ECN201
Assignment: Households

You are responsible for one question. 

1a. Go to the US Census Bureau's International Data Base (IDB) where you will find a list of options that include a pointer to Population Pyramids that display graphs of the population, by age and sex.  Please pick a rich country plus a poor country from the Middle East or Africa and right click on the graphs and paste them to a word document where you will write a brief explaining differences between the current pyramids and plus the projected changes in the population pyramids. Can you see how these graphs could be related to some of the major issues being discussed in the world today?

1b. At the UN web site you will find an online database of world population figures. Use this site to generate a table containing population shares of the five continents for 1950, 2000, and 2050. Once you have constructed the table you should write a brief paragraph describing what you see in the data - what has happened, and is projected to happen, to the size and composition of the world's population?

1c. You are to use the tables in the UN's Excel Tables to answer one of the following questions. 

1. List the 5 countries with the lowest and the 5 countries with the highest male/female population ratio.  Explain what pattern you see.

2. List the 5 countries with the lowest and the 5 countries with the highest fertility rate, infant mortality rate, or life expectancy in 1995-2000.  Explain what pattern you see.

3. List the 10 countries with the largest populations in 1950, 2000, and 2050. Explain what pattern you see.

4. List the 5 oldest countries and the 5 youngest countries 2000 and 2005. Explain what pattern you see.

5. List the 10 countries with the largest expected loss in population (percentage loss) between 2000 and 2050. Explain what pattern you see.

6. List the 10 countries in which the life expectancy is most affected by AIDs. Explain what pattern you see.

1d.  You need to check out this site if you live in NYC or you spend a lot of time there or you look forward to spending time there.  It is a kool site with great maps to show where people are living (DIGITAL ATLAS OF NEW YORK CITY).  (http://130.166.124.2/nypage1.html)  Your job is to find some interesting stories in the data and tell me about them. For example, you could tell me about the differences in the location of whites and blacks, or how that changed in the 1990s, or where the wealthy and poor are located...  You get the idea. 

1e. If you like history you must check out the home page of Angus Maddison where you get population data back to the year 0 for many parts of the world - Statistics on World Population, GDP and Per Capita GDP, 1-2006 AD . You should use the data at this site to develop a story based on the data on the changing profile of the world's population. It is a big data set, but try to find a few stories based on the data. This is a good question if you are pretty good with spreadsheets.