Question

Define age structure, death rate and birth rate.

Answer 1

Age Structure

• Age structure is nothing but division of the population of a nation into three broad categories – Children (generally below 15 years of age), Working Age (15 – 59 years), Aged (Above 59 years).
• The dependency ratio is affected by the aged and the children as these groups are not producers.
• Aged group people may not be available for employment through recruitment. Aged group of people are already retired.
• Although aged group people are retired, they can still be economically productive.
• People in Working age group are biologically and economically productive group.
• The group of population which comes under the category of children are economically not productive and they need to be provided with education, food, clothing, medical care.

Birth Rate

• Number of live births per thousand persons in a year is known as the birth rate.
• In India, birth rates have always been higher than death rates, hence it is one of the major components of population growth rate in India.

Death Rate

• The definition of death rate is the number of deaths per thousand people in a year.
• Rapid decline in death rate has been one of the main causes behind the growth rate of population in India.
• Till 1980 there was a major spurt in the population growth rate due to reduction in death rate and increase in birth rate.