.
This shows birth and death rates are almost equal leading to a near constant
population.
Example- Australia.
3.4 DECLINING POPULATION
This pyramid is:
Has a narrow base.
Tapered top.
It shows low birth and death rates.
The population growth in developed countries usually remains
zero or negative.
Example: Japan.
4. AGEING POPULATION
Population ageing is the process by which the share of the older population becomes proportionally larger.
This is a new phenomenon of the 20th century. In most of the developed countries of the world, population
in higher age groups has increased due to increased life expectancy.
With a reduction in birth rates, the proportion of children in the population has declined.
5. RURAL-URBAN COMPOSITION
The division of population into rural & urban is based on the residence.
These differ from each other in terms of their livelihood, social conditions, age-sex occupational structure,
density & development.
The criteria for differentiating rural and urban population, varies from country to country.
In general terms rural areas are those where people are engaged in primary activities and urban areas are
those where majority of the population is engaged in non-primary activities.
There are differences in rural-urban sex composition from country to country. In western countries, males
outnumber females in rural areas and females outnumber males in the urban areas which is very opposite to the
Asian and African countries.
This is due to, the better facilities provided to women in western countries and the agriculture is highly
mechanized and in Asian and African countries, there are poor facilities for women and males outnumber females
in the urban areas.
Other reasons for less female participation are: Shortage of housing | High cost of living | Paucity of job
opportunities and lack of security in cities.
6. LITERACY
Proportion of literate population of a country is an indicator of its socio-economic development.
It reveals the standard of living, social status of females, availability of educational facilities and policies
of government.
Level of economic development is both a cause and consequence of literacy.
In India- literacy rate denotes the percentage of population above 7 years who is able to read, write and
have the ability to do arithmetic calculations with understanding.
7. OCCUPATIONAL STRUCTURE
The working population takes part in various occupations ranging from agriculture, forestry, fishing,
manufacturing, construction, services and other unclassified services.
Agriculture, forestry, fishing and mining are classified as primary activities.
Manufacturing as secondary, trade, transport and other services as tertiary.
The jobs related to research, information technology and developing ideas as quaternary activities.
The proportion of working population engaged in these four sectors is a good indicator of the levels of
economic development.
The economies which are developed have more people in secondary, tertiary and quaternary sectors but if
the economy is not developed then, majority population is engaged in primary activities.
THANK YOU!!
BY- SUPRIYA PANDEY, 12 TH C, 07, GEOGRAPHY
