Chapter 1: Canada's Population in a Global Context

The population problem: overpopulation * Peaked in 1960/1970 → population growth faster than ever * Effects on environment * Result = decline in population + industrial capacity
Highly developed countries: trouble = below-replacement birth rate + low population growth * Population aging
Developing countries: decline in population growth
Least developed countries: high growth rates → aggravates poverty, unemployment, slow economic development
Demographers: those who study population dynamics
Aggregate manifestations/measures * Birth rate * Death rate
3 fundamental variables of demography: * Fertility * Mortality * Migration
Other variables: * Age * Sex
Highly industrialized countries: below-replacement fertility rate * Baby boom generation
Canada - urban expansion * More automobiles → greenhouse gas emissions → pollution
Importance of population for society

Population: a collectivity of people co-existing within a prescribed geographic territory at a given point in time. The collectivity changes as a function of the interplay of migration, birth, and death processes
Temporal continuity: people living today are descendants of many earlier generations
Demographic metabolism: a continuing process of societal renewal through the fundamental demographic processes of birth, death, and in- and out-migration
Census: a tool allowing to count the number of persons present in a given area at a specified time

→ Undercount! * Can identify: * Civilian population * Total resident population * Total population living abroad

Demography: the scientific study of population and how population is affected by births, deaths, and migration * Divided in 2 aspects that are complementary: * Population studies * Formal demography
Roland Pressat’s 3 core areas

Formal demography: the quantitative study of population in terms of growth, distribution, and development/change * How many people of what kind are where?

Population studies: interplay between demography and other disciplines * Focuses on identifying determinants and consequences * How come? So what?

Static analysis: focus on demographic conditions at a fixed point in time
Dynamic analysis: study the change in demographic conditions over a period of time * Process variables: variables that reflect human behavioral processes (fertility, mortality, migration)

Net migration: the net difference between the number of incoming and outgoing migrants
Demographic balancing equation

Linear model: assumes a straight-line progression of change over time * The population grows by the same amount between time points * Rate of change is constant
Geometric/Exponential models: assume that growth follows a non-linear trend over time * Geometric model: growth occurs at discrete time points, such as the end of each year * Exponential model: assumes continuous compounding at discrete time points
Logistic model: assumes that a human population undergoing prolonged exponential growth will eventually experience insupportable levels of population density, which will impose strains on resources and the environment; and under such conditions, society would be compelled to implement measures to curtail growth or face increased rates of mortality * Small population + low population density = increase rate of growth

Compositional change: change in the distribution of key population characteristics (age, sex, marital status, education, occupation)
Age-sex pyramid: a graphic representation of the distribution of the population in terms of age and sex

Multistate classification: intersection of statuses
State transitions: moving in and out of statuses * Repeatable * Non-repeatable

Rate: a dynamic, quantifiable measure of risk given exposure to some specific events over some specified interval

Social change has occurred when a social pattern is significantly different from what it has been in the past * Agents of social change: acts of individuals + changes in population * Processes: process of imitation + action of the mass media
Normative behavior: when a behavior becomes a standard form of behavior

Biological aging: passage through life from birth to death
Chronological aging: passage through biological and calendar time simultaneously
Birth cohort: individuals who are born during a specified time interval and pass through biological and chronological time together

Period perspective: emphasis on some phenomenon occurring at a given point in time or time interval

Generation: one generation of parents produces a new generation of children… * Encompasses different birth cohorts that experience some significant defining societal experience
Baby boom generation