Introduction to Demography

We will be having a test on this content. You will be allowed to refer to any handwritten notes you have made, but will not be allowed to use the textbook, computer generated notes or photocpopied pages. You will also need a calculator since you will be required to calculate actual values for most of the terms introduced below.

When calculating a rate in demography (e.g. a birth rate) it is useful to calculate the value as per 1000.

Therefore crude birth rate would be expressed as:

Example: 5.3 live births/1000people /year

By expressing births in this manner we can compare countries of greatly differing populations. For example, in The United States there were a total of 3.78m births in 1998. Given a total population of 270 000 000 in that same year the rate of birth was 14/1000/year. In Guatemala there were only 0.43m births in 1998. However, given a total population of only 12 000 000 this represents a rate of birth of 36/1000/year. So, even though there were much fewer total births in Guatemala, as well as a much smaller overall population, the frequency of births (i.e. birth rate) in Guatemala was much higher than that of The United States.

1. Read and take notes on the section “Measuring Demographic” on page 63 to 66 of the course text.

2. Write downa definition of each of the termsbelowin your own words

  • Birth Rate (or crude birth rate) *
  • Death Rate (or crude death rate) *
  • Age-Dependency Ratio *
  • Dependency Load *
  • Emigration Rate *
  • Total Fertility Rate *
    Immigration Rate *
  • Population Growth*
/
  • Infant Mortality Rate *
  • Natural Increase Rate *
  • Net Migration Rate *
  • Replacement Rate
  • Doubling Time
(a.k.a Rule of 70) *
  • Carrying Capacity
  • Life Expectancy
  • Net reproduction rate*
(this will be explained by your teacher)

3. Write a word equationfor each of the terms above indicated with * to show how the actual value is calculated. For example:

Birth rate = multiplied by one thousand

Note: The terms in bold are not expressed as per 1000/year. All other terms must be calculated as XX.XX/1000/year

4. Define the term population growth rate and write a word equation to show how it is calculated.

5. To what extent has the earth’s carrying capacity been exceeded?

Copy and paste the following URL into your web browser. One you have read the short discussion about carrying capacity, write a short brief which gives your opinion as to the extent the world’s human population has reached its carryng capacity.