IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/dem/demres/v35y2016i29.html

Visualising the demographic factors which shape population age structure

Author

Listed:
  • Tom Wilson

    (Independent researcher)

Abstract

Background: The population pyramid is one of the most popular tools for visualising population age structure. However, it is difficult to discern from the diagram the relative effects of different demographic components on the size of age-specific populations, making it hard to understand exactly how a population’s age structure is formed. Objective: The aim of this paper is to introduce a type of population pyramid which shows how births, deaths, and migration have shaped a population’s age structure. Methods: Births, deaths, and population data were obtained from the Human Mortality Database and the Australian Bureau of Statistics. A variation on the conventional population pyramid, termed here a components-of-change pyramid, was created. Based on cohort population accounts, it illustrates how births, deaths, and net migration have created the population of each age group. A simple measure which summarises the impact of net migration on age structure is also suggested. Results: Example components-of-change pyramids for several countries and subnational regions are presented, which illustrate how births, deaths, and net migration have fashioned current population age structures. The influence of migration is shown to vary greatly between populations. Conclusions: The new type of pyramid aids interpretation of a population’s age structure and helps to understand its demographic history over the last century.

Suggested Citation

  • Tom Wilson, 2016. "Visualising the demographic factors which shape population age structure," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 35(29), pages 867-890.
    • Handle: RePEc:dem:demres:v:35:y:2016:i:29
    DOI: 10.4054/DemRes.2016.35.29
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.demographic-research.org/volumes/vol35/29/35-29.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.4054/DemRes.2016.35.29?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jan M. Hoem, 2005. "Why does Sweden have such high fertility?," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 13(22), pages 559-572.
    2. Nico Keilman & Arve Hetland & Dinh Quang Pham, 2002. "Why population forecasts should be probabilistic - illustrated by the case of Norway," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 6(15), pages 409-454.
    3. Jan M. Hoem, 2005. "Why does Sweden have such high fertility?," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2005-009, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    4. David Coleman, 2010. "Projections of the Ethnic Minority Populations of the United Kingdom 2006–2056," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 36(3), pages 441-486, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ruedin, Didier, 2025. "Ukrainian Refugees in Switzerland: A research synthesis of what we know," EconStor Preprints 308844, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, revised 2025.
    2. Juakaly Wayisovia, Emmanuel & Ongo Nkoa, Bruno Emmanuel, 2025. "Environmental quality in Africa: Is the demographic dividend an asset?," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. C. Spiess & Katharina Wrohlich, 2008. "The Parental Leave Benefit Reform in Germany: Costs and Labour Market Outcomes of Moving towards the Nordic Model," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 27(5), pages 575-591, October.
    2. Anna Baranowska-Rataj & Xavier de Luna & Anneli Ivarsson, 2016. "Does the number of siblings affect health in midlife? Evidence from the Swedish Prescribed Drug Register," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 35(43), pages 1259-1302.
    3. Jan M. Hoem, 2008. "Overview Chapter 8: The impact of public policies on European fertility," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 19(10), pages 249-260.
    4. Nicoletta Balbo & Francesco C. Billari & Melinda Mills, 2013. "Fertility in Advanced Societies: A Review of Research," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 29(1), pages 1-38, February.
    5. Brenner, Jan, 2010. "Life-cycle variations in the association between current and lifetime earnings: Evidence for German natives and guest workers," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 392-406, April.
    6. Tomas Kögel, 2006. "Swedish Family Policy, Fertility and Female Wages," Discussion Paper Series 2006_7, Department of Economics, Loughborough University.
    7. repec:osf:socarx:8kqws_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Samuel H. Preston & Caroline Sten Hartnett, 2008. "The Future of American Fertility," NBER Working Papers 14498, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Gianpiero Dalla Zuanna, 2007. "Social mobility and fertility," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 17(15), pages 441-464.
    10. Ari Klængur Jónsson, 2018. "Family policies, childbearing, and economic crisis: The case of Iceland," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 39(19), pages 561-592.
    11. Anne Gauthier, 2007. "The impact of family policies on fertility in industrialized countries: a review of the literature," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 26(3), pages 323-346, June.
    12. Ian Dey & Fran Wasoff, 2010. "Another Child? Fertility Ideals, Resources and Opportunities," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 29(6), pages 921-940, December.
    13. Elena Kotyrlo, 2017. "Fertility and commuting: evidence based on first-birth rates of young working women," Journal of Population Research, Springer, vol. 34(2), pages 135-163, June.
    14. Rueda, Cristina & Rodríguez, Pilar, 2010. "State space models for estimating and forecasting fertility," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 26(4), pages 712-724, October.
    15. Hill Kulu & Andres Vikat & Gunnar Andersson, 2006. "Settlement size and fertility in the Nordic countries," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2006-024, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    16. Christian Dudel & Sebastian Klüsener, 2019. "New opportunities for comparative male fertility research: insights from a new data resource based on high-quality birth registers," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2019-023, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    17. Dudel, Christian & Klüsener, Sebastian, 2019. "New opportunities for comparative male fertility research: Insights from a new data resource based on high-quality birth registers," SocArXiv 8kqws, Center for Open Science.
    18. Karoly Fazekas & Zsombor Cseres-Gergely & Agota Scharle (ed.), 2008. "The Hungarian Labour Market 2008," The Hungarian Labour Market Yearbooks, Institute of Economics, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies, number 2008, December.
    19. Berde, Éva & Kovács, Eszter, 2016. "A svéd és a magyar termékenységi arányszám összehasonlítása [Comparison of Swedish and Hungarian fertility levels]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(12), pages 1348-1374.
    20. Vanessa Wittemann, 2023. "Educational reproduction in Sweden: A replication of Skopek and Leopold 2020 using Swedish data," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 48(25), pages 733-774.
    21. Jesús Rodrigo-Comino & Gianluca Egidi & Adele Sateriano & Stefano Poponi & Enrico Maria Mosconi & Antonio Gimenez Morera, 2021. "Suburban Fertility and Metropolitan Cycles: Insights from European Cities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-14, February.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • J1 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics
    • Z0 - Other Special Topics - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:dem:demres:v:35:y:2016:i:29. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Editorial Office (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.demogr.mpg.de/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.