Chapter 1: Canada's Population in a Global Context

The Study of Population

Introduction

  • 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 Defined

  • 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

  • Attrition: losses through deaths and emigration
  • Accession: gains through births and immigration

Formal Demography and Population Studies

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

The Nature of Demographic Change

  • 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)
^^Change in Population Size^^
  • Net migration: the net difference between the number of incoming and outgoing migrants
  • Demographic balancing equation
^^Linear, Geometric, Exponential, and Logistic Models of Population Growth^^
  • 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^^
  • 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

Individual Behavior and Demographic Processes

^^Individual State Transitions as Demographic Behavior^^
  • Multistate classification: intersection of statuses
  • State transitions: moving in and out of statuses
      * Repeatable
      * Non-repeatable
^^Individual State Transitions and Demographic Rates^^
  • Rate: a dynamic, quantifiable measure of risk given exposure to some specific events over some specified interval
^^Reclassification Processes^^
  • Reclassification: a change in identification by individuals

Demographic Change and Social Change

  • 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
^^Age, Period, and Cohort: The Mechanisms of Demographic Change^^

  • 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

  • Timing: the age at which these events occur

  • Intensity: the number of persons involved

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

^^Cohorts and Generations^^
  • 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