The document summarizes global population growth trends over time. It notes that the world population was only 5 million in 6000 BCE but grew to over 7 billion by 2011. It discusses how population growth affects quality of life and places demands on resources. While population growth was once beneficial, most demographers now agree it needs to slow down. The document also outlines components of population change and models of demographic transition. It provides specifics on population trends in Canada, including its aging population and reliance on immigration.

1. Demography & Global Issues

2. World Population Growth
• In 6000 BCE the world’s population was 5
million.
• By 1 CE, the world’s pop was over 250 million.
• 200 years ago, the world’s pop reached 1
billion.
• In 1960, the world’s pop was 3 billion.
• Today – over 7.2 billion, we reached 7 billion on
Oct 31, 2011.
• The UN estimates that the world’s pop will
increase to 10 billion by 2010.

5. Why is this important?
• One of the greatest single factors affecting
quality of life around the world is population.
• As the populations of individual countries
fluctuate, so must the social, economic, and
political policies that are in place.
• With an increase in population, there is a
greater demand for resources, which can often
lead to environmental damage such as ozone
depletion, deforestation, and soil erosion.

6. Demography
• The study and analysis of trends relating to
human populations.
• This type of study dates all the way back to
ancient times, but has changed considerably
over the years.
• For example, most demographers today agree
that the world’s rate of pop growth needs to
slow down. But in ancient times, pop growth
was beneficial.
• The most complete way to gather info about
pop is to conduct a pop census.

7. Population Rates
Components of population change are:
· How many people are born
· How many people die, and
· How many move in or out of an area
Population Change Equation:
Births – deaths
+ immigrants (people moving INTO country)
– emigrants (people moving OUT OF
country)

8. Rule of Seventy
• a convenient way to express exponential population
growth – is to use the length of time it would take for a
population to double in size – can apply the “rule of
seventy”,
• It states that doubling time (the period of years it
takes a country to double its population at its current
birth rate) is approximately equal to 70 divided by the
growth rate (in percent).
• Example: Gabon’s present rate of natural increase
has a doubling time of approximately 47 years:
•
• 70 divided by 1.5 (per cent growth per year) = 46.7
years

9. Life Expectancy
• life expectancy – the average number of years that
an adult is expected to live
• in 1700’s – people had a life expectancy of about 30
years
• today in Canada (2012) – over 82 years
• Factors contributing to death rate, thus shorter life
expectancy:
disease, poor nutrition, poor medical care, unsanitary
living
• before 1700’s - birth rates were high, but so were
death rates – so had several children to ensure that a
few survived
• also needed more children to help farm the land and
provide security to parents in their old age – this
situation still common today in developing countries

10. Pop Growth after 1750
• Rapid changes in population growth after 1750
– mainly due to falling death rates because:
agricultural revolution – increased food
production, so people had better diets
• -hygiene and medical knowledge improved
• -clean drinking water, a more varied, nutritious
diet, and vaccination against infectious
diseases meant far more children survived to
become parents themselves
• -birth rates remained high for a number of
years, producing a wide gap between birth and
death rates and a rapid growth in population

11. • Shift in Population growth again when falling death
rate was matched by decline in birth rate – reasons
for decline:
1. - economic development
2. - move to cities
3. - rising standards of living
• After WWII – World Heath Organization (WHO) and
aid programs made improved health measures
available to all countries
• Result: death rates fell, but birth rates are still high in
many developing countries – this explains the rapid
growth in areas of the world, such as Africa, that do
not have significant economic development

12. Demographic Transition Model

13. Canada’s Population
• Canada’s birth and death rates have been
dropping in the past 30 years.
• This means the pop is getting older.
• 1951 – 1 in 10 cdns was over 65.
• 2020 – 1 in 5 will be over 65.
• Life expectancy in Cdn ↑ from an average of 45
years in 1900 to 65 by 1950 and to 79 in 2000.
• The increasing numbers of elderly people put
immense strains on social and medical
services.

14. Canada’s Immigration
• The age structure of Cdn’s pop is one of the
main factors the federal govt considers when
deciding on the number of immigrants Cdn
should accept each year.
• Without immigration between 1991 and 1996,
our pop would have shrunk by 750,000 instead
of increasing by more than 1.6 million.
• The average age of the Cdn pop would have
increased rapidly.
• The # of immigrants entering Cdn is around
200,000 per year.
• Govt’s goal of immigration is 1% of pop.

15. China
• Largest group of refugees
comes from China.
• More money spent on
refugee claims than on
immigrant claims.
• The growing gap between
rich and poor, unrest in the
countryside, persistent
government corruption,
and staggering
environmental challenges
-- all threaten to derail the
country's dreams.