IB HL GEOGRAPHY
Clare Cole
Demographic Age Report
In this activity we looked at various challenges that come with large ageing and youthful populations, as well as certain benefits. The purpose of this activity is for us to attain a wider knowledge of populations with varying ages, and look the effects in specific countries.
Click on the image below for the complete demographic age report.
Article Critique
Click on image above for link to article.
The Incredible Shrinking Country: This article from The Economist talks about how Japan’s population is shrinking, and will continue to do so if demographic changes are not implemented. Although I understood the concept of an old-age population pyramid, and how this can affect a country’s population, I appreciate how this article gave specific examples of what a Japan could do to prevent its population from falling and how unfortunately they not occurring. Japan’s population is currently made up of 22% of people over the age of 65, and that by 2060, the number of Japanese will have gone down from 127 million to only about 87 million, of whom nearly 40% will be 65 and above. This statistic really shows how a predominantly elderly population can affect growth of the entire population, in a short amount of time. Another point made in this piece was how mass immigration is a clear solution to this population problem, and how if more people migrated to Japan (where currently only 2% of the population is foreign), the population would stabilise and crisis could be avoided. But because of the country’s unwillingness to accept outsiders, as well as the difficulty that goes with attempting to raise fertility rates (the country’s entire social structure would have to be changed with it), the population crisis will not become any less urgent any time soon, without policy changes.
Video Critique
Click on image above for link to video.
How an Ageing Population Will Change the World: This video presented by BBC News talks about how an ageing population will change the world. It states that by 2050, the amount of people over the age of 65 will have tripled. This incredible statistic shows the scale of the issue the world is currently facing. I also learned how Japan, with the highest old-age dependancy ratio, is also the most worried about this fact. Its interesting to see how they are so conscious of what is happening in their country, yet they are often opposed to the solutions to this problem that they are presented with. Another thing that surprised me was the different international opinions on how people think the elderly should be taken care of; only a few countries have a large amount of people that believe that seniors should be responsible for themselves in terms of care. Most people surveyed believe that the government should be responsible, yet in places such as Pakistan think that its the families’ job. These differing cultural views are interesting, and I think it would also be interesting to look at the population structures of the different countries, and whether or not they coincide with what they said. It also stated how there is expected to be a larger dependancy ratio in the future, yet for countries like the US, which have large immigrant populations, this will be less of a problem for them. For although American women are beginning to have less babies, the immigrants are in fact raising fertility rates. It is also interesting to note that this video stated that the countries that currently have very large youth populations, will in fact be looking at larger future economic boosts.
Pro vs. Anti Natal Policies Infographic
