Interrelationship between demographic and environmental variables

Behaviour towards the environment does not depend exclusively on the attitudes adopted by individuals, it is also heavily conditioned by their social and demographic characteristics.

Each age has a particular relationship with the social and technical context between population and environment. Human groups are made up of varied combinations of individuals of different ages. The aggregate group behaviour with environmental effects will be influenced by the actions or attitudes of the majority ages in the population.

The home, however, is the real decision-making unit on many issues affecting the environment. In recent years, the family as an institution has undergone an intense evolution in terms of forms and functions; individuals have regained a more leading role, and that has its environmental effects and therefore multiplies impacts.

Ongoing suburbanisation affects the effectiveness of supply of goods and services, while at the same time fostering private transport at the expense of public transport. Increased participation in employment, particularly in the case of women, can involve an increase in environmental pressure through an intensification of daily mobility needs in households, as well as a greater resource in the market for satisfying reproductive needs.

The most widely used environmental indicators are not very satisfactory from a demographic point of view. There is a need to develop statistical data sources and suitable methodologies allowing use to be made of a new generation of indicators that take suitable account of demographic variables.