What is Demography?

Demography
„ Is the scientific study of human populations.
„ Achille Guillard first used the title on his book:
Elements de Statistique Humaine ou Demographie
Comparee.
Two Greek roots:
demos (people)
graphy (branch of knowledge regarding a particular
science( in this case, human populations).
Guillard then defined demography as: ‘the mathematical
knowledge of populations, their general movements,
and their physical, civil, intellectual and moral state’
(Guillard 1855:xxvi).
 Population
„ the “term ‘population’ refers to a collection of items,
for example, balls in an urn (Preston et al., (2001: 1) . “
„ “collection of persons alive at a specified point in time
who meet certain criteria.”
„ For example, the population of interest may be that of
students attending a specific university during a specific
year. In this situation, the students are born (i.e., enter)
into the population when they enroll, and they die (i.e.,
leave) when they graduate.
„ There are only two ways to enter a population,
by birth and by in-migration.
„ There are two ways to leave a population, by
death and by out-migration.
„ Thus, a population is often defined by
demographers according to the specific needs of
the research and researcher.
Therefore, three processes are relevant to
demography:
Fertility, Mortality, and Migration!!!!!!
„ Generally, demographers use vital registration
(birth and death) records to count births and
deaths in a population to determine fertility and
mortality rates. The more difficult
demographic process to measure is
migration because in most countries
registration records are NOT maintained when
persons migrate into or out of the population.
 “Today” Demography means…
„ Is the study of the determinants and
consequences of population change and is
concerned with virtually everything that
influences or can be influenced by:
„ Population Size
„ Population growth or decline
„ Population processes (levels and trends in
mortality, fertility and migration that are
determining population size and change).
„ Population structure (how many by age)
„ Population characteristics………..
 Yaukey and Anderton
„ Demography:
Informal: look at it in terms of Q that tries to answer:
How many people, of what kind, are where?
How come?
And so what?
Formal: The study of:
1) the size and composition of populations according to
diverse criteria (age, sex, marital status, educational
attainment, spatial distribution, etc.)
2) Dynamic life-course processes that change this
composition (birth, death, marriage, migration, etc.):
3) Relationships between population composition and
change, and the broader social and physical
environment in which they exist.
„ Given the impact of industrialization in the reduction
of fertility and mortality and the international migration
flows from less developed to more developed countries
around the world, it is a common practice among
demographers to observe separately the demographic
processes in less developed countries (also called
developing countries) from those in more developed
countries (also referred as developed countries).

„ The issues that concern demographers often vary

depending on the level of industrialization of each
country.
 Demographers look at issues according to level of
development of the country

„ Less developed countries:

„ high levels of fertility
„ high levels of infant mortality
„ a high prevalence of HIV/AIDS
„ high levels of out-migration to more developed countries
__________________________________________________

„ More developed countries:

„ low fertility patterns
„ women having babies at later ages
„ populations with below replacement levels of fertility
„ and large numbers of migrants from less developed countries
 Why we care?
„ Infrastructure and planning
„ Population structure effects in the world:
„ Sub Saharan Africa young population + AIDS (lots of orphan children),
Vs. North America and Europe’s older populations (Replacement level of
fertility, or Social Security systems in danger).
„ Globalization: If we know the population trends around the
world, marketing companies may take advantage: place factories
where there are younger people who can work.
Through media market products to target populations according to
their characteristics.
„ Environment: (More resources are needed for more people)
„ Politics: Candidates use demographics to be able to campaign in
their favor (i.e., age, sex, race, education have effects on political
preference and voting).
„ Apportionment of seats in the house of representatives, and the
allocation of tax dollars is based on the demographic
composition of each state.
„A frequent concern in demography is with the extent to
which changes in individual-level behavior have an
effect on aggregate processes (Preston et al, 2001).
More smokers at certain age in a population will have an
effect on the life expectancy at age x and on the death
rate.
Women getting married at older ages can reduce the birth
rate and put at risk the whether the population will be
maintained at a replacement level of fertility (which in
populations with low levels of mortality is around 2.1
children per woman).
 Formal and Social Demography
„ Formal : Use as independent variables only
demographic variables as determinants such as age and
sex.
„ Social Demography: Explores other non-demographic
variables as determinants such as, marital status, race,
education, socioeconomic status, occupation,
household size, and type of place of residence.
„ These variables are drawn mainly from sociology,
economics, psychology, geography, anthropology,
biology, and other disciplines .
Social Policy: The One Child Policy
in China
„ The sex ratio at birth is the number of males
born per one hundred females born and is
around 105 in most societies.
„ Since the 1980s in China it has been significantly
above 105. In the year 2000 it was near 120.
„ The rapid reduction of fertility in China along
with the long-standing preference for sons have
led to the selective abortion of female fetuses,
and a sex ratio at birth above normal levels.
 World Population Data Sheet

http://www.prb.org/pdf05/05WorldDataSheet_Eng.pdf