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Chapter 14. Elders and Children as a Proportion of a Nation’s Population

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You must read each slide, and complete any questions on the slide, in sequence.

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Elders and Children as a Proportion of a Nation’s Population

This activity explores the concept of demographic shift by presenting data for several different nations, some of which have large populations under the age of 15 and very few over the age of 65, and some of which have the opposite. You will then have a chance to look at Germany’s demographic data in detail and reflect on how such data is interpreted by society.

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Grandson embracing his grandfather.
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Elders and Children as a Proportion of a Nation’s Population

Nations that have high birth rates also have high death rates, short life spans, and less education. A systems approach suggests that these variables are connected. For example, the publicly funded Reggio Emilia early-childhood-education program, perhaps the best in the world, originated in Italy, and Italy has one of the lowest proportions of children younger than 15. By contrast, the nations of sub-Saharan Africa have almost no government aid for children or the elderly.

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Data from Population Reference Bureau, 2015a and 2015b.






Elders and Children as a Proportion of a Nation’s Population

In nations with lower birth rates and longer life spans, the demographic shape looks more like a square than a pyramid. This is now the case in several nations, including Germany, where the average number of children per family is 1.4. Germany’s demographic shape is in stark contrast to that of India, which appears in your textbook.

Data from U.S. Census Bureau, 2015.

Elders and Children as a Proportion of a Nation’s Population

Grandson embracing his grandfather.
videnko/Shutterstock

1. Elders and Children as a Proportion of a Nation’s Population

Why does an increase in the number of people who are older than 65 worry some people? Explain your answer, making sure to address facts that can mitigate those fears.
Some may fear that a growing population of elders will result in the exhaustion of Social Security and Medicare, or that hospitals and nursing homes will be overcrowded and/or prohibitively expensive, resulting in countless elders who are dependent on the government or on others’ charity. However, most of the 15 percent who are elderly in the United States are self-sufficient and productive. Furthermore, while it is true that there are four times as many people over age 80 than there were 50 years ago, the overall population has also grown, meaning that the percentage of the population aged 80 and over has actually doubled—from 1.6 percent in 1965 to 3.7 percent in 2015. Especially when compared to the other 96.3 percent of the population, this increase should not be alarming.

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REFERENCES

Population Reference Bureau. (2015a). World population data sheet: Population ages less than 15. Retrieved, from http://www.prb.org/DataFinder/Topic/Rankings.aspx?ind=10

Population Reference Bureau. (2015b). World population data sheet: Population ages 65 and older. Retrieved, from http://www.prb.org/DataFinder/Topic/Rankings.aspx?ind=11

U.S. Census Bureau. (2015). Mid-year population by five year age groups and sex - custom region - Germany. Retrieved, from U.S. Census Bureau, International Data Base.