Demographics and World Commerce

Demographics and World Commerce

Author: Tom Pace

GEO/150 Geography of World Commerce

Mr. N. Clark Capshaw (FAC)

August 14, 2006

Demographics and World Commerce

Demographics are generally defined as the characteristics of certain human populations and population segments mostly “...concerned with a wide range of economic, social, [and] cultural characteristics, analysing political orientations, consumers’ demand for products or the impact of social trends on macroeconomic variables” (Demographics, 2006). Although demographic data is usually concentrated to show the characteristics of a narrowly defined group, this paper will discuss how demographics affect the commerce of the world as a whole and specifically:

1. How the diffusion of ideas and technology has impacted global commerce,

2. What the relationships are among ideas, events, social climate, and commerce,

3. What future trends there might be in regional demographics,

4. How the trends in regional demographics might affect global commercial patterns, and

5. What impact these commercial patterns will have on the natural environment.

The Impact of Diffusion on Global Commerce

Diffusion has been defined as the process by which an innovation (or idea) is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system (Rogers, E.M., 2003, p. 11). Technology, in the socioeconomic sense, is a design for instrumental action that reduces the uncertainty in the cause-effect relationships involved in achieving a desired outcome, or, in layman terms, the relationship between a tool and the way it is used. Knowledge of a technological innovation creates uncertainty