Social & Demographic Influences on Development (Edexcel GCSE Geography A)

Changes in Population Structure in India

• India has the largest population in the world, with over 1.4 billion people

• Over the last 30 years, India's population structure has changed from the typical population structure of a developing country, which had:

  • 785 million people in 1990

  • High dependency ratio

  • Large numbers of young children

    • Children are seen as an asset to the family

    • They can work and look after their parents in old age

  • Rapidly decreasing numbers of older people

    • Life expectancy is low due to poor medical care, a lack of food and access to clean water

  • Preference for male children

    • Sons add wealth to the family, but daughters deplete it through dowries

    • Sons continue the family lineage, while daughters marry into another household

    • Sons defend the family but daughters have to be defended and protected, creating the idea of being a household burden

India's changing population structure over the last 30 years

• Even with the largest and still-growing population, fertility rates have declined by nearly 50% to 2.13 births per woman (2023) from 4.04 births per woman in 1990

  • However, this is not even across the country, with core regions having a fertility rate below 2.13 and the peripheral regions, such as Bihar, seeing a fertility rate of 3 births per women

• Although there are more people of childbearing age, there is a choice of when and how many children women have due to:

  • Better education

    • Development has improved the education of the population and more people are pursuing a career before having children, resulting in smaller families

  • Urbanisation

    • Less space is available in homes for large families

    • As more people work in secondary and tertiary jobs, children are seen as less of an asset, which lowers the birth rate

  • Improved female status

  • Family planning programmes

• The dependency ratio in India in 2022 was close to 47.5 %

  • The more working adults there are paying taxes, the easier it is for the government to fund health-care systems and pension schemes 

  • However, the ratio has been gradually declining since 2013, when it stood at approximately 53%

  • In 1990, the dependency ratio was 73%

• Life expectancy has increased from 57 years in 1990 to 72 years in 2023

  • Caused by improvements in medical care, especially vaccinations and better sanitation, reducing the number of deaths due to water-borne diseases

Changing Social Factors in India

• Overall, the quality of life for some Indian people has improved dramatically over the last 30 years

• Health and hygiene improvements have increased life expectancy from 58 to 72 years within the last thirty years

• Improved education and investment in schools have increased literacy rates from 48% in 1990 to 76% in 2023

  • But men still outperform women and are more likely to have a private education 

• Reduction in gender inequality with greater opportunities for women to earn an income

  • Entrepreneurship programmes train women, who then pass on that knowledge to other women

  • This has raised the status of women in the workplace and given better opportunities to earn a living outside of the family home

• The nature of the workforce has changed, with India seeing a growing middle class

  • The combination of urbanisation and education has created a consumer market

• But the increase in population has resulted in an increase in:

  • Unemployment and poverty

    • There is a wide gap between rich and poor

    • Oxfam said 60% of the country’s wealth was held by the richest 5% of India's citizens

    • The older generation are not benefiting from progress

  • Urbanisation, leading to a rise in slums and crime rates and a burden on infrastructure

  • Social tension

    • There is still a continuing low status of poorer women