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  • GGR208 Lecture 02 Raw

Crude Measurements

• What is a crude measurement?
  • Based on total population.
  • Country based
  • Some problems, because there are variations in a country.
  • No information on the causes.
• Patterns and influences
  • Economic conditions
    • Is Crude Death Rate an indicator of economic development?
  • Social conditions
    • Health care, social program
  • Structure of the population
    • Young vs Old
    • Old skewed popl. likely drag the Crude Death Rate up.
    • Young skewed popl. drag the Crude Death Rate down.
    • See that in least developed countries, they have a lot of young skewed popl. so Crude Death Rate is less than a developed country with an older skewed popl.
• Sufficiency of Crude Measurements
  • Incomplete picture
  • Inconclusive explanation
  • You need to carefully look at the data.
• Crude Birth Rate
• Crude Death Rate
• Rate of Natural Increase
• Population Growth - Doubling Time
• Infant Mortality Rate
• Life Expectancy
• Population Structure
• Total Fertility Rate
• Ex:
  • 
    • See that there is a variation between max and min.
    • See a Correlation between CBR and level of economic development.

• ↑

  • GGR208 Lecture 02

• Definition

  • Demographic measurements based on the total population of a country.
  • Limitations:
    • Problems arise due to internal variations within a country (hides regional nuance).
    • Provides no information on the specific causes of the demographic data.

• Patterns and Influences

  • Economic Conditions:
    • The validity of Crude Death Rate as an indicator of economic development is questionable.
  • Social Conditions:
    • Influenced by access to health care and social programs.
  • Population Structure (Age Skew):
    • Old Skewed Population: Likely drags the Crude Death Rate up (higher mortality in older cohorts).
    • Young Skewed Population: Likely drags the Crude Death Rate down (lower mortality in youth cohorts).
    • The Development Paradox: Least developed countries often possess young-skewed populations, resulting in a Crude Death Rate that is lower than that of developed countries with old-skewed populations.

• Sufficiency

  • Crude measurements provide an incomplete picture.
  • They offer inconclusive explanations, necessitating deeper data analysis.

• Key Examples

  • Crude Birth Rate
  • Crude Death Rate
  • Rate of Natural Increase
  • Population Growth - Doubling Time
  • Infant Mortality Rate
  • Life Expectancy
  • Total Fertility Rate

• Correlations

  • Data visualization often shows a Correlation between Crude Birth Rate and the level of economic development.

• Footnotes