Population Pyramids
A graph which shows the age and gender structure of a population. give information about a country. They show the population structure by age and sex as well as the relative proportion of the population who are dependents (too young or old to work) or economically active (a country's eligible workforce).
Ageing and declining populations
The diagram below is a population pyramid for Italy. The pyramid is similar to that of other developed countries in Western Europe.
It shows that:
- there is a relatively small number of people under the age of 20
- there is a high number of people over the age of 60
Italy recently became the first country in the world where the number of over 60s exceeded the under 20s. This is because older people are living longer and fewer babies are being born.
This has led to a decrease in the EU fertility rate, down from 2.75 children to each woman in the appropriate age group in the mid-1960s, to a current rate of 1.53 children per female.
To maintain a stable population, a level of 2.1 is required. All across Europe fertility rates, and therefore populations, are decreasing.