Glossary

This Document is Archived

Population and Sustainable Development 2003

[ Last Updated 27 October 2005 ]

Ageing population: there are two aspects of population ageing. Structural ageing refers to an increase in the proportion of older people in the population, and is primarily caused by falling fertility. Numerical ageing refers to an absolute increase in the number of aged, and is primarily caused by increasing life expectancy. A population is considered young when it has a median age (half the population is above and half below) of less than 20 years, and old when it has a median age of more than 40 years.
Agglomeration economy: a geographic concentration of people and firms which lowers costs for consumers (since the costs of searching for a product are lower when firms locate together) and lowers costs for firms (since it is cheaper to hire workers when they all live close to one another).
Birth rate: the rate of births relative to the base population.
Churn: see Population turnover.
Cohort: a group of people connected by a similar event, such as being born in a given year or period. The size of a birth cohort is the result of the prevailing birth rate and the number of women of reproductive age.
Death rate: the rate of deaths relative to the base population.
Demography: the study of the characteristics and dynamics of human populations.
Dependency rates: the number of people in the working age population compared with the number of people younger or older than the working-age range.
Diminishing returns: returns are diminishing from the point where applying more productive input results in a lower increment to output than did the previous addition of productive input.
Economies of scale: lower costs arising from the expansion of production. Typically these are due to large concentrations of population and economic activity. Larger markets allow wider choice and a greater range of specialist services.
Emigration: is used in this report to mean Permanent and Long-Term migration (see separate definition below).
Ethnicity: a social construct of group affiliation and identity. An individual's ethnicity or ethnicities identify the ethnic group or groups that they identify with or feel that they belong to at the time. An ethnic group is a social group whose members have the following characteristics: they share a sense of common origins; they claim a common and distinctive history and destiny; they possess one or more dimensions of collective cultural individuality; and they feel a sense of unique collective solidarity. Ethnicity is self-perceived and can change over time. People can identify with an ethnicity even though they may not be descended from ancestors with that ethnicity. People may choose to not identify with an ethnicity even though they are descended from ancestors with that ethnicity.
External migration: the number of people leaving New Zealand for 12 months or more, subtracted from the number coming to live in New Zealand for the first time or who have been away for more than 12 months.
Fertility: refer to Total Fertility Rate.
Gross Domestic Product: the sum of domestically produced goods and services.
Human capital: the accumulation of knowledge and skills embodied in a person, typically considered in terms of the economic benefits that derive from it. Human capital can be acquired formally, for example through schooling, or informally, for example through on-the-job learning.
Immigration: - is used in this report to mean Permanent or Long-Term migration (see below). It includes migrant approvals under prevailing immigration policy, as well as former New Zealanders returning after a year or more away.
Life expectancy: the number of years that a person could expect to live on average, based on the mortality rates of the population in a given year. Life expectancy can change over the lifecycle. For example, at birth a person may be expected to live for 75 years, but if they survive to 75 they may be expected to live for another 10 years.
Mortality: see Death rate and Life expectancy.
Migration: the movement of people from one defined geographic area to another. It is also referred to as population mobility. External migration is the movement of people in and out of the country, while internal migration is the movement of people within the country.
Natural Increase: the contribution to the size of the resident population from births less the contribution from deaths. Natural increase is positive when the number of births exceeds deaths, and negative when deaths exceed births.
Net migration: the inflows of people into a region or country minus the outflows. Net migration can be measured in three different ways: as the total flows, short-term flows, or permanent and long-term flows.
Permanent or Long-Term migration: includes arrivals both of domestic residents who return to New Zealand after one year or more overseas and overseas residents who intend to stay in New Zealand for one year or more, and departures both of domestic residents who intend to leave New Zealand for one year or more and overseas residents who are departing from New Zealand after a stay of one year or more.
Population turnover: the sum of population inflows and outflows as a ratio of the total population base.
Short-term migration: arrivals and departures of domestic residents who are out of New Zealand for less than one year and of overseas residents who stay in New Zealand for less than one year.
Social capital: the combination of informal institutions, norms, conventions and social preferences possessed by a society enabling effective achievement of social and economic goals. Bonding social capital draws people in a given group more closely together, while bridging social capital builds links between social groups.
Social institutions: formal organisations and informal associations that contribute to social and community norms and networks. Examples are local government, trade associations, school boards, unions and voluntary groups.
Structural ageing: see Ageing population.
Sustainable development: an approach to decision making, as opposed to a prescription of what the world should look like. Development is any process that aims to enhance the wellbeing of people and their environment. Development is sustainable when it achieves stable or increasing wellbeing over time.
Total Fertility Rate (TFR): the average number of live births that a woman would have during her life if she experienced the age-specific fertility rates of that year. It excludes the effect of mortality. It is derived from the sum of the age specific fertility rates relating to a given year, and subject to annual fluctuations in births. While TFRs represent each year's experience, they do not necessarily represent the lifetime reproductive experience of real generations or cohorts of women. The TFR is sometimes used as a proxy for average family size, but it is an imperfect proxy because it is affected by delayed fertility and the proportion of women having no children. A TFR of 2.1 is regarded as the level of reproduction that replaces the population.

Jump to main page content.

Printed: 10/02/2010