Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with population

How young is too young to get snipped?

Anonymous — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 18:35:50 -0800

At what age is it reasonable to consider a vasectomy? (NWS?) I understand the potential for regret or remorse in the case of vasectomies. That being said,
A. How old should one be before one could be sure enough in the decision to get a vasectomy?
B. How young is 'too young' for medical professionals to perform a vasectomy? (Assuming that the decision is wholly that of the person to be operated on)

Just for clarification, my reasons for being interested in the matter are
A. that I have no interest in having children,
B. that I feel it slightly unethical considering the global population, and
C. that if I were to change my mind, I place no special value in a child being genetically mine or not, so adoption would likely be the solution there.

(I'd rather this not be about my reasons for being interested in the matter, but moreso about when I can be reasonably secure in the knowledge that my beliefs on the matter aren't likely to change any time soon, and when I could reasonably get the procedure performed.)

Europe population-size history

Coventry — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 16:26:58 -0800

Where can I find estimates of Europe's population size, as far back in time as possible? These are the best estimates I've found for the historical fluctuations in Europe's population size. They're based on the article "Essai sur l'evolution du nombre des hommes". But I am disturbed by the apparent lack of supporting citations in that paper. My French is hopeless, and I picked my way through it with Google translate. OK, the Europe estimates mostly come from Histoire générale de la population mondiale, but the numbers for Britain etc. come from "some books and some publications"?? Come on! Have I misunderstood?

I'd be grateful for pointers to more rigorous estimates.

Statistics on the entire population

jedicus — Fri, 22 May 2009 09:23:19 -0800

How does statistical analysis differ when analyzing the entire population rather than a sample? I need to do some statistical analysis on legal cases. I happen to have the entire population rather than a sample. I'm basically interested in the relationship between case outcomes and certain features (e.g., time, the appearance of certain words or phrases in the opinion, the presence or absence of certain issues).

Should I do anything different than I would if I were using a sample? For example, is a p-value meaningful in this kind of case?

If it matters, the population is large (many thousands of cases) and spans several years.

births, deaths and time

kalapierson — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 11:34:28 -0800

Are global birth and death rates roughly consistent over the course of a day/month/year? (Are there are any clear patterns of daily or seasonal spikes?) It looks like average global birth rate and death rate per minute, as measured in early 2009, are about 261 and 102 respectively. (Numbers based on my casual googling so far; I'll research more, but specific numbers aren't important here, just trends.)

I'm thinking about making an audio installation that would present this in sound (repeating sounds indicating births happening 261 times per minute, other sounds indicating deaths happening 102 times per minute), so people could experience those rates in a way other than just reading the stats.

Although this wouldn't necessarily affect the installation (because its main point would be driving home the ratio of one average rate to the other, not representing the patterns of fluctuation in either rate), I'm wondering whether I can correctly assume those rates are roughly consistent over time. In other words: do some times of day, and/or some times of the year, have significantly more births or more deaths worldwide than other times?

As a layperson just starting to think about this, I'm imagining some factors but guessing they wouldn't matter because the conditions that would make them happen affect only part of the globe (for the seasonal conditions) or only certain time zones (for the time-of-day conditions). However, some regions / time zones have way more population than others. (Possible example: starvation or malnutrition rates rising at the hottest times of the year in a region populous enough where that would matter... or mass casualties following seasonal or geological patterns.)

How to determine the most important cities in a state?

capitalist.pig — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 04:59:33 -0800

How to determine the most important cities in a state? I'm involved in a project in which I need to determine the top 25 or so most important cities in several U.S. states. Do you have any suggestions as to how I should go about doing this? Would the top 25 cities by population necessarily be the most important cities? How would you go about determining and ranking the economic/social/political/cultural importance of U.S. cities? Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Largest U.S. city without a Chinese restaurant?

escabeche — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 21:59:59 -0800

How big is the largest U.S. city without a Chinese restaurant? The question has an answer, but I'm not even sure how to generate a plausible estimate. The largest I know of is Weston, CT (pop.10,037.)

Where to start on a demography paper?

dunderwood — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 16:07:47 -0800

paper filter: I'm doing a paper on information technology's effect on population growth/migration. Where do I start?! I have a 12 page paper due friday (i'm a procrastinator). I was wondering if you folks could give me an idea on where/how to start. It's for my Economics of Population course so it has to be more towards demography.

I'm having a hard time finding articles through my schools online database search. Any help/resources would be highly appreciated!

Plenty of Fish Applies to the Picky?

Phalene — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 22:14:58 -0800

Population Filter: I have a problem that's been bugging me for a while. Looking at the qualities I tend to be attracted to, can you help me figure out the ballpark number of potential matches? How many english speaking, non-religious or atheist, hetrosexual or bisexual males are there, who are above average in intellect and interested in S&M, while being between the ages of 20-40 (at the moment)? How many of these do not have serious health problems caused by addiction or mental illness? And how many are frugal, and believe in gender equality in a long term domestic partnership with kids?

Obviously there are other important qualities to look for in a partner, but I want to know the realistic odds of me ever marrying/settling down based on those being my limiting criteria. It's also a private speculation on how accurate the term 'plenty of fish' is when applied to me, something I've been wondering for several years now.

I suppose given the scattered nature of my statistics, I'd take global, or local, and I'd love to see the process one uses to reach the numbers.

Census information for US, circa 1995?

Phire — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 17:58:19 -0800

Where can I find the population of US states in 1995? I need individual population statistics for US states for 1995. I've managed to find similar information for Canada on the Statistics Canada website (based on the 96 Census), but the US Census Bureau is much more confusing to navigate. Googling has yielded nothing. Hope me, AskMe!

A year off would be okay (e.g. 94-96), but any more than that is a bit of a stretch. Thanks!

Welcome to AskMe, Population: why?

Happy Dave — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 03:35:45 -0800

Why do many American and Canadian towns list population numbers as you enter them, e.g. Welcome to Anytown, Population: 3,414 I work sometimes in the US and Canada, and pass such signs all the time, and I'm curious as to the reasoning, culture, laws and requirements that might lead to towns and cities doing this. Obviously I was familiar with it from Westerns as a kid, (generally with a few numbers being scored out after gunfights etc), but I see it everywhere, and I'm genuinely curious: why did towns and cities start doing this, and why do they continue? Is it just custom or is there a law somewhere that requires it?

How do people think the U.S. population is distributed?

escabeche — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 18:10:56 -0800

I recently read the startling result that, in a recent New York Times poll, 8% of white respondents and 17% of black respondents said that the U.S. population was more than 50% black. This got me wondering what the corresponding numbers are for other ethnic group -- but for the life of me I couldn't find any data. What percent of the U.S. population does the median American think is Hispanic? Asian? Jewish? Muslim? Foreign-born? Interesting examples from other countries also welcome, of course.

Global good, national bad?

trig — Wed, 07 May 2008 05:10:44 -0800

Any recommendations for published research on dealing gracefully with population decline? I'm looking for academic or semi-academic work on the problems associated with population decline, and primarily on how countries can (or do) deal with them gracefully. I'm less interested in approaches that try to reverse decline, whether through increasing immigration or offering incentives for childbirth; what I'm looking for is work on how population decline can happen without affecting a nation negatively.

How do I figure out mortality statistics for people born in 1890?

melodykramer — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 21:40:56 -0800

I'm trying to figure out what percentage of people born in 1890 were still alive in 1920 and then 1950 and so on, until we can say for certain that every person born in 1890 is 100 percent definitely dead. I've looked at the 1890 and 1920 census, but they don't have mortality tables. (I'm specifically looking for values for 19th century populations. Not necessarily 1890, but in that ballpark...I figure 1890 is easier than 1891 because there was a census in 1890.)

I'm mainly curious about how WWI and WWI and other major events shaped the mortality curve -- for instance, statistically were __% of men born in 1890 likely to be alive in 1917, but really only __ % of men born in 1890 were alive in 1917 because of the war?

I'm interested in statistics for both world and US populations. I know there are actuarial mortality tables for questions like this, but they don't extrapolate backwards, as far as I'm aware. If they do extrapolate backwards, then I don't know how or where to access these statistics.

When Should Isaac Laquedem Stop Reproducing?

235w103 — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 22:37:34 -0800

You're the Wandering Jew. When do you start worrying about sleeping with your own descendants? You've been alive for, what, 2040 years or so, crossing the planet. You're a man of the world, of course, and you've had a few kids. In fact, you've produced one offspring every five years that has reached maturity and reproduced- 408 of them, in fact. They've reproduced as well, although they lack your immortality- let's say each of them has produced 2 heirs after an initial period of twenty years, with these heirs produced within ten years; each of these will produce 2 heirs, and so on. So, in A.D. 0, you have a single descendant; A.D. 5- 2 descendants; A.D. 10- 3; A.D. 15- 4; A.D. 20- 6 (5 children, one grandchild); A.D. 25- 9 (6 children, 3 grandchildren) and so on. Based on the LOWER population estimates located here, assuming an even descendant distribution throughout the population, when should you start worrying about reproducing with your own descendants?
I'm not really sure if this problem can even be answered- you'd probably need to consider the poor guy's rate at which he meets people and at which he sleeps with them, which I invite you to invent on your own. I'm just wondering, for a writing project, at what point poor old Isaac Laquedem should get a vasectomy.

Generating shaded maps of India with state-level data series.

matthewr — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 16:31:29 -0800

What's the easiest way of generating a map similar to this? I have several state-level data series I want to display on maps of India. I assume this blank map of India in SVG format is a good starting-point. Now, what program(s) do I use to link areas on the map to my data series and hence automatically shade states by a variable x?

My data looks like:
[state code] state x [jm] jam 1.93386 [hp] him 1.74945 [pj] pun 1.90247 [uc] utt 2.13038 ... 33 more states ...

I have Windows, Stata, Excel and zero budget.

The biggest apple of all for your teacher.

pithy comment — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 13:26:21 -0800

How many college students are there in NYC? Any good sources/cites to back the statistic up would be great too! (FT, PT, grad/undergrad etc in the 5 boroughs)

population max

bluedogg27 — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 09:18:43 -0800

Does anyone know of a serious attempt to calculate the maximum potential global population (human)? I assume this would entail a complex computer model that would calculate changes among a large number of interrealted variables.

How do I find the population within a defined radius of a certain point?

brain_drain — Mon, 21 May 2007 19:58:06 -0800

I'm looking for a tool (preferably free) that will provide population data for the area within a defined radius of a point on a map. Ideally, it would be a website that allows you to click on a map, set a "center," and choose a radius from the center (say 10, 20, 100 miles). It would then provide information on the population within the chosen radius. At a minimum I need information on population size, but other demographic data would be helpful as well.

If there's no such site (or it's expensive), next-best would be a tool that at least provides this information for major metropolitan areas.

Is it possible to find out the census of Bosnian immigrants (or the Bosnian Population in US) in the USA, for each individual state?

cheero — Wed, 16 May 2007 07:18:55 -0800

Is it possible to find out the census of Bosnian immigrants (or the Bosnian Population in US) in the USA, for each individual state? If so, how can I go about doing that task? I am working on a Bosnian/American statistics maps and I am in a need of state census reports for each state. I don't know if this is hard to obtain, but some helpful leads would be great. Thanks in advance! Is it possible to find out the census of Bosnian immigrants (or the Bosnian Population) in the USA, for each individual state? If so, how can I go about doing that task?

I am working on a Bosnian/American statistics maps and I am in a need of state census reports for each state. I don't know if this is hard to obtain, but some helpful leads would be great.

Thanks in advance!

Am I old?

milarepa — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 09:07:24 -0800

Given today's global population sample, at what age are you older than the majority of people on earth? Or, I think this is the same question, what's the oldest you can be and still be younger than the majority of people on earth?

Why do Less Affluent People Have More Kids?

jbelkin — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 13:32:14 -0800

Is there a study outlining the reasons that childbirth rates tend to be higher for lower income people not just in the US but worldwide? Beyond religious reasons - and above and beyond farming reasons (presumably even in the US when farming was a bigger part of the workforce, more kids meant more "free" workers to tend and pick crops) ... is it some immortality gene driving that? Is it as banal as having nothing better to do?

Pet-to-People Ratios?

Robert Angelo — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 08:23:58 -0800

How many dogs per person do people have in various cities? Also, how many cats? This question is inspired by the news stories in the last week about the new restrictions in Beijing regarding the number of dogs households can have. I want to understand this better. The news stories (wire services, CNN, etc) cite figures of 13 million people and 1 million dogs in that city, giving us a ratio of 13-to-1. How does this compare with New York, London, Los Angeles, elsewhere?

Please do not use your responses to editorialize about the subject. I do not want this question to devolve into chatfilter. All I am looking for is numbers, not opinions.

What's Your Cosmology

goalyeehah — Mon, 21 Aug 2006 17:43:24 -0800

I am looking for sources that give the weight of the earth, volume of all the oceans, total acreage on the planet, total current population and guestimated total weight of said population. I am doing personal research for a question that came to me last week. I would like to find how much space does the current population of the planet occupy?

Won't you let me live?

milarepa — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 13:05:42 -0800

Starting with Sumer, approximately how many human beings have died? Also, at what point will there be more people alive than have ever died?

Does anybody have an idea about how many people have lived on our planet in total?

Haarball — Thu, 30 Mar 2006 05:11:16 -0800

How many people have walked the earth? Including every person alive today?