Data source: World Population Prospects 2024

Tools: Matplotlib

I've always like age distributions, but have only created standard pyramids in the past. I realized that if I remove gender (which isn't that interesting anyway since it's almost always 50/50), I can create a visualization showing how the distribution change over time.

I decided to try this out with China since they have some severe issues ahead regarding their demographics.

Let me know what you think! 🙂

Posted by oscarleo0

24 comments

  2. wait I like the stripes idea, it looks really cool, would change the white to yellow and make the labels bigger to make it clearer that the inbetween sections are data.

  3. This has got to be one of the few posts here that actually brought a visually different and interesting way to describe data. I love it

  4. Are the projections extremely optimistic about the future birth rate? What’s the elbow around the end of this decade in the under 5s group?

  5. At home I see elderly Chinese in the park exercising and stretching all the time. My parents haven’t stretched since 1985.

    When I visited China and did a 6 hour hike that nearly killed my group of Canadians (was super hot and humid) I was shocked at all the elderly Chinese on the hike doing just fine. I’m fit too.

    They seem to prioritize longevity.

  6. That reminds me to buy some toothpaste. But on a serious not good presentation of data you can see the widening of the age distribution for people over 50, a ticking time bomb.

  7. Nice work OP, this feels genuinely new. Also, China is going to have a challenging 21st century

  9. Props to making a stacked chart that actually communicates meaningful breakpoints without an insane amount of visual clutter.

  10. I think the age band labels should be larger and clearer.

  11. Can you do this as an absolute plot instead of 100% scale? Would be nice to contrast the population growth/decline within each band (and overall) over time.

  12. I would have thought covid would have really affected their older population.

    Also looking at the 50’s I can see why there was so much fear of population momentum with those massive numbers under 30. Looks like it stabilizes now even though other economists are predicting population collapse.

  13. Great visualization. Crazy to think that by 2100 40-50% of the population will have to support the other 60-50% of the pop.population. this doesn’t seem sustainable…

  14. Removing gender because it’s “almost always 50/50” but then choosing to plot China, a country notorious for an uneven gender distribution, is a choice.

  15. Very nice work!

    Just curious though, where do you get the data for the next 75 years? Is it a mathematical extrapolation, AI, or just an educated guess?

  16. China’s population graph looks like a rollercoaster ride, but with way more math involved.

  17. In the case of China specifically, I feel it’s more important than normal to consider gender because of the effect of the one-child policy and its impact on reproduction pools, but that’s not really the point of this graph so all I have to say is nicely done. The most interesting part of this already interesting graph is the emergence of the 90+ category into a sizable chunk of the population. I guess this suggests an improvement in healthcare quality.

  18. Nice chart!

    > if I remove gender (which isn’t that interesting anyway since it’s almost always 50/50)

    China is probably one of the countries where comparing the charts by gender might have a big difference, due to the one child policy + preference for male children there’s a pretty big gender imbalance right now

  19. I love this vizualisation! I’ve never seen it like that and it very clearly shows how the age classes are expected to stabilize long term.

    Do you have a code to share? Can you make it for other countries?

  20. Climate change might have its say about that proportion of elderly people.

  21. People over 40 made up about 25%

    Now they make up about 46%

    Expected to go up to 70%

    Lol

  22. So half of china’s population is over 50? That’s insane

  23. Great chart. Interesting to see that despite the rapidly aging population, China currently still has a lot more people of productive working age than they did in 1950. That will change pretty soon though.

  24. Visualization resembles one flag Chinese people probably dislike nowadays, and another flag Chinese people 100% absolutely hate.

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