What should a population pyramid look like

For example, the population pyramid for Italy is reversed. This nation has some of the lowest birth rates in the world, which is reflected in a graph that has a very narrow base and wider bars in middle- and older-age categories. Italy struggles with social change due to the deficit of young people in its population, and can expect this struggle to continue as its largest population subgroups reach retirement ages — with fewer young people contributing to the economy in the future.

Overall, Italy's total population is shrinking. A third major population pyramid type is described as stable. The population pyramid for the United States has the silhouette of a pillar or column. The even distribution of people across different age groups suggests a population that is neither growing nor shrinking rapidly.

In fact, the U. The number of births per woman is just above replacement levels. Typically, populations are more or less balanced across men and women at each age. Women generally have lower mortality at every age and live longer than men, so at the oldest ages the difference in mortality by sex accumulates and shows up as wider bars on the female side of a population pyramid.

However, in rare cases major social upheaval — such as war or massive migration — will skew a population pyramid's sex balance dramatically. For example, the population pyramid for the United Arab Emirates has a strongly uneven distribution of men and women in its population due to the number of males who migrate to that nation for work.

Looking at the population pyramid for what is now the Russian Federation, it's possible to see the effects of World War II in the shorter than expected bars for men aged , as well as smaller number of children ages A variety of broad population processes show up as dimples and bulges in population pyramids. Each individual pyramid only shows a snapshot of the population at a given time, yet it can be used to infer historical events that may have shaped the population as well as future social forces that will come into play as each cohort ages.

Population pyramids are widely used as descriptive data analysis tools. They can be made for nations, states, counties or even cities, separately for different racial categories or educational attainment classes, and compared across time.

Population pyramids can even reveal how many people are going to be in these life transitions in 5, 10 or 15 years. Because so many social forces are tied to such moments, they are powerful tools. Editor's note: This item was updated to clarify the age range of the baby-boom generation.

Skip to main content. Malia Jones. UW Applied Population Lab. Caitlin Bourbeau. They are used by demographers, who study populations.

A population pyramid is a graph that shows the distribution of ages across a population divided down the center between male and female members of the population.

The graphic starts from youngest at the bottom to oldest at the top. It is called a population pyramid because when a population is growing there are more babies being born than there are people dying , the graphic forms the shape of a triangle.

A population pyramid can be used to compare differences between male and female populations of an area. They also show the number of dependents children and, sometimes, elderly people and general structure of the population at any given moment. There are three main trends in populations that affect the shape of a population pyramid.

The first is when there are both high fertility and high mortality rates among younger members. Expansive pyramids mean that the population does not increase much in total number and has many young people.

These population pyramids are wider in the middle of the graph as the population has high numbers of middle aged and elderly people, but fewer young people. These population pyramids represent a stable population that will not change significantly barring any sudden changes to fertility or mortality rates. Population pyramids are useful for studying the future of a region as well as examining historical and current population trends.

If part of the population has been affected by sudden changes, such as casualties from armed conflict, high female mortality in childbirth, or the migration of young workers out of poorer regions, the graph will offer a way to visualize how the future population will be affected.

They can also help direct government and private industry distribution of services for regions based on population needs. The audio, illustrations, photos, and videos are credited beneath the media asset, except for promotional images, which generally link to another page that contains the media credit. The Rights Holder for media is the person or group credited. Tyson Brown, National Geographic Society.

National Geographic Society. For information on user permissions, please read our Terms of Service. World and U. Population Trends. This lesson provides students with the background to understand the importance of age structure on population growth. They do this by creating a population pyramid.

Extension: Create a population pyramid with 16 or 17 age groups. Guide to Making Pyramids with Excel: Create a population pyramid using an Excel spreadsheet and graphing function. Resource Library. Pyramid Building: How to make a Population Pyramid. Details Date January 1, Authors Population Reference Bureau. Focus Area World and U. Grade Levels: Time Needed: days Learning Objectives: Interpret graphic information, Create a modified four-part population pyramid, Interpret and compare modified population pyramids of selected countries, and Map identified countries.

If you use the figure with the Democratic Republic of Congo and Germany pyramids, cover these up for the first part of the lesson.

Explain that a population pyramid shows the age and sex structure of a population. Point to the horizontal bars, which show the percentage or the absolute number of males and females in each age group. Have students interpret the chart. Which age group has the greatest proportion of people? In the United States from to , people had larger families. These people are now between the ages of 30 and 50 and are called baby boomers. Point to this group on the pyramid.