Question

1. In China, the fertility rate is 1.8 children per woman in childbearing age. What does this mean for the population growth in the long run and why?

2. In Country B the sex ratio at birth is 0.96. How does this compare to the normal sex ratio and what does this mean for country B?

3. The share of people aged 15-64 in China was 73% in 2010 and is projected to fall to 65% in the next few years. Western companies that have been building factories in China for past few decades are now gradually looking to relocate to other places in Asia, such as Cambodia and Bangladesh. What could be the link between the two phenomena?

4. In Japan, life expectancy is 84 years, the share of the population aged 65 and above is 28%, and the economic growth is 0.8% per year. How are these three statistics connected?

Answer 1

1. The 1.8 child per women in the age indicates that in the long run, the population of china will decline. With most women having less than 2 children (one child policy), in the long run the population will start stabilizing and eventually decline.

2. Sex ratio at birth refers to the number of females to males at the time of birth and a normal sex ratio is the ratio of males to females at any given point of time in the economy. Sex ratio at birth may change with time due to multiple reasons like malnutrition, desire for a male child, killing of the girl child at birth. This ratio indicates that for 100 males about 96 females are born. This figure may change in the future.

3. The population in the age group of 15-64 is known as the working segment. This the productive segment of the population. A higher percentage of population in this group indicates larger workforce. Factories that require huge quantities are set up in these regions. When predictions of a fall in the working age group were made, it indicted that factories would have lesser number of people to work in them. It is feasible and profitable for companies to shift factories that have a high work force and continue to due so since more workforce is available to work in the factories at lower wages.

4. The average life expectancy of the country is 84 years. People above the age of 65 are not major contributors to economic growth. The government needs to in fact spend on taking care of the population that fall in the 23% of the population. With the growth rate at 0.8% if the percentage of population in the 65 years and above increases, it means that government expenditure will increase on care for this segment of the population. These funds would generally come from funds that are diverted from other segments that would be economically beneficial.