What are population pyramids? How do they help in understanding about the population of a country?

What are Population Pyramids?

Population pyramids are defined as the graphical representation of a population that consists of age and gender composition. The population pyramid is also known as the age-sex pyramid as it describes the population of males and females in the country according to their age groups. Population pyramids are mostly being used by demographers as they study the population of given countries. While representing the population in the population pyramid, the population is divided into various age groups such as age from 1 to 5, 6 to 10, 11 to 15, and so on.

As shown in the above figure, the population pyramid consists of two parameters age and gender. Age is represented in groups such as 0 to 4, 5 to 9, 10 to 14, and so on. The right of the age group represents the female gender in yellow color and to the left of the age group represents the male gender in color.

Types of Population Pyramids

1. Stationary population pyramid

A stationary population pyramid is also known as a stable population pyramid. This type of pyramid describes that the population is not growing, it is remaining consistent for all types of age groups. These pyramids are majorly rectangular in shape and represent majorly low birth rates and low death rates.

2. Expansive population pyramid

Expansive population pyramids typically represent the population that has a high proportion of young individuals. This type of pyramid is triangular in shape that has a wide base and becomes narrow at the top. Expansive population pyramids represent high birth rates and high death rates.

3. Constrictive population pyramid

The constructive population pyramid represents the population of the country that has a lower percentage for the young age group. These pyramids represent a decline in the birth rate and a decline in the death rate. The representation of a constructive population pyramid is generally narrow at the base and becomes wider for middle and old-age group people.

How do they help in understanding the population of a country?

• The population pyramid demonstrates the population of the country using the criteria of various age groups to represent male and female populations separately.
• The distribution of the population using age groups represents the number of dependencies between the population. There are two different levels of dependencies such as:

1. Young dependents: Young dependents are the dependents that fall between the age group of 0 to 15. This age group is being dependent on the working and elder population of the country.
2. Elderly dependents: Elderly dependents are dependents that fall above the age of 65 years. This age group is being dependent on the young and working population of the country.

• The working population of the country falls between the age of 15 to 65. This age group is the economically productive age group in the country.
• The population pyramid also represents the number of individuals that are economically active and present in the population.
• The population pyramid acts as a broad base for the countries with a high birth rate and a high death rate where the pyramid becomes increasingly narrow towards the top.
• The population pyramid helps to understand the population in-depth as every population pyramid varies in shape and the overall count of the males and females separately.
• Thus, the population pyramid helps study the increase and decrease in birth rates, death rates, economically working citizens, and elder and young dependents present in the country.

Benefits of Population Pyramid

1. Visual Representation

Population pyramids provide data regarding the population of males and females in a more understandable visual representation that is easy to understand. Visual representation helps to interpret data more efficiently and accordingly take decisions.

2. Economic forecasting

Population pyramids help to analyze economic forecasting and analyze the market more properly. Understanding the age groups helps to analyze the market trends, profits, losses, and demands of the consumers. This helps the producers as well as consumers to gain profits and a satisfactory experience.

3. Age and Gender analysis

Population pyramids provide a detailed analysis of the age and gender of the country. With the help of the shape of the pyramid, slope, and width it is easy to understand the relations, dependencies, and imbalance between the genders. It helps to analyze the population according to the specific age groups.

4. Identifying Demographic Trends

Population pyramids help to analyze the demographic trends that take place over a specific time. The help of previous pyramids and comparing them with the new or current pyramids help to analyze the death rates, birth rates, and population migrations of the country.

FAQs

Q 1. What is meant by population pyramid?

Answer:

Population pyramids are defined as the graphical representation of population that consists of age and gender composition. The population pyramid is also known as age-sex pyramid as it describes the population of males and females in the country according to their age groups. Population pyramids are mostly being used by the demographers as they study about the population of given countries.

Q 2. Why are population pyramids useful?

Answer:

Population pyramids are useful as they represents the population of the country according to age group and differentiating using gender such as male and female gender.

Q 3. List the different types of population pyramids.

Answer:

The three different types of population pyramids are as follow:

• Stationary population pyramid
• Expansive population pyramid
• Constrictive population pyramid

Q 4. Give some limitations of population pyramids.

Answer:

There limitations of population pyramid are as follow:

• In population pyramid it represents data in different age groups and gender specific only. It does not represents the population in terms of cultural, economic and other demographic factors.
• Population pyramids provides the population for the given specific time only. No further changes can be made in it.

Q 5. What does the population pyramid with a wide base indicates?

Answer:

The wide base of the population pyramid indicates the presence of high population of young individuals. This means that the birth rate of the country is high and eventually will be resulting into higher population in future.

Conclusion

In this way, the population pyramid helps to understand the population of the country based on certain age group criteria. It provides certain benefits such as visual representation for effective understanding, age and gender analysis, and economic forecasting. Overall Population pyramid helps to understand the population of the country.