Age and Sex Composition of the Population

Age and Sex Composition of the Population, one of the basic characteristics that characterize the organic structure of the population of a country as a whole, and represents profound significance for the biological and social life of every people; it is observed and studied through population censuses, conducted periodically every 5-10 years in all civilized countries of the world. The relative number of men and women in the population has significance for its economy, affects the process of population growth, family relations, the nature of morbidity and mortality, is reflected in the distribution of defects and crimes, etc. The presence of one or another content in the population of children, persons of productive age, and elderly people in itself affects many aspects of social organization. An excessive number of children and elderly people places a burden on the productive class; conversely, an insufficient number of children leads the population to stagnation or even to regression. Emigration of youth weakens the productive forces of the country; immigration of them increases it. Military strength is measured by the number of people capable of defending the state. Morbidity, mortality, and other phenomena change depending on sex and age. Comparison of many facts of social organization in different classes of the population can be correct only if their age and sex composition is taken into account. Hence it follows that 'calculation of the population by sex and age is one of the most useful pieces of knowledge'. In a workers' state it is even more necessary for assessing the most important needs of social and cultural construction; without this knowledge the planned organization of the national economy and labor cannot function properly. The scientific study of the age and sex composition of the population in Western Europe and the U.S.A. has long since led to clarification of many aspects of this complex question. Through mass observation, summarizing data from individual civilized countries of the globe as a whole, it is established that the main tendency of population development goes in the direction of numerical equilibrium for each sex, male and female. Such is the ideal norm. In this equalizing sense, the powerful natural factors of birth rate and mortality operate. Everywhere the unchanging law of the excess of boys born over girls (5-6 per 100) is observed; everywhere a uniform type of age mortality is traced, with an excess of the male sex in certain groups. Biological factors, so to speak, tend to bring the content of each sex in the population everywhere to a certain equilibrium. And nevertheless, in individual geographical areas, more or less significant deviations from this norm are often observed in the form of some excess on the side of men or women: factors and processes of complex social origin disrupt the natural equilibrium in one direction or another, with varying strength and character in different countries; these factors—industrial development and social structure, in particular—immigration and emigration, wars, economic crises, etc. The social conditions of modern Europe lead to a more rapid extinction of the male half of the population and to intensive emigration. These influences are ultimately summarized in the form of some excess of women in the total count of the population of European states. In other parts of the world (as far as this is known regarding civilized countries of Asia, Africa, America, and Oceania) the opposite is observed, i.e., some excess on the side of men. It is assumed that in countries with less developed industrial-economic life, among purely agricultural peoples, with extensive economy, even more so with predominance of nomadic, pastoral, and hunting lifestyles, women are relatively few: the imposition of heavy work on them, premature entry into marriage, frequent disasters, etc.—all this influences in a direction that exhausts the female population and reduces its relative number. An excess of men is also observed in countries with intensified immigration. Later conditions in connection with the results of the world war everywhere strengthened the numerical predominance of women. These relations clearly appear in the results of observations by states of all parts of the world before and immediately after the world war. Table 1. Relative numbers of women per 1,000 men. Countries Go 1910-11 1,039.2 975.5 959.0 942.5 920.2 1920-21 1,107.0 986.8 953.2 964.2 965.4 Europe (22 states) . Africa (3 » ) . Asia (4 » ) . America (5 » ) . Oceania (2 » ) . 988.2 1,013.5 In the overall world balance (about 1 billion population—36 states), the total numbers of men and women are very close to each other, with a slight excess of men before the imperialist war and an equal excess of women after the war. The previous general situation is also maintained after the war: the excess of women in Europe is further strengthened; in other parts of the world the excess is in descending order according to the predominance of women in the population composition. Table. States Portugal .... Norway...... England and Wales . . Denmark....... Spain ...... Sweden...... Italy ....... France....... Switzerland...... Germany....... Austria......) Hungary ...... < Netherlands..... Belgium........ Greece ........ Romania....... Serbia (Yugoslavia). Bulgaria....... Years 1910/11 1920/21 | 1925/26 1,106.8 1,099.7 060.6 6.3 9 5 6 4 1,024.1 1,020.7 1,016.8 986.4 967.9 946.1 961.6 1,112.4! 1,052.7 1,096.11 1,052.7 1,062.1 1,037.3 1,036.8 1,103.4 1,073.7 1,099.2 1,088.2 1,061.4 1,013.2 1,031.8 1,012.6 00" " 1,039.1 1,002.1 1,050. 065.7 075.8 999.8, 995.3 The relative numbers of women in the warring states, such as England, France, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Belgium, Romania, Bulgaria, rose extremely in 1920-21; conversely, they somewhat decreased in the neutral states, such as Sweden, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands. Later census years (1925-1926) testify to a decrease in this excess of women everywhere where data has been published. The same process has also received vivid expression in the USSR. However, the insufficiency of data for past time limits the possibility of direct comparisons. The same relations of women (per 1,000 men) in the USSR are shown in Table 3. The excess of women compared to men in 1920 was maximal in the RSFSR, especially in the rural population. In subsequent years (1923 and 1926) these relations, apparently, are equalized everywhere. The main form of graphical construction of the age composition of the population is the pyramid (or triangle); thus the type of population development is expressed on the basis of a regular excess of births over deaths and under normal conditions of age mortality; the base of the pyramid Table 3. 1897. European Russia . Siberia..... Central Asia . Caucasus..... All Russia . 1018.3 9 36.9 877.1 914.3 995.0 19 20-26 yrs. All population Urban population RSFSR . . Bel. SSR Ukr. SSR Zak. SSR Uzbek SSR 1251.2 1124.1 1920 1923; 1926 1920 1923 1926 1920 1923 1926 Rural population 1920 1923 1926 1123.5 1065.2 1081.2 995.7 1043.1 1059.1 948.0 885.7 1215.0 1203.2 1062.0 976.9 1033.7 936.8 - 885.6 1257.3 1102.3 1130.5 1057.2 1072.2 1011.5 1101.1 1057.2 1064.9 951.6 885.8 USSR . . 11204.9 1108.8 1 06 9, 5 1196, 8^; 1085, 410 36,7(1206 ,41113,411076, 8 men diminishes, and the numbers approach equilibrium more than before. That perturbation which was produced by the world war in the sex composition of the principal European states is observed in the following numerical relations (of women per 1,000 men), according to the censuses of 1910-1911 and 1920-21. States pac- the wider, the higher the natural increase and the more child ages there are in the population composition. In cases of one or another perturbation in the population composition, as a result of mechanical movement, depletion of individual ages, major changes in birth rate, etc., the correct figure of the pyramid or triangle acquires one or another anomalies, usurpations or growths. For practical purposes, generally accepted age combinations are used: infant age—from birth to 1 year, younger—childhood—2-4 years, preschool—5-7 years, school—8-15 years, adolescents—16-17 years; economic statistics distinguishes: working age—20-59 years, semi-working—15-19 years and 60-69 years; non-working—0-4 years and from 70 years; the age of female reproductive capacity is taken as 15-49 years. The general statistical age grouping usually distinguishes ages: up to 1 yr., 1-4 yrs., 5-9 yrs., 10-14 yrs., 15-19 yrs., 20-24 yrs., 25-29 yrs., 30-39 yrs., 40-49 yrs., 50-59 yrs., 60 yrs. and older. In age statistics, lived time and average age are also distinguished. Accounting for years lived for the population living at a given moment shows in which exact age class the most favorable conditions for the number of persons and years lived are found, how the total sum of years lived is distributed among individual age groups of the population, where the sum of life experience of age classes reaches a culminating point. The average age of the population (or any of its groups) is obtained as a result if the sum of years lived by the population (or group) is divided by the number of persons of this population (or group). For characterizing the general age composition of the population, we present here data for some European states and the U.S.A.

III. for two dates, before and after the world war (percentage content of individual age groups in the total population). Table 5. Ages Rural Urban Rural Urban Rural Urban 0-4 years 12.3 8.8 11.3 8.4 12.2 8.9 5-9 » 15.7 11.7 15.7 12.3 15.8 10-14 » 14.5 12.0 14.6 12.7 14.5 12.3 15-19 » 10.3 10.4 11.5 10.9 10.5 10.3 20-24 » 5.7 8.7 6.9 8.7 6.1 8.7 25-29 » 15.3 8.4 7.3 8.5 5.8 8.5 30-39 » 10.7 14.1 11.1 13.2 10.8 13.9 40-49 » 9.5 11.2 8.4 10.7 9.2 10.2 50-59 » 7.5 8.0 6.1 7.6 7.1 6.0 and over 8.4 6.6 6.7 6.7 7.9 6.6 Ages Germany France Switzerland Sweden 1910 1920 1910 1920 1910 1920 0-9 years . 10-19 » . 20-29 » . 30-39 » . 40-49 » . 50-59 » . 60 and over 73 78 68 75 Here one can trace the specific weight that falls to each age group. The influence of the war (by 1920) is manifested in the reduction of the importance of the children's group due to the decline in birth rates everywhere in 1916-18, as well as in the increase in the specific weight of older age groups (over 40-50 years) as a result of military losses that struck the middle groups most severely. The age composition of the population of the USSR, separately for urban and rural population, is presented in Table 5, according to the demographic census of 1920 (percentage ratios).

Compared with Western Europe, the population of the USSR differs by a significantly higher content of children and youth under 20 years (higher birth rate), especially in the rural half of the country. The composition of the urban population is characterized by a sharp predominance of productive age groups 20-59 years (50%) compared with rural (39%), where, conversely, children and the elderly predominate (see Table 6). Turning to the comparative distribution of both sexes by age groups as applied to the same 1920, we find in it a reflection of the recently experienced catastrophe of the world and civil wars. A predominance of the male sex is observed only in the youngest part of the population, which at that time was under 5 years old (higher birth rate of boys). Further, the relative number of women rapidly increases and reaches a maximum in the 20-29 age group, especially in its younger part; the loss of the male element creates a high numerical predominance of women at this age (two to three times more men than women), especially in villages; the high predominance on the side of women also remains in the 30-40 age group and, further, in the oldest group, over 60 years. Western European data present the same phenomenon to a much lesser extent. Thus, the same maximum in Germany rises to 1.263 and 1.344 women per 1,000 men (20-24 and 25-29 years), in England to 1.176 and 1.209, in France to 1.169 and 1.262. In Russia, losses of this kind were more severe and concentrated with greater force in the young group. Table 6. Ukrainian SSR USSR Ages Villages Cities Villages Cities Villages Cities 0-4 years . . . 998.1 1,003.6 986.6 990.9 995.6 998.1 5-9 » 1,023.6 1,040.8 1,005.0 1,006.0 1,017.5 1,030.1 10-14 » 1,022.9 1,078.1 976.5 1,061.2 1,004.8 1,069.4 15-19 » 1,372.8 1,347.7 1,159.0 1,373.6 1,309.5 1,362.6 20-24 » 3,270.1 1,781.8 2,087.6 2,079.3 2,672.3 1,833.2 25-29 » 2,477.8 1,353.2 1,258.3 1,392.2 1,951.4 1,342.7 30-39 » 1,482.6 1,086.6 1,139.6 1,115.6 1,378.9 1,076.1 40-49 » 1,123.8 1,061.1 1,003.8 1,105.8 1,084.5 1,050.6 50-59 » 1,191.5 1,303.5 1,070.3 1,109.1 1,147.8 1,218.2 60 and over 1,224.1 1,750.7 1,008.1 1,374.7 1,158.0 1,568.9