RD 505

ASSIGNMENT

JAI GOPAL NATH SARKAR

OBJECTIVE

Compare the age composition of developed and developing countries with the help of population pyramid
and summary measures of the one country from each, developed and developing countries group.

The study of age-structure (sometimes termed age-composition or age distribution) has been too often neglected
by geographers, perhaps because it is less easily observed and appreciated than some other aspects of the
composition of population. Too often statements are made about population growth in absolute numbers without
reference to changes in age-structure, yet one cannot proceed very far in the study of population growth or
migration without examination of age-structure. Moreover, there is hardly an aspect of individual or communal
life which is not affected by age: economic and social activities, military service, political propensities, social
attitudes, mobility (Clarke, I. John, 1972)

There prevail stark differences in the age structure of countries of developed and developing countries, in fact
these differences are treated as the demarcating measure for the both group. These differences are visible in age
structure of both groups. The age sex structure not only presents the current status of population but, it also
represents the consequence of changes of demographic attributes such as mortality, fertility and migration as well
which has occurred in the past decades. Added to above advantage it also provides prospects of future population
composition as well. Here, Norway from the developed world and Sri Lanka from developing world countries
have been selected for the comparison. Age data are often presented in several different ways: age-groups,
indices, pyramids and divergence graphs and summary measures, but here only age sex pyramid and summary
measures are considered to present the age composition of the corresponding countries.

Important terms

Median age, young age dependency ratio, old age dependency ratio

Data source

The population data by age group wise and sex wise for both countries namely Sri Lanka and Norway have been
taken from United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2015). World Population Prospects: The 2015 Revision,
DVD Edition.

Methodology

For the age sex pyramid, the percentage of population of both sexes in age groups of 0-4. 5-9..up to 95-99 and
finally above 100 have been separately calculated from the total population of the corresponding country, using
formula below

population of male04 age group

% of male population in 0-4 age group
100
total population
Then horizontal bars having common vertical axis representing age groups and horizontal axis representing
population percentages have been drawn for the both countries, with left side representing male population
percentages and right side that of female.

For calculating median age, first groups have limits have been changed to make the series continuous, e.g. 4.5-
9.5 , then formulae written below has been used to calculate median age

n
c . f .
Median age l+ { 2 }h
f

Where,

l = lower limit of the median age group

n = total no. of population

c.f. = cumulative frequency of age group preceding to median age group

f = frequency (population) of median age group

h = age group size, here it is 5 years

For the dependency ratio of both kind, namely young age dependency ratio (YADR) and old age dependency ratio
(OADR) has been calculated using following formula

population age group04

YADR
100
population1559 age group

population having age above 60 years

OADR
100
population1559 age group

Interpretation

In 2015, 50.4 per cent of the worlds population is male and 49.6 per cent is female. The median age of the global
population, that is, the age at which half the population is older and half is younger, is 29.6 years. About one-
quarter (26 per cent) of the worlds people is under 15 years of age, 62 per cent are aged 15-59 years, and 12 per
cent are 60 or over (world population prospect, 2015). There have been variations in various attributes of
population across the world. Here attempt has been made to show the variation in age sex composition of the
population of developed world countries and developing world countries, particularly Norway and Sri Lanka.

One of the ways to describe the age sex composition is the age sex pyramid. The age and sex composition of
populations (either in absolute numbers or proportions), when plotted graphically, will produce an age pyramid.
The base of a pyramid indicates the segment of population in the youngest ages while the top indicates the oldest
ages. The proportions of people in the various age and sex categories are subject to change because of the
continuous action of population growth components, namely mortality, fertility and migration. The pyramid is an
illustration of the biological history of a population, the results of 100 years of births, deaths and migration
(Seetharam, 2006). The shape of these structures follow a particular pattern for the developed countries and
different for the developing one. This is quite visible from the figure below

The population pyramid for Sri Lanka has wider base with 4.03% male and 3.91 % of female population in age
group of 0-4 as compared to Norway with only 3.10 % of male and 2.94% of female population in the
corresponding group. Sri Lanka has higher fertility rate (average number of child born per women as per world
population prospect) of 2.03 than Norway with 1.81.

One more striking differences in both pyramids is the large percentage population in the age group of 5-14 in Sri
Lanka whereas this is constant in the case of Norway, this is due to the decreasing trend of fertility in Sri Lanka
which has been declining from 2.38 during 1995-2000 , 2.28 during 2000-2005, 2.11 during 2005-2010 and
finally to 2.03b during 2010-2015 where as the fertility rate has been nearly constant in a case of Norway, it has
been around 1.80 for the period of 2000-2015.

One more difference can be seen in the percentage of population above the age of 40 years, this is quite visible as
the narrower top of pyramid in the case of Sri Lanka as compared to Norway. Percentage share of male and
female population in age group of 40-44 in Norway is 3.77 and 3.52 whereas in Sri Lanka it is 3.22 and 3.37, and
this trend is followed in all of the groups ahead of this age group. This is also justified by the higher median age
of Norway as compared to Sri Lanka, the median age which divides whole population into two halves, one half of
young age group, those having age below it and other into old age group having population greater than it, is 39.6
years for Norway whereas for Sri Lanka it is 33.9 years.

One common feature of the age sex composition of both countries is the higher share of female population in
higher age groups, in case of Sri Lanka, percentage of female is higher than man in the age groups above 30
years, whereas in case of Norway it is above 65 years. This difference in the ages after which female has higher
share in population than male in both countries may be due to the high life expectancy at birth in Norway 81.3
years as compared to Sri Lanka having life expectancy of 74.6 years. Whereas the reason behind higher
proportion of female population in higher age group is the higher longevity of female as compared to male as
female are considered to be more resistant to cause of natural deaths.

Now if we compare the summary measure which is another way of comparing age structure of the population of
different variety, here of two countries, then the following statistics present the differences between Norway and
Sri Lanka

NORWAY SRI LANKA

MADIAN AGE( IN YEARS) 39.6 MADIAN AGE (IN YEARS) 33.9
YOUNG AGE DEPENDENCY RATIO (%) 29.8 YOUNG AGE DEPENDENCY RATIO (%) 39.9
OLD AGE DEPENDENCY RATIO OLD AGE DEPENDENCY RATIO
(%) 36.1 (%) 22.6
Source: United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2015)

Both countries have dependency ratio around 60 % , Norway having 66% and Sri Lanka having 63%, but there is
differences in the contributions by different age groups in this dependency ratio, this can be seen as Sri Lanka has
its young age dependency ratio 39.9 % which quite higher as compared to Norway with just 29.8%, whereas in
case of old age dependency ratio case is reversed, Norway having higher value as compared to Sri Lanka. The
main cause is the low fertility rate and low mortality rate of Norway as compared to Sri Lanka which has been
already mentioned. The decreasing fertility rate in Sri Lanka and higher population in the age group below 15
indicates that the Sri Lankan demographic environment is conducive for rapid economic development, given the
condition that necessary socio-economic policies are in place to achieve the maximum benefit of the situation,
whereas for Norway it is the alarming time as it is moving towards population ageing, which will have serious
consequences in the economic sector of the country.

Conclusion

Finally , it can be calculated that the differences in the age sex composition of developed and developing
countries is mainly due to the differences in the fertility , mortality rates and life expectancies ,two of which are
higher in developing countries as compared to developed world countries, whereas third is much higher in
developed world countries.
 APPENDIX
NORWAY
POPULATION IN THOUSAND
AGE GROUP TOTAL MALE MALE(%) FEMALE FEMALE(%)
0-4 315 161 3.10 153 2.94
5-9 316 162 3.11 154 2.96
10-14 305 156 2.99 150 2.87
15-19 327 168 3.23 159 3.04
20-24 356 183 3.52 173 3.32
25-29 357 182 3.48 175 3.37
30-34 351 181 3.48 169 3.25
35-39 337 174 3.35 163 3.13
40-44 379 195 3.75 184 3.53
45-49 380 197 3.77 184 3.52
50-54 335 172 3.31 163 3.12
55-59 319 161 3.09 157 3.01
60-64 283 142 2.73 140 2.69
65-69 301 150 2.88 151 2.89
70-74 194 94 1.80 100 1.92
75-79 136 62 1.19 74 1.42
80-84 106 44 0.84 62 1.18
85-89 71 26 0.50 45 0.87
90-94 35 10 0.19 25 0.48
95-99 8 2 0.04 6 0.12
100+ 1 0 0.00 1 0.01
TOTAL 5 211

Source: United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2015)
 SRI LANKA
POPULATION IN THOUSAND
AGE
GROUP TOTAL MALE MALE(%) FEMALE FEMALE(%)
0-4 1 643 834 4.03 809 3.91
5-9 1 749 880 4.25 869 4.20
10-14 1 699 850 4.11 848 4.09
15-19 1 585 796 3.84 789 3.81
20-24 1 535 750 3.62 785 3.79
25-29 1 449 679 3.28 770 3.72
30-34 1 517 710 3.43 807 3.89
35-39 1 551 746 3.60 804 3.88
40-44 1 365 666 3.22 699 3.37
45-49 1 324 646 3.12 678 3.27
50-54 1 259 604 2.92 655 3.16
55-59 1 153 539 2.60 614 2.96
60-64 960 444 2.14 516 2.49
65-69 822 371 1.79 451 2.18
70-74 509 219 1.06 290 1.40
75-79 280 118 0.57 162 0.78
80-84 180 72 0.35 108 0.52
85-89 95 37 0.18 58 0.28
90-94 32 13 0.06 19 0.09
95-99 7 3 0.02 4 0.02
100+ 1 1 0.00 0 0.00
20 9 10
TOTAL
715 979 736
Source: United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2015)