MDC and LDC Populations Worksheet

Demography is the statistical study of human populations, especially with reference to size, density, distribution, and vital statistics (relating to births, deaths, marriages, health and disease, etc). In making population projections for different countries, demographers look at the profile of the countries’ residents. They ask: What are the ages of the people? How many are men? How many are women? Using this information, they construct “population pyramids” (a.k.a. age histograms) like the ones the class will use in this activity. These graphs illustrate the configuration of a country’s population as shaped by 70 to 80 years of economic, political and natural events.

Procedure:

You will find information about the populations of two countries; the United States and one other country picked from a list on the last page.

Countries Assigned = USA and ____________________________

Log onto the web and go to International Data Base (IDB) part of the www.census.gov site

(The URL is https://www.census.gov/data-tools/demo/idb/#/table?YR_ANIM=2021 )

1. For the report tab, select “Custom Report”.

2. In custom report columns tab select all data in the tables below.

3. In the select by County/Area tab, select the Country.

4. Use the data for this year to answer the questions on this page below.

5. In the resulting webpage, click on your Country’s name to access the population pyramid graph.

6. Right click on the graph so you can copy it and then past it at the end of this worksheet.

7. Repeat for your second country.

Using the information from the internet for this year, fill out the tables for both of your countries

	UNITED STATES	fill in country name
What is the Crude Birth Rate?
What is the Crude Death Rate?
What is the life expectancy at birth?
What is the infant mortality rate?
What is the Total Fertility Rate (FTR)?
What is the growth rate today?
What is the doubling time for the population? (You will have to work this out so look at the population lecture!) Show your math work!

Still on the International Data Base (IDB) site

(The URL is https://www.census.gov/data-tools/demo/idb/#/table?YR_ANIM=2021 )

1. To obtain the population by age group, scroll/mouse over the population pyramid. The population totals for each 5-year group will appear.

2. Add up the numbers in each group to comprise the three categories below. Once you have the population size of each category you can calculate the % of the population made up by that age group using the following calculation:

3. (Population size for the age group ÷ total population size) X 100 = % of population

4. Calculate this information and add the results to complete the table below.

Repeat your for second country

	UNITED STATES		fill in country name
Age Group	Population size for both Sexes	% of population		Population size for both Sexes	% of population
0-14		Pre-Reproductive			Pre-Reproductive
15-44		Reproductive			Reproductive
45-80+		Post-Reproductive			Post-Reproductive
	TOTAL POPULATION SIZE			TOTAL POPULATION SIZE

Upload ALL the numbers (the data on page one and page two for the worksheet) you found for your second country to the Q&A forum. You do not need to upload the numbers for the USA. The Q&A forum is located on the course homepage near the top.

Once you have looked at all the data collected by the class answer the following questions

Discussion Questions.

Use the information uploaded by your classmates in the Q&A forum to answers the following questions:

1. Which 2 countries have the fastest growth rate? Are they MDC’s or LDC’s?

2. Which 2 countries have the slowest growth rate? Are they MDC’s or LDC’s?

3. Which 2 countries have the highest TFR? Are they MDC’s or LDC’s?

4. Which 2 countries have the lowest TFR? Are they MDC’s or LDC’s?

5. Which 2 countries have the largest percentage of pre-reproductive individuals within their population? Are they MDC’s or LDC’s?

6. Which 2 countries have the largest percentage of post-reproductive individuals within their population? Are they MDC’s or LDC’s?

7. Which 2 countries have the longest life expectancy? Are they MDC’s or LDC’s?

8. Which 2 countries have the highest infant mortality rate? Are they MDC’s or LDC’s?

9. Taking into account what you have learned from this exercise and this week’s material, what is the relation between the following topic and population growth rate:

a) Infant mortality rate.

b) % Pre-reproductive individuals.

c) % Post reproductive individuals.

d) TFR

e) MDC’s and LDC’s.

Turn in this worksheet by the due date.

MDC LDC ICA Country List

Angola	Haiti
Australia	Japan
Austria	Laos
Bangladesh	New Zealand
Botswana	Niger
Burundi	Norway
Cameroon	Rwanda
Central African Republic	Sudan
Chad	Sweden
China	Switzerland
Congo	Uganda
Cote d’Ivoire	Yemen
Denmark	Luxembourg
Eritrea	Mozambique
Finland	Korea North