Vital statistics activity

Did you know?

During the December 2003 year, Emma was the most popular baby girl's name in New Zealand, and Joshua the most popular baby boy's name. There were 380 girls named Emma (1.4 percent of all baby girls), and 490 boys named Joshua (1.7 percent of all baby boys).

Activity one

1. What are vital statistics?
   
2. Find out the key demographics of your class. How many boys and how many girls?
   
3. What is the ethnic make-up of your class?
   To find out, carry out a survey and complete the tally chart. Add other ethnic groups that are appropriate to your class. Have a look at the list of ethnic groups in the 2001 Census Education Resource
   
   

   Ethnic group	Tally
   European
   Māori
   Pacific Peoples
   Asian

   
   
4. Show your results as percentages.  How do you think your class compares with the rest of the country? To find the demographics for the total population of New Zealand, look on the Census page or the People page. 

1. Line graphs would show this information better than other graphs. Why? 
2. Choose two related pieces of information (eg births and deaths, or marriages and divorces, or male and female populations.) Graph these together on a line graph. What do you notice?  

Activity three

This graph shows life expectancy at birth for males and females.

1. What do you notice about life expectancy for males compared to females?
2. The break between 0 and 65 is used to save space – but it can also be misleading. Redraw this graph without a break (ie put in numbers 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 55, 60 on the y-axis.)
3. Does your new graph give a different message? What does the graph tell you?

Activity four

1. What percentage of New Zealanders are male aged 10–14?
2. What percentage are female aged 60–64?
3. At what ages is there a ‘bulge’ in the graph?
4. In which age group is there a dip?
5. What are the possible reasons for this change?

Related links

Census
People
Key Demographic Indicators
Life Expectancy