The world’s population is massive. Birth rates and death rates are constantly adjusting entire populaces from country to country, making it a constant effort on the behalf of scientists and anthropologists to analyze data trends and growth rates. Spatial data analysis is the field of reading and reporting demographics, helping government agencies and countless industries with hard figures. How it works, however, can be an elusive matter. Below is a comprehensive list explaining the function of spatial data analysis, the technology used to conduct it and what this means for the decades that lay ahead.
How High Is The World’s Population?
Spatial data analysis keeps track of the seemingly impossible through modern technology. The world’s population, for starters, is expected to grow by an impressive 50% in the next four decades — this is from the current six billion to nearly nine billion. This growth will affect everything from local job sectors to international industries, making geospatial analysis a prime tool for helping countries prepare for the future.
How Does Population Growth Affect The Economy?
Location intelligence software is an incredibly useful tool for a variety of reasons. Consider recent studies conducted to assess future growth over the next few decades — by 2030 every 100 workers in Europe will have to support 40 people over the age of 65, compared to an average of 25 per 100 as of now. This was published last month by Eurostat, the statistical arm of the European Union, and ongoing surveys are conducted on the regular to keep a close eye on this change. Medical care, housing and transportation are but a few of the areas of society that will be affected by this change.
How Do Population Changes Affect The Job Market?
Spatial data analysis can help with distributing jobs among an ever-increasing population. Between 2012 and 2022 the U.S. Bureau Of Labor Statistics anticipated a steady growth in jobs that required active familiarity with both GIS and location intelligence — this included geographers (at nearly 30%), cartographers (at 20%) and mapping technicians (at 14%). Of course, jobs outside of geospatial technology will be affected. Research company Gartner has suggested there will be at least four million data jobs available in the next two years. What this means for fields outside of computer science remains to be seen.
How Is Spatial Data Analysis Conducted?
There are multiple ways to analyze population density, growth and fluctuation. There are always at least 24 active GPS satellites circling the Earth at any given time, though as of today that number is closer to 30. Each GPS satellite will go around the world every 12 hours, traveling at 12,500 miles above our heads at roughly 7,000 miles per hour. Each GPS receiver can determine the current time almost instantaneously at 100 billionths of a second.
How Can Location Intelligence Help The Future?
With the population changing at a constant rate, geospatial mapping and location intelligence solutions are key for industries and governments around the world to better support everyday people. When faced with planning, collecting and reporting data, it’s more important than ever for companies to anticipate the right ratios. Google’s data experts, for example, suggested that around 15% of data capture, 20% of data report and 65% of data analysis are reasonable ratios. The year 2011 saw 12 million RFID tags sold and, by 2021, it’s estimated this number will increase to 209 billion. With the world continuing to grow, it’s important we grow with it.