Sherree L. Kassuba
The age structure or age distribution has a lot to do with the population. The more there are people within the bracket of the reproductive years, the more children will be produced. But even though the number of children people are having is greatly lowered, between the 80’s and 90’s the number of women having babies will rise rapidly because there will be more women in their reproductive years.
“Between 1947 and 1957 about 43 million children were born, a fifth of the present United States population. This means that the overloaded classrooms of the 50’s and the 60’s have been replaced in the 70’s by high unemployment rates for teenagers and adults under 25, as large numbers of baby boom adults flood the job market. Almost half of all currently unemployed people in the U.S. in 1977 were between 20 and 25. This situation won’t begin to ease until after 1982, when the last of the baby boom adults turn 25.“5
By looking at age structure, population experts can predict what the population will be like especially between now and 1990. If the 60’s and early 70’s have been the generation of youth, then the period from 1975 to 1995 should be the era of young adults. Then between 2000 and 2030, the United States will have the largest number of older people in its history (assuming that the death rates do not rise).
The burden of caring for so many older people will fall on the smaller groups of babies born in the late 70’s and 80’s. But if there are so many older people from 2000 to 2030 maybe some big changes will begin to happen in the country, such as: the crime rates may go down since the number of people between their teens to 25 will not be as high as before, there may be more job opportunities for young people since more people will be retired from their jobs, unemployment should ease up with fewer workers entering the job market, and more women will be moving into the work force which should help keep fertility rates low with these things happening they will bring new change to society for the better.