Transcript Demography

Demography
The Study of Populations
What is Demography?
 Gathering
and analysis of
information about human populations
 Eg.
birth rates, death rates, literacy
rates, population growth
 Demographer-
the type of
geographer who collects and
analyzes this information
Demographers want answers to…
How many? Where can this info be
found?
 How is this population changing and
how quickly?
 What are the characteristics and
composition of the population?
 How is the population distributed?
 What implications do these factors have
for the future?

Collecting Information on Population
Census- a questionnaire style form
which are sent to households to fill out
and return to the government
 Ask about family members living in
household, race, income level, ages,
etc.
 Demographers use this information to
make statistics for communities,
provinces or the country

How is the information used?
Track shifts in society that warrant
changes in immigration policies,
 Track internal migration
 Determine the number of elected
representatives
 Identify a good location for a new
business
 Plan a marketing strategy
 Set up social services that meet a
populations needs

Early Census
Census have been conducted since
Roman times
 These census collected info on the
number of people, the property they
owned and their agricultural harvest in
a year
 This information was collected to find
out how much a citizen could pay in
taxes

Mid 1700’s
 1st
national census were performed
in Sweden and US
 Hired
enumerators- people who
travel door to door to ask questions/
count the numbers of people
How is data collected?
Home visits by enumerators
 Completed online
 Send in by mail
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Depends on the country you are collecting
the information on
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Sending in by mail works in MDC where high
literacy rates and reliable mail system
Enumerator visits work best in LDC where
lower literacy rates
Types of Questions
Questions will vary depending on what the
country wants to find out
 A census which covers everything will
include questions on the following:
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Education
Religion
Language spoken
Nationality
Home ownership
Occupation
Possessions
Question to think about…
 Some
people think a census is
an invasion of personal
information. What do you think?
What would you tell these
people?
Problems with Inaccuracy

Results can never be 100% because:
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Homelessness- no permanent address
therefore hard to receive a census form to
fill out
Fear of entering slums or crime ridden
areas- enumerators might not want to
enter these areas to collect info
Isolation- enumerators/ mail does not
reach them
Confusion- people not living at their
permanent address not counted (eg.
university students)
Inaccuracies cont’d

Privacy issues- not wanting to disclose
personal info even though kept
confidential
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Reputation- info used to be used for
taxation purposes, or how many men
could serve in war. Some people are still
suspicious
Problems that result from inaccuracies

Unfair political representation
 #’s of people = political boundaries

Unfair levels of funding
 #’s of people = $ money receive

Lack of funding for homeless people
 #’s of homeless people recorded = more
or less funding
Problems cont’d
Product failure
 How a company will market a new
product based on demographics of
community
 Faulty economic policies
 Economic growth related to population
growth. Higher pop. growth = higher
economic growth. Inaccurate measures
of pop. growth may = inaccurate
predictions of economic growth

Problems with interpretation
Countries can interpret definitions of
statistics differently (eg. what is urban
living?)
 United Nations (UN) has written standard
definitions, but not every country uses
them
 Eg. Canada’s definition of urban = min.
size of community 1000 people. Sweden’s
definition = 200 people

Canadian Census
 Statistics
Canada- federal
government agency that collects,
analyzes and publishes data
 First started in 1871 and continued
every 10 years until 1986 when it
moved to every 5 years
 Every person must be included in the
census
Canadian Census cont’d
Two types of forms- short (7 questions)
and long (55 questions)
 80% of Canadians receive short forms
 20% receive the long form which
requires more information given
 Long forms allow the demographers to
determine trends for the entire country
without everyone having to fill one out
 Failure to complete the census form can
lead to a $500 fine or 3 months in
prison
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Canadian census cont’d
 Data
is entered into databases over
the next 4 months
 Statisticians analyze the data over
the next 4 years
 Stats Canada is recognized as one of
the most accurate statistical
information collection agency in the
world