5.2   Migration

. Migration It is the movement of people across regions and territories. It can be internal (within a country) or international (between the countries). Internal migration does not change the size of population of a country but it influences the distribution of population in a nation. It plays an important role in changing the composition and distribution of population. In India, the mass migration is from rural to urban areas. Unemployment and under employment in the rural areas are the push factors and the employment opportunity and higher wages in the urban areas caused by the industrial development are the pull factors of migration in the country. Population Composition Population composition refers to the characteristics s uch as age, sex, marital status, caste, religion, language, education, occupation etc. The study of composition of population helps us to understand the social, economic and demographic structure of population. Age composition The age composition of population refers to the number of people in different age groups in a country. Population of a nation is generally grouped into three broad categories. In India, the children who has less than years of age constitute . % and the people above years constitute . %. So, the dependent population in India is . %and the independent population ( - yrs) is . %. It shows that our country has enormous manpower. Sex Ratio Sex ratio is defined as the number of females per male population. The sex ratio in our country is always unfavourable to females. Give reasons. According to census, the sex ratio of the country is females per males. This suggests that the size of female population is lower than males. It is in Kerala and India - Population, Transport, Communication & Trade