Population Composition Notes Class 12 Geography

We have provided the Population Composition Notes ahead which is a part of the class 12 geography syllabus.

Population Composition Notes

Population composition – it refers to those characteristics of the population which are measurable and which help us in distinguishing one group of people from another such as – age structure, sex ratio, literacy rate and occupation.

Sex composition-

Sex ratio – the ratio between the number of males and females in the population is called the sex ratio.

Calculation of sex ratio –

In India – female population/male population *1000

In the rest of the world – male population/female population *1000

  • In regions where gender discrimination is widespread, the sex ratio troublesome to ladies.
  • Thus, the practice of female foeticide, female infanticide and domestic violence on women will be prevalent.

Key points-

  • Sex ratio of world is 102 males over 100 females
  • Sex ratio in India is 940
  • The highest sex ratio in the world is in Latvia
  • The lowest sex ratio in the world is in UAE
  • Asia has a low sex ratio
  • While in Europe there is a high sex ratio

Types of the age-sex pyramid –

  1. Expanding population –
  • Nigeria’s age sex pyramid  is a triangular shaped pyramid
  • It has a huge population in lower age as birth rate is high

2. Constant population –

  • Australia’s age sex pyramid represent a bell shaped pyramid.
  • This shows that birth rate as well as death rate are almost equal which leads to constant population.

3. Declining population –

  • The age-sex pyramid of japan has a narrow base and tapered top
  • It depicts low birth rate and low death rate
  • The population growth of developed countries is zero or negative

Age structure –

  1. Age structure refers to the number of people of various age groups.
  2. The age group of 15-59 years represent working population.
  3. Population above 60 years represent ageing population

Age-sex-pyramid –

  1. The age structure of the human population refers to the number of women and men in different age groups.
  2. The shape of the population reflects characteristics of populations
  3. The left side represents the percentage of men while the right side represents the percentage of women of each age group.

Rural-urban composition –

  • Rural and urban lifestyles vary from person to person depending on their lifestyle and social conditions.
  • Rural areas are often the place where people do the primary activities.
  • Urban areas are those where majority of people are engaged in non-primary activities
  • The rural and urban differences in sex ratio in wester countries is that male outnumber female in rural areas and female outnumber male in urban areas
  • Women in urban areas of the USA, Canada and Europe is the result of the influx of women from rural areas to cities to find employment.
  • Farming is highly mechanised in these areas so men tend to live in rural areas
  • male dominates the sex ratio in the Asian countries due to their predominance of migration
  • In countries like India, female participation in farming activity is high
  •  Lack of housing, low urban security, discourages women from moving from rural to urban areas in India..

Literacy –

  1. Literacy rate – in India, literacy refers to the percentage of population above 7 years, who is able to read, write and have ability to do arithmetic calculation with understandings.

Key points –

  • The highest literacy rate in India is in Kerala

Occupational structure –

  • The working population takes part in occupations like agriculture, forestry, manufacturing, construction, services, communication etc.

Sectors of occupation-

  1. Primary sector – includes activities such as agriculture, forestry, fishing and mining
  2. Secondary sector – like manufacturing
  3. Tertiary sector –  include services, trade, transport, communication etc.
  4. Quaternary sector – includes job related to research, information technology etc.
  5. The proportion of working population in these sectors is a good indicator of economic development of nation.
  6. A developed country is able to take workers in the secondary, tertiary and quaternary sector.

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