

Population Pyramids of All Countries (1950-2100) - madewulf
http://populationpyramid.net/United+States+of+America/2010/

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madewulf
Some highlights:

\- extreme gender imbalance in Qatar (probably due to migrant workers) :
<http://populationpyramid.net/Qatar/2010/>

\- Very clearly aging population in Japan :
<http://populationpyramid.net/Japan/2010/>

\- People dying quite young in Afghanistan:
<http://populationpyramid.net/Afghanistan/2010/>

\- Clear impact of WW2 in Europe in 1950 on the 20-30 age class:
<http://populationpyramid.net/EUROPE/1950/>

The projections past 2010 are interesting too but they tend to smooth the
curves which is probably not very realistic, as seen from the past.
Nevertheless, it's interesting to see that the population of some countries
has already started to shrink, like Russian Federation:
<http://populationpyramid.net/Russian+Federation/2010/>

~~~
dschep
parallels:

\- UAE has similar gender imbalance
<http://populationpyramid.net/United+Arab+Emirates/2010/>

\- Germany has similar aging issues
<http://populationpyramid.net/Germany/2010/>

~~~
scotty79
<http://populationpyramid.net/United+Arab+Emirates/2010/> looks especially
suggestive

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corry
A big take-away for entrepreneurs in the developed world is the rapidly aging
nature of our population - and the opportunities that may exist because of it.

The huge glut of baby-boomers retiring (while there are much fewer young
people to support them/their institutions) is going to strain lots of existing
systems (healthcare, retirement stuff, pensions, etc) - seems like a big
opportunity for 'grey-power' software / tools.

Importantly, these upcoming retirees have at least a bit of fluency with
software (compared to a generation ago), and at could least handle iPad-like
tools (touch, big buttons, etc).

I mean, look at Canada's "pyramid"
(<http://populationpyramid.net/Canada/2010/>) - a society with that kind of
shifting demographic will need all kinds of new tools to help deal with the
added strains.

~~~
widk
"Importantly, these upcoming retirees have at least a bit of fluency with
software (compared to a generation ago), and at could least handle iPad-like
tools (touch, big buttons, etc)."

I think this is the most patronizing, biased, and ignorant statement I've ever
read on Hacker News.

~~~
think-large
I think that his statements were matter of fact and mostly true. While the
baby boomers do know how to use computers and can handle their own for the
most part. I'd also say that the knowledge gained by growing up with those
tools just isn't there. It doesn't seem as intuitive to them.

I think that a chart like this would show a similar trend if it was geared
toward exposure to computers and aptitude.

Now this is just a hypothesis based on data that I've seen and I'd be open to
a study that shows the opposite.

Also, big buttons are just a logical step, I know that my dad loves anything
with big buttons because it doesn't strain his eyes or take as steady a hand.
And some day I'm going to want the same thing.

Assuming that age doesn't affect our ability to see and interact with tools it
just ridiculous. Hacker News is not a place for people to bury their heads in
the sand.

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winter_blue
I wonder what countries like India and China will do -- There's a massive
gender imbalance in those countries; and in a decade or two; there will 50
million men (in India alone) who are unable to find a mate.
Ideas/suggestions/thoughts on this issue?

EDIT: I deduced the ~50 million statistic from the 1.07 sex ratio for the
15-64 age range reported by the CIA[1].

For China, it's amazingly 1.17 for the same age range (!!! WTH -- that
translates to 170 million surplus men!). What are these countries going to do?

[1] [https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-
factbook/...](https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-
factbook/geos/in.html)

~~~
sputknick
It's not good. A few things that happen when you have a surplus of men:
additional wars (when male labor is plentiful it's easier to go to war),
decrease in women's rights (women become commodities), and increased demand on
social safety nets (elderly men who never marry are more dependent on the
state).

~~~
positr0n
How would women become commodities? With that many extra men I would imagine
they would be precious and highly sought after.

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jballanc
As a fun exercise, check out all of the countries where the "Arab Spring" has
been taking place (e.g. Iran, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt). All have a
characteristic "bulge" around the 20 age range.

There is a tendency for infant mortality to drop (as a consequence of better
health care) before fertility does (as a consequence of improved standard of
living). The result is a bulge, and as these bulges come of age, they usually
lead to revolution...

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RyanMcGreal
The problem with projecting forward is that we have no idea what trends
birth/immigration rates will take over the next century. Looking historically,
it's clear that birth rates expand and contract cyclically, but this
visualization seems to assume a fixed birth rate going forward so that all the
hourglass trends smooth out and you end up with bottom-cropped sausage no
matter where you start out.

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gns24
The animation here irritates me. If you change the date by five years the
graph points should scroll vertically (and adjust horizontally as necessary),
otherwise it just makes it harder to see how the pyramid changes over time.

~~~
madewulf
It's indeed not perfect on this front. Furthermore, real statistician pointed
that a continuous line for the pyramid was not the good choice, but I was
looking more for interesting visuals and ways to spark the interest of people.
That's why I used these animations, it gives the feeling to people to see
what's happening.

Unfortunately, the way I animate this graph is very basic and I did not take
time to make it perfect (the data crunching, SEO optimization and UI fine
tunings already took way more time than I wanted to put in this). This is just
a hobby project for me.

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joubert
Not only will the shape be more and more condom-like (which I'm blaming for
the drop off in birth rates in developed countries), but apparently an
increasing number of folks will live over 100 in 2100, e.g.
<http://populationpyramid.net/Japan/2100/>

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TheFuture
All the African nations have huge birthrates

<http://populationpyramid.net/Niger/2020/>

10-15yrs from now that is a big workforce.

~~~
smcl
If you look back at Niger though they've had a similar pyramid for the last 20
years, and it's not helped. Due to famine, illness or whatever there seems to
be a fairly high mortality rate which prevents this.

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flexie
Very interesting! Nice website.

Suggestions: Create an easy way to compare a country pyramid with an average
pyramid.

Make it easy to compare two or more countries in one graph.

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pgrote
How was the Soviet Union population dispersed throughout the timeline? For
instance, Georgia has all the previous times populated with their own
population.

