Higher Geography - Describing and explaining population pyramids
Summary
TLDRThis tutorial instructs on answering exam questions about population structure using Malawi's population pyramid as an example. It emphasizes the importance of describing the age categories and their population sizes, making comparisons, and noting significant changes. The second part focuses on explaining the numbers, attributing high birth rates to factors like agriculture and large families, high infant mortality due to lack of vaccination, and low life expectancy linked to inadequate healthcare. The approach varies for developed countries, where reasons for low birth rates and high life expectancies are discussed.
Takeaways
- 📊 To describe a population pyramid, identify the most common age group and provide an estimate of the population in that category.
- 🔍 Compare different age groups to highlight any significant differences in population size.
- 📉 Note any noticeable changes in population numbers between adjacent age groups, such as a drop in the 30-35 age category.
- 👥 Mention any gender differences in population, such as more females in the 70-74 age group compared to males.
- 🌱 For developing countries like Malawi, high birth rates can be attributed to factors like agriculture requiring a large workforce.
- 🧬 Explain high infant mortality rates with reasons such as lack of vaccination programs.
- 🏥 Point out low life expectancies and high death rates by mentioning limited access to healthcare.
- 🌐 Understand that population pyramids in developed countries will have different structures, with fewer young people and more elderly.
- 📈 In developed countries, provide reasons for low birth rates and high life expectancies, contrasting with developing nations.
- ✍️ When explaining a population pyramid, aim for a range of reasons that account for the observed demographic trends.
Q & A
What is the main focus of the tutorial described in the transcript?
-The tutorial focuses on how to answer exam questions related to describing and explaining population structures, using the population pyramid of Malawi as an example.
What are the two parts of the exam question discussed in the transcript?
-The two parts of the exam question are to describe the population structure and to explain it.
How does one describe the population structure of a country like Malawi?
-To describe the population structure, one should make statements about different age categories, give amounts of people in those categories, and contrast them with others, identifying the most common age group, comparing it with adjacent age groups, and noting any significant changes or gender differences.
What is an example of a descriptive statement for the zero to four age category in Malawi's population pyramid?
-The most common age group is found in the zero to four age category, with approximately 3.5 million people.
Why is it important to compare adjacent age groups when describing a population pyramid?
-Comparing adjacent age groups helps to highlight changes in population size across different age brackets, which can indicate trends such as high birth rates or infant mortality rates.
What is a notable change in the population pyramid of Malawi that can be pointed out in a descriptive statement?
-There is a big drop in the 30 to 35 age category with only roughly two million people, compared to the age group below (30-34) with roughly 2.4 million.
How can one explain the high number of children in the population pyramid of a developing country like Malawi?
-One can explain the high number of children by pointing to factors such as high birth rates, which could be due to a large workforce demand in agriculture, as is common in developing countries.
What might account for a drop-off in population between the zero to four and five to nine age groups in Malawi?
-A drop-off in population between these age groups could be due to high levels of infant mortality, possibly caused by a lack of vaccination programs or inadequate healthcare.
How does the tutorial suggest explaining the low number of people in the oldest age categories of Malawi's population pyramid?
-The tutorial suggests explaining the low number of people in the oldest age categories by pointing to low life expectancies and high death rates, which could be due to limited access to healthcare.
What would be the approach to explaining a population pyramid of a developed country like the United Kingdom?
-For a developed country, the approach would involve explaining low birth rates and high life expectancies, which could be due to factors such as better healthcare, lower demand for child labor, and social policies.
What is the significance of making at least four or five descriptive statements when answering a population pyramid question?
-Making at least four or five descriptive statements ensures that the response covers key aspects of the population structure, such as the most common age group, notable changes, and gender differences, which are essential for a comprehensive description.
Outlines
🌟 Describing Population Structure in Exams
This section of the tutorial focuses on how to describe the population structure, using Malawi as a developing country example. The process involves making statements about different age categories, providing rough estimates of population numbers, and contrasting these with other age groups. Key points include identifying the most common age group, making comparisons to adjacent age groups, and noting any significant changes or gender differences within the pyramid. The example given is the zero to four age category in Malawi, which is the most common with approximately 3.5 million people. The tutorial advises not to be overly precise with numbers but to focus on accurately identifying and comparing age groups. It also suggests looking for noticeable changes, such as the drop in the 35 to 39 age category compared to the 30 to 34 age group.
📚 Explaining Population Pyramids
The second part of the tutorial addresses how to explain the numbers in different age categories of a population pyramid, specifically for Malawi. It emphasizes the need to provide reasons for the observed population structure, such as high birth rates due to the agricultural nature of the workforce and the need for large families to provide labor. The tutorial also points out the importance of explaining high infant mortality rates, which can be attributed to factors like a lack of vaccination programs. Additionally, it discusses the low life expectancy and high death rates in the oldest age groups, suggesting reasons like limited access to healthcare as contributing factors. The section concludes by contrasting these factors with what might be expected in a developed country like the United Kingdom, where the focus would shift to explaining low birth rates and high life expectancies.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Population Pyramid
💡Describing
💡Explaining
💡Developing Country
💡Age Categories
💡Gender Difference
💡Infant Mortality
💡Life Expectancy
💡Agriculture
💡Healthcare
💡Developed World Country
Highlights
Tutorial focuses on answering exam questions about population structure, using Malawi's population pyramid as an example.
Describe the population structure by making statements about different age categories and their population amounts.
Contrast the population amounts in different age categories to identify the most common age group.
Estimate the population in the zero to four age category as the most common in Malawi, with approximately 3.5 million people.
Compare the most common age group to the next age group up to highlight differences.
Note a significant drop in the 30 to 35 age category, indicating a change in population structure.
Highlight any noticeable gender differences in the population, such as more females in the 70 to 74 age group.
For developed countries, expect a different population pyramid structure with fewer young people and a wider top.
Explain the numbers in different age categories by providing reasons, such as high birth rates in Malawi.
Cite the non-mechanized agriculture in Malawi as a reason for large families and high birth rates.
Explain the drop-off between zero to four and five to nine age groups with high infant mortality rates.
Mention the lack of vaccination programs contributing to high infant mortality in Malawi.
Point out the few people in the oldest age groups as a reflection of low life expectancy and high death rates.
Highlight the lack of healthcare access in Malawi as a reason for low life expectancy.
For developed countries, focus on explaining low birth rates and high life expectancies.
In an explanation question, aim for six to eight reasons for the differences in population numbers across age groups.
Transcripts
okay in this tutorial we're going to
review how to answer exam questions that
have a focus
on describing and explaining
the population structure
and for this example we're going to use
a population pyramid of a developing
country which in this case is malawi
so there's two parts to this question
that you can see
on the page the first part is to
describe
the population structure and the second
part is to explain
now these two could be separate
questions in their own right where you
are just asked to describe or you're
just asked to explain
and i'll look at both parts to this
question
describing a population structure of any
population pyramid whether it is malawi
or another developing world country or a
developed world country like the united
kingdom involves the same process
you need to make a number of statements
about different age categories
and give amounts of people in those
different age categories and contrast
them with others
so the approach to describing if it was
this particular question would look
something like this
the most common age group is found in
the zero to four age category
with approximately
three and a half million
now that's the first statement that
would get you a mark
why because first of all you've
identified the females as being roughly
1.7
and the male side roughly 1.7 if you
have those two sides together you end up
with about 3.5 million people in malawi
in this age group now you don't have to
be exactly precise but as long as you
are
roughly estimating the amount
reasonably accurately and more
importantly you've identified the male
and the female and put them together
then you've got the accurate
identification of how many people are in
this age group more importantly you've
identified that it's the most common
next thing you might want to do is then
compare it to the one age group up
because this is a useful comparison so
you could then say the age group above
the zero to four the five to nines is
smaller
with only 3.3 million
now that's a once again a rough estimate
calculate of this category
and this category
now you don't want to move your whole
way up the pyramid because this is an 8
mark question you're probably going to
be looking to get four or five marks
based on descriptive statements
you might look to notice anything in the
pyramid where there is a noticeable
change in this case the 35 to 39 has
quite a dramatic difference to the 30 to
34
so we could say there is a big drop
in the 30 to 35 age category with only
roughly two million now that two million
comes from female and male added
together
compared to the age below the 30-34
where there is roughly 2.4 million
okay other key uh suggestions depending
on the pyramid that you're looking at if
you do notice a gender difference so for
example we can see in the 70 to 74 age
group in malawi that there is more
people
in the female age categories than the
male
now it's quite difficult to work out
exactly that difference but you could
say 0.1 million in the 17 to 74 age
group whereas of roughly 0.2 million
in the female age group so it if you do
spot a notable age difference that would
certainly help you pick up one of your
marks
now this is a typical period of malawi
if it's a developed country it's gonna
have a very different structure with the
base being much narrower with fewer
people in the younger age categories the
top of the pyramid is much like to be
much wider it really doesn't however
matter as long as you make four or five
statements
identifying key changes where you notice
something changing noticeably
identifying the most of something and if
there's a particular area where there's
a lot less of something then also
pointing that out as i did with the male
and the female
okay that takes care of the describe the
explain
now that requires you to give reasons
for
the numbers in the different age
categories now because this is malawi
we're dealing with a developing world
country and it's very clear to see that
we have a large number of children in
the older age group so any point that
explains high birth rates in the case of
malawi would be getting you a mark so
for example if you said that most people
in malawi work in agriculture and as
this is non-mechanized in malawi it's
likely they're having large families in
order to provide a workforce to work in
agriculture that would be one mark there
was a range of different areas that you
should have learned when you were
revising this
that will help you explain the high
birth rates
next thing you can do is generally with
countries in the developing world is
often a notable drop-off between zero to
four and the five to nine now this
reflects high levels of infant mortality
and as long as you can explain one or
two reasons for why there's high infant
mortality then you'll also pick up marks
so for example you could say due to a
lack of vaccination programs in
countries like malawi many young die in
the first few years of life which helps
explain why there's a sudden drop in the
age group above the zero to four
the final part to successfully
explaining this population pyramid is
the very few people in the oldest
ages now this reflects a low life
expectancy and reasonably high death
rates
so anything that can help explain that
will get you marks so for example you
could say
there are very few in the oldest age
groups for example the 7074 and this
reflects the lack of health care or
limited access to health care for people
living in malawi and when they get
unwell they're unlikely to be treated or
receive medicine
now all of those are explained factors
which are offering reasons for
high birth rates high infant mortality
rates and low life expectancies
second thing that you have to consider
is if your pyramid's not malawi if it is
a developed world country
for example the united kingdom
your point is going to be very different
in that situation you are going to be
look to give reasons for the low birth
rates
and the reasons for the high life
expectancies
okay so it's well worth noting down in
this case uh four or five marks but if
this was uh simply an explained question
you'd be looking for possibly six to
eight
reasons for the differences in the
number of young children
relatively less in the those age groups
and very few in the old age groups or
indeed if it's the uk the opposite of
that
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