Economics Principles and Practices © 2012 Georgia

"Learning About Population"

Introduction
Population trends are important to many groups. Politicians, for example, closely watch population shifts to see how voting patterns may change. Community leaders are interested because increases or decreases in local population impact services such as sanitation, education, crime prevention, and fire protection. Businesses use census data to help determine new plant locations, products and services, and sales territories.

Destination Title: The U.S. Census Bureau's IDB

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Directions
For this activity, begin at the U.S. Census Bureau's International Database Web site.

1			Select the United States from the country list. Select 1950 as the year and click "submit." Print a hard copy of your results. Go back and do the same for the current year. Examine each pyramid. What do you notice about the relationship between the left and right sides for each graph?
2			How did the population in the 15-19 age group change between 1950 and today?
3			Click on "IDB Main" at the top of the page and then select "Frequently Asked Questions." What are the major types of data available in the IDB?
4			Select "Country Rankings" at the top of the page. Enter the current year in the box. Select "Top 10 countries," and "Submit." What countries rank in the top 10 by population?