It's the study of the characteristics of human populations, such as size, growth, density, distribution, and birth and death rates.

As you navigate through this Smore we will uncover Canada's demographic past and explore the Canada's future.

The United States in units of Canadas?

The image below has been posted many times on social media sites in the past couple of weeks.

THINK: What exactly is this map illustrating? What does it tell you about the difference between Canada and the United States? (aside from the fact that we have TWO gold medals in hockey!)

PAIR/SHARE: Pair up with someone and share your thoughts. Do you agree with each other? If not, fully explain your interpretation of this map.

Using the Making Connections textbook or the internet and working in pairs, define the following terms:

Birth Rate

Death Rate

Natural Increase Rate

Immigration Rate

Emigration Rate

Net Migration Rate

Population Growth Rate

Rule of 70

Dependency Load

A graph that is commonly used to study the demographic past of a country is the Demographic Transition graph. This is a graph that shows the birth rate and the death rate of a country over several decades. This graph is then used to illustrate the Demographic Transition Model (which we will discuss later).

Below is such a graph for Canada. With your partner, answer the following questions using the graph for reference:

1. What is the general trend of both the birth rate and the death rate of Canada?

2. What happened between 1946 and 1960 that caused the birth rate to rise dramatically?

3. The space between the two lines represents what type of growth?

4. When was this "growth" the largest in Canadian history?

If the graph above went all the way back to the early part of Canada's history we would see something interesting. Both the birth rate and the death rate would be incredibly high - around 30!

1. Why do you think the birth rate would have been so high at this time?

2. Why do you think the death rate would have been so high at this time?

3. If both rates were high, what does this mean for the natural increase rate?

4. Canada's population was growing at this time - how was this possible?

The following video explains the Demographic Transition Model - a model that was created to explain how the demography of a country changes as it develops.

In your notes, create a chart to record information as you watch the video. For each STAGE, record the following:

• What is happening to the birth/death/natural increase rates?
• What is influencing the birth/death/natural increase rates?

For example, in Stage 1 the birth rate is HIGH and this is influenced by the high number of children being born to each family. This is because of the need for large families and the lack of family planning knowledge and resources.

Hard to believe someone made a song about it, but they did. Check it out!

The video above also looked at Population Pyramids are how they are valuable for analyzing the demography of a country.

For each of the following population pyramids, explain what is happening (and what has happened) demographically to cause the pyramid shape.

How does the ratio of males to females differ in these population pyramids? Why do you think there is a difference?

Take a look at the graph below! What type of business owners would find this graph valuable for their business? If you were going to start a new business in the next decade, what type of business would be successful? Why?

Follow the link below and read at least THREE of the stories in the article. The article asked six students from different backgrounds, and representing communities coast to coast, to give their take on Canada today and their roles in it. After reading the article, create similar profile for yourself. What is your role in Canadian society? What is most important to you? What challenges do you see in Canada's future? Post your response to your Google Classroom blog (it should be at least 300 words in length). Structure your response similarly to those in the article.