Population Analysis Assignment

Heather Ryan

Population Analysis Assignment

New Zealand

The country that I was assigned to was New Zealand. This country is known to have a 10-year growth rate of .114% and as of July 2008, has an approximate population of 4,173,460. Their age structure is 20.9% between the ages of 0-14, 66.5% between the ages of 15-64, and 12.6% of their population is 65 years and older. The median age in New Zealand is about 36 years of age, with females currently leading with an average of 37 while males average age is 35. The birth rate is 14.09 births/1,000 population, with a death rate of 7 deaths/1,000 population. Infant mortality rate is at a total of 4.99 deaths/1,000 live births, with males leading with a rate of 5.62 deaths/1,000 live births and a female rate of 4.33 deaths/1,000 live births. Surprisingly, New Zealand has a longer life expectancy at birth than the United States of America whose average is 78.14 while New Zealand’s average is at 80.24 years of age; females typically live slightly longer and have an average life expectancy of 82.25 years while males average out at 78.33 years. Total fertility rate of this country is 2.11 children born/woman. Adult prevalence rate of HIV/AIDS is 0.1% according to 2003 with about 1,400 people living with HIV/AIDS; this disease has caused fewer than 200 deaths as of 2003. According to the definition of literacy, which is that ages 15 and over can read and write, 99% of New Zealand’s population is literate! Males tend to average 19 years of schooling while females average 20 years.

New Zealand has made a shift over the past 20 years, from an agrarian economy dependent on British market access, to a more industrialized free market economy that can now complete globally. This country’s economy has had its fair shares of struggles, including events such as the Asian crisis and even droughts. New Zealand’s GDP (purchasing power parity) as of 2007 is $112.4 billion and their GDP (official exchange rate) is $128.1 billion. Their GDP (real growth rate) is 3.1% and their GDP (per capita PPP) is $27,200. Looking at their GDP composition, agriculture makes up 4.5%, industry 26.2%, and services 69.3%. Their labor force is at a strong 2.236 million, and by occupation is split up as agriculture at 7%, industry 19%, and services 74%. Unemployment is 3.6% which is actually lower than The United States. Taking a look at New Zealand’s budget, you can see that revenues is at $2.568 trillion and expenditures is about $2.73 trillion with a public debt of 60.8% of GDP. Their inflation rate for consumer prices is 2.9%.

The country of New Zealand has many strong industry’s such as food processing, wood and paper products, textiles, machinery, transportation equipment, banking and insurance, tourism, and mining. Some of their main agricultural products include dairy products, lamb and mutton, wheat, barley, potatoes, pulses, fruits, vegetables, wool, beef, and fish. Their industrial production growth rate is at 1.5%. They currently product more electricity than is being consumed, with a production of 42.06 billion kWh and consumption of 37.39 billion kWh. They also produce more oil than they consume as well; production is at 25,880 bbl/day and consumption is at 156,000 bbl/day. In total, New Zealand exports $27.35 billion and import $29.06 billion. Some of their import commodities include machinery and equipment, vehicles and aircraft, petroleum, electronics, textiles, and plastics while export commodities include dairy products, meat, wood and wood products, fish, and machinery. New Zealand’s current exchange rate of New Zealand dollars per US dollars is 1.3811.