Introduction
The two countries in this study are going to be Canada and Morocco. Canada is a developed country in North America while Morocco is a developing country in Africa. The following table shows demographics concerning the two countries.
| Countries | Canada | Morocco |
| Population | 34834841 | 32987206 |
| Birth rate | 10.29/1000 | 18.47 per 1000 population |
| Death rate | 8.31 deaths per 1000 population | 4.79 deaths per 1000 population |
| Infant mortality rate | 4.71 deaths per 1000 live births | 24.52 deaths per 1000 live births |
| Life expectancy | 81.67 years | 76.51 years |
| Growth rate | 0.76% | 1.02% |
| Dependency ratio | 47.2% | 49.1% |
| Median age | 41.7 years | 28.1 years |
| Sex ratio | 0.99 males per female | 0.97 males per female |
Morocco and Canada have stark differences in their demographic data. The difference in data is due to the different in the economies, the various indexes associated with the economy, and that help determine the standards of living in the respective countries.
The population margin between Canada and Morocco has a difference of nearly 2 million, which is not a large margin with Canada having a larger population. Canada is more developed than Morocco, which puts it in a better position economically especially when looking at the demographics between the two countries. The birth rate in Canada is lower than that of Morocco. The birth rate of Morocco is higher because of its culture, which is mostly influenced by the Arabic lifestyle and Islam religion. The people in Morocco are allowed to have more wives due to their religion and can marry more than one wife as a result. The resulting cultures contribute to the high growth rate and the resulting increase in population when compared to Canada.
The infant mortality rate in Morocco is greater than that of Canada. Canada has better medical facilities and health care that help prevent premature infant deaths. As such, the health care is evenly spread through the country where the citizens can access it quickly. Morocco in contrast does not have a well-established healthcare system and the health care facilities sin the country are not evenly spread and, therefore, are not enough for the country’s population. The available hospitals do not have enough personnel to cater expediently for the whole population and, therefore, the high infant mortality rate, which are twenty children greater than that of Canada.
The death rate in Canada is higher than that of Morocco (Beaujot & Kerr, 2007). Canada is well developed and so is its infrastructure. Heart diseases have proven to be one of the leading causes of death followed by cancer. Accidents also add to the cause of deaths in Canada. The prevalence of accidents in Canada especially road accidents are higher than in Morocco since more people are exposed to traffic in Canada than in Morocco. The great number of people having cars results in a lot of traffic, which leads to road carnage in some cases. The larger number of firearms in the hands of the public promotes violent crimes, which include murders or fatal injuries, which can lead to death. As a result, the traffic and gun related activities contribute to the mortality rate. Morocco on the other part is not highly delivered, and road cage is little.
Canada has a high life expectancy of 81.67 while that or Morocco is 76.51. The high life expectancy in Canada means that Canada has more resources that make its senior citizens lives well than the case with Morocco (Weeks, 2011, p. 151). Morocco is a developing economy and where many people face many challenges and stressful times in their lives. The economy in Morocco does not have enough resources to take care of its elderly population since it has little resources and most of the time depends on the money borrowed from other countries.
The low dependency ratio of Canada means that there are fewer people young and old that depends on the support of the government especially in health care and the use of social programs. The aging population pushes the dependency ratio higher since the youth get to work while the old men start earning pensions and using social programs provided by the government. Morocco has a growing economy and, therefore, more youth are unemployed and make the dependency ratio to be high.
The higher median age of Canada as compared to Morocco means that there are more aged people in Canada than Morocco. The median age of 41.7 means that there are more people at the age of forty and over in Canada than when compared to Morocco, which has a median age of 28.1 years, which means most of the population, comprises of the youth.
The sex ratio in Canada is higher than that of Morocco. It means that there are more boys than girls in Canada than Morocco. The gender ratio produces various challenges like difficulty in getting spouses due to either high or low number of a particular gender. The sex ratios of the two countries are slightly the same.
Morocco has a higher population growth rate when compared to Canada. The population is made up of Sunni Arabs and Berbers. The majority age group is between 15 to 64 years, which stands at 64.3%.
The social and economic impacts due to contrasting population characteristics of Morocco and Canada
The high growth rate of Morocco means that the population is increasing at an alarming rate than the government can cater for it (Winckler, 2009, p. 95). The economy, as a result, is affected since more people are being added to the country and will need more services. The growth rate in Canada is less and means that the economy takes care of its population more efficiently than that of Morocco. In countries like Morocco, governments are strained due to the high growth and the ageing population and, therefore, the government has to increase taxes to cover the costs required to take care of its ageing population. In Canada, taking care of the aged is not as much of a problem when compared to Morocco. Socially speaking, the high growth rate strains provision of essential services such as education and health care services. Some of the families resort to child labor to help support the family. Besides, food shortages are rampant and cause deaths in some places especially where the provision of services is hampered by inadequate infrastructure. Furthermore, housing cannot hold the increase in population and people develop slums, shanties or makeshift houses. Developed countries like Canada have well-established systems to provide services to the population, and the low population growth rate is an added advantage, which ensures that there is not a strain of the economic resources of the country. A country like Morocco is less developed economically since there high unemployment and children are born in families that are poor and hence poverty increases and becomes a cycle in the respective families (Angel-Urdinola et al., 2013). The economy is usually fueled by spending, and the families have little to spend due to little or no employment among the youth. Canada has a high ageing population, which has social and economic impacts. The larger aging population depends on the labour force and since it is large the dependency ratio increases. More resources are geared towards supporting the ageing population, which means that the economy grows slowly. Pensions are reduced, and health services are strained as a result.
Minimizing impacts
Governments need therefore to minimize the growth rate by putting in several measures. Governments need to control births by establishing that determine how many children a person needs to have. A country that had formulated such policies is China. As such, couples will be encouraged to use family planning and ensure that the population grows at a rate that the government without any strain on the available resources can support it. Therefore, Morocco can use birth control to reduce its growth rate to ensure that service provision and most importantly, the economy is not strained. The economy, as a result, will continue growing as the demographic variables are reduced and eventually it will able to support the whole population in terms of provide enough employments and service provision.
Canada has a larger ageing population, and this has social and economic impacts. The strategies it can put in place are to increase its working population, which will lessen the burden of paying the older population. It can increase the working population by promoting immigration of younger people into its borders. It can also increase the age at which people retire hence reducing the ageing population. Moreover, it can also raise taxes to cater for the ageing population.
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