Age structure of the population

Abstract

Chapters 4 and 5 have analysed the impact of income (in)equality and other (socio-)economic variables on fertility respectively mortality. The chapters following the present chapter will discuss a number of relationships that run in the opposite direction, that is from demographic to (socio-)economic vari­ables, and some interrelationships between these (socio-)economic variables. It will be seen in those chapters, that the age and sex structure of the population has a direct impact on many of these (socio-)economic variables. Fertility and mortality influence these variables only indirectly, through their impact on the population age and sex structure. The present chapter will be devoted to a purely demographic topic, namely how fertility and mortality shape the age (and sex) structure of a population.