Question

1. Why would policy makers be interested in the age distribution of the population? Give at least three reasons. You must provide a brief discussion for each reason. They have to be good, well-discussed reasons. Your answer must be presented in well-structured paragraphs.

Answer 1

Age distribution plays a very important factor in the population. Age distribution of a population is given by a list of proportions of that population in different age groups. Age distribution of developing countries is significantly younger than in their developed counterparts. Consider two countries with same population growth rates may have dramatically different age structures. This is because one of the two countries may have a significantly higher birth rate and a higher death rate than other country. At the same time, it is true that the first country is adding more young population to its population than the other country. Unless the death rates in first country are concentrated highly among the young (which is unlikely), there will be more young people in that country. We might just say that the first country has a younger age distribution than the other country.

Just as birth and death rates affect age distributions, these rates are in turn affected by the age distributions prevailing at any particular moment in time. An aggregate birth rate, let’s say is affected by age distribution in the country, the age specific fertility rates of women etc. These observations have serious implications. In developing economies, a total fertility rate (which is affected by age specific fertility rates) is as high as 7 or 8. While in a developed country, this number is only 2. This high fertility rates contribute to the high birth rates. However, that is not the only factor which contributes to the high birth rates. Same kind of a situation goes with death rates also.

Another implication due to which policy makers are concerned about the age distribution can be known from the following situation. Consider a country that has had high population growth rates implements a policy to bring down total fertility rates. The point is that even if this policy were to be successful, population size would probably overshoot the desired limits before settling down at an acceptable level. Reason- high population rates in the past lead to a young age distribution.