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Multilingual Demographic Dictionary, second unified edition, English volume

Mean age

Multilingual Demographic Dictionary, second unified edition, English vol.
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Mean age  (MEAN age)


The mean age 1 of a population is the average age of all its members, the median age 2 is the age which divides the population into two numerically equal groups. When the proportion of old people in a population increases, we speak of the aging 3 of the population. An increase in the proportion of young people involves a rejuvenation 4 of the population. An old population 5 has a high proportion of old people, a young population 6 has a high proportion of young people or children. The term aging used above should not be confused with the technique used in population projection, which consists of aging 7 a population by applying survival probabilities (431-6) by age to determine the number of survivors at a later date.

  • 3. Also written ageing.
  • 4. The word younging is used by American demographers.

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