All three sections met today, and heard more on the very useful Population Pyramids. The one for the United States is pictured to the left (courtesy of the CIA Factbook).
Sometimes the bars represent the percentage of the country's population; this one represents the US population in millions.
What else does the Factbook have to say about these pyramids? How about this: A population pyramid illustrates the age and sex structure of a country's population and may provide insights about political and social stability, as well as economic development. The population is distributed along the horizontal axis, with males shown on the left and females on the right. The male and female populations are broken down into 5-year age groups represented as horizontal bars along the vertical axis, with the youngest age groups at the bottom and the oldest at the top. The shape of the population pyramid gradually evolves over time based on fertility, mortality, and international migration trends.
See if you can find the bar that represents you! Or your parents! Or your grandparents!
Also, for your listening pleasure, here is a story I heard on NPR just yesterday that describes something we have been discussing in class: the continuing trend of American women getting married later in life, and having fewer children. I recommend that you check it out, to see the real-world relevance of what you are learning in our Human Geography course.
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