Current unit of study: Unit 2
The Observer view on Britain and China's Population Challenges
Synopsis
The UK and China seem to be polar opposites when it comes to issues dealing with population, but despite this stigma, new projections suggest that the British population could grow by 10 million over the next 25 years. All the while, China has gotten rid of its one child policy for the time being, yet the country's population could in fact decline over the long term if the trend continues.To see the UK and China come face to face with such a serious dilemma, it does show how misguiding raw population numbers can be, but there is no getting around the fact that both countries are dealing with an ageing population. There is an explanation as to why exactly we see this happening, and we find the problem linked to industrialization. As a country begins to develop, its death rates fall as public health improves, while at the same time birth rates remain high. This leads to a rapid growth of population. But once a country develops further, we begin to see birth rates drop and the population ageing.
Analysis
Both the UK and China alike are dealing with the issue of their populations ageing, and with this, things for both countries are becoming more difficult. When you are faced with an older population, the issues that come along with that include pressures to spend more on things such as pensions and healthcare which, mind you, account for huge chunks of government spending. But it's not only the expenses that come into the picture, but what the population looks like. The population pyramids, which we observed in class, provide us with an explicit image of what a population looks like, taking into account all ages. If we were to make one for both the UK and China, the top of the graph which shows the older population, would be quite big as their populations are ageing, and the lower half of the pyramid which shows the younger population, would be sparse. This is an issue, because as populations age, the dependent population increases and becomes more reliant on those who are still able to work.
Link to the original article: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/nov/01/observer-editorial-britain-china-population-challenges
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