Organisms and Populations — BIOLOGY STD 12 Science — Question

Age pyramid displays the age distribution (% individuals of a given age or age group) for the population. Population at any given time is composed of individuals of different ages. For human population, the age pyramids generally show age distribution of males and females in a cornbined diagram.

The shape of the pyramids reflects the growth status of the population that whether it is growing, stable or declining.

It tells us about an area's population, birth and death rates, dependants, young people and elderly people, etc. These are important inputs that can be used for long term planning strategies, e.g. to create job opportunities (if there are more young people), to focus on control of population (in case of high birth rate), to improve and invest more on medical facilities (in case of low elderly people), etc. Hence, through the in-depth analysis of the age pyramids, better planning strategies, resource allocation and other planning benefits can be obtained.