The Age Pyramid is a graphical representation of the age and gender distribution of a population. It consists of two bar graphs rotated so that they share the same vertical base in the center of the graph: the one on the left represents the age distribution of the female population and the one on the right the age distribution of the male population.
The exhibit consists of:
– Pyramid of the ages of country X in year Y built with lego bricks
– Pyramid of the ages of visitors to the exhibition built with lego bricks
How to play
Along the vertical axis are shown the ages in completed years (1 button = 1 year), and on the horizontal axis are shown the absolute frequencies of men and women (for example: 1 button = 10 thousand people in the pyramid, 1 button = 1 person in the visitors pyramid), corresponding to each age considered.
From the shape of the pyramid, it is possible to derive indications of both the factors that characterize the age and gender structure of the current population and past trends. Forecasts for a time span of no more than a century are also possible. Such indications can be drawn by analyzing the following elements of the pyramid:
- The base: gives indications about the flow of births: if it widens, there is a sharply increasing flow of births; if it narrows, it means that the flow of births is decreasing.
- The skew of the sides: gives indications about the general level of elimination by death: if the skew of the sides is strong, there is high mortality; if it is weak, there is low mortality.
- The presence of bulges or bottlenecks for particular age groups: gives indications of the intervention of particular disruptive factors, for example as happened during the world wars.
Each visitor inserts his or her own button into the Visitor Age Pyramid, placing it at his or her age in completed years, on the left (the red part) girls, girls and women, and on the right (the blue part) boys, boys and men.
This will give the age and gender distribution of visitors. Did more men or more women visit the exhibition? More young people, adults, or older people?
How to build
EXHIBIT MATERIAL DIN VERSION
- Lego bricks base (about 120×120 cm) with Lego bricks of two different colors
- Lego bricks base (about 120×120 cm) for exhibition visitors’ age pyramid built with Lego bricks of two different colors
- Containers for Lego bricks
- Lego bricks in two different colors
- Cardboard panel with title
- Cardboard panel with explanation
- Vertical pallet 120×200 cm
- Base pallet 120×80 cm (vertical pallet and base are connected)
- Horizontal pallet 120×200 cm (resting on the floor)