Population pyramids are graphics that show information about the age and gender of people in a specific country.

Population pyramids

Types of population pyramids

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How do population pyramids help us learn

about population?

Male Female

Population in millions

In this country

there is a high Birth

Rate

There is also a high

Death Rate.

This population pyramid is typical of countries in poorer parts of the world

(LEDCs.)

Expanding pyramid

In some LEDCs the government is

encouraging couples to have smaller families. This means the birth

rate has fallen.

Male Female

Population in millions

In this country the number of people in each age group is

about the same.

The largest category of people were born about 40 years

ago.

In this country there is a low Birth Rate and a low Death Rate.

This population pyramid is typical of countries in the richer parts of the

world (MEDCs.)

Stationary pyramid

Population in millions

Male Female

In this country the birth rate is decreasing.

In the future the elderly people will make up the

largest section of the population in this

country.

This is happening more and more in

many of the world’s richer

countries.

Contracting pyramid

There are narrower parts in the middle part of the

pyramid. People in their 20s in 1961 were born during the

Depression, a time of economic hardship in Canada

when people were having fewer children.

Spearhead pyramid

The pyramid had a wide base. These are the “baby

boomers,” a large group of people born between 1947

and 1966 when the economy was growing and prospering.

This is caused by a war, a time of economic hardship, illnesses, famine...

To sum up…Expanding pyramid

Stationary pyramid

Contracting pyramid

LESS DEVELOPED COUNTRIES

DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

DEVELOPED COUNTRIES

Male Female

Population in thousands

This country has a large number of temporary workers.

These are people who migrate here especially to find

a job.

Population pyramid for Mozambique.

Population pyramid for Iceland.

What happens next?

What is going to happen to Japan’s population in the future?Why does this matter?

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