SOC 104

Lecture note 1

Nature and Scope of Demography

The Multilingual Demographic Dictionary defines ‘demography’ as the scientific study of human
populations primarily with respect to their size, their structure, and their development; it takes into
account the quantitative aspects of their general characteristics (van de Walle, 1982). It is the
science of population, and is concerned with virtually everything that influences, or can be
influenced by population size, distribution, processes, structure, or characteristics (Weeks, 2020).
Literally translated from the Greek language, the term ‘demography’, means ‘description or study
of the people’ - demo (ordinary citizens, or people) and graphia (study of). Demography places
emphasis on the numerical aspects of the population, and changes resulting from the three
major components of population, namely birth, deaths and migration. The knowledge of the
size of a place or a population, and the roles of birth, deaths and migration in altering the size,
structure, distribution and other characteristics of that population is the subject matter of
Demography.

Sub-disciplines in demography include historical demography, descriptive demography,

theoretical demography, and mathematical demography (van de Walle, 1982). Historical
demography deals with populations of the past for which written records are available; if such
records are unavailable, the study of ancient populations takes the name paleo-demography.
Descriptive demography describes the numbers, geographic distribution, structure and change of
human populations by means of population or demographic statistics. Theoretical demography,
also called pure demography, is the treatment of quantitative relations among demographic
phenomena in abstraction from their association with other phenomena. Mathematical
demography employs various mathematical methods and abstractions to elucidate past, current
and future population situations.

All these sub-disciplines of demography place a great emphasis on the numerical or quantitative
aspects of the phenomena, and are sometimes referred to as formal demography. The broader term,
population studies, includes the treatment of relations between demographic events and social,
economic or other phenomena, hence the terms social demography, anthropological demography,
medical demography, economic demography and population geography. In other words,
population study is the study of relations between demographic phenomenon, on the one hand,
and economic, social, medical, environmental and cultural phenomena, on the other. There is also
the study of population theories which should not be confused with theoretical demography;
population theories are overarching abstractions designed to explain or predict the interaction
between changes in population and economic, social, psychological or other factors. Population
theories often form the basis of population policy, which deal with measures designed to influence
population changes.

Some people erroneously use the terms Demography and Population Studies interchangeably.
Whereas demography is the science of population (births, deaths and migration), mainly
technical and quantitative, population studies, as a subject, covers a range of topics dealing
with the relationships between population size and available resources; social, biological and
economic influences on population growth rates, fertility, population ageing and population
composition and distribution. It is the application of the tools of demography (measures of
births, deaths and migration) to understanding existential realities of humans, including their
social, economic, environmental conditions as well as human sexuality and reproductive health
and planning for the future. In most clines, however, students study demography and population
studies instantaneously, with little distinction between them.

Several major issues confronting the world, and nations, such as urbanization, economic
development, food and pollution, household structure, aging, and health problems, have
demographic underpinnings. Also, because everybody is a member of a population, and
population changes affect all of us in one way or another; it is imperative for students from diverse
disciplines to gain an understanding on how population affected the past and shapes the present
and future of societies. Population change has an impact on every facet of life, from where and
how we live, to the work profile of the people and to health care and other social services available
to the population.

In many developing countries, such as Nigeria, efforts to increase school enrolment, employment
and per capita production of food supplies can be frustrated by current rapid growth of the
population. Also improved standard of living can lower birth rates, and improved medical care
eventually leads to increased life expectancy, while environmental pollution and contamination
may lead to rising illness and deaths from certain diseases in certain geographic areas. The fact of
high rate of out-migration, whether it is from rural areas to urban areas or from the country to
developed countries, is the experience of many developing countries, including Nigeria. What
may not be very obvious is that demographic events in such countries, such as high population
growth rates, by making it impossible to create enough jobs, contribute greatly to that migration
stream. It is, therefore, important for people to be touch or affected by population problems –
which really means everybody – to understand the implications of population as a factor in daily
life.

Clearly, the knowledge of population parameters is essential for government planning and
development of a country. Just as effective development depends on reliable knowledge of natural
and other resources available to a country, so does effective development planning depend upon
reliable knowledge of the size, structure, composition, growth and movement of people. This is
the preoccupation of demographers.

Class Video Clip

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vr44C_G0-o
Joel Cohen: An Introduction to Demography (Malthus Miffed: Are People the Problem?) | Big
Think

References
National Population Commission (NPC), 2009. Nigeria Census of Population and Housing, 2006. NPC, Abuja 2009.
Van de Walle, E. 1982. Multilingual DEMOGRAPHIC Dictionary, English Section, Second edition; International
Union for the Scientific Study of Population. Liege: Ordina Editions.
Weeks, John R. 2020. POPULATION: An Introduction to Concepts and Issues, Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing
Company.
 Basic Demographic measures and tools

ABSOLUTE AND RELATIVE NUMBERS

Most sources of demographic data publish the information in terms of absolute numbers. For example the
number of live births in a particular year for a particular country- for US the number of live births in 1976
was 3,165,000, in Japan -1,934,958. Although absolute number may be interesting, it is difficult to make
international comparison, the aim of the demographer is to compare the incidence of births in different
population. Therefore, the absolute number has to be related in some ways to the size of the population for
comparison purpose. By relating the absolute number of births to the population size, we obtain the ‘relative
number of births. The relative number can be used for comparison purpose.

THE TOOLS OF DEMOGRAPHY

These consists the basic implements employed by demographers to make population measures meaningful.
Demography deals with quantities, therefore concepts that standardize the meaning and application of these
quantities are essential in advancing the discipline as well as in ensuring comparison among different
populations or countries. A thorough understanding of these tools and how to calculate and apply them is
essential to demography. In other words, the subject of demography does not exist outside of these tools.
Indeed, they are the ingredients that give meaning to the discipline. These include count, rate, ratio,
proportion, constant, cohort measure and period measure.

Count: This refers to the absolute number of a population of any demographic event occurring in a specific
area in a specific time period. For instance, the count of the Nigerian population in 2006 was 140,431,790,
while those of Imo and Ekiti states were 3,927,563 and 2,398,957 respectively (NPC, 2009). We can also
have a count of the number of births, deaths or marriages in a community in a year. Counts are raw
quantities of demographic events and are the basis of all other statistical calculations and analysis.

Rates: Rates measure the frequency of demographic events in a population in a specified time period; for
example, birth rates tell us the number of live births per 1000 population in a country in a particular year.
Rates tell how frequent an event is occurring or how common it is. Rates are used extensively in
demography to analyze the frequency of vital events in a country or across many countries.
Example
If we convert absolute number of births by mid year population multiply by 1000
Total midyear population for a country - 301,621,159 and live birth – 4,317,119
14.4 births per 1000 population per year

Ratio: This is the relation of one population sub-group to another sub-group in the same population; that
is, one sub-group divided by another. An example is sex ratio, which is a measure of number of males per
100 females in a population. Sex ratio in Nigeria was 103 in 2006, which means there were 103 males for
every 100 females.
Example
In South Africa, the census figures expressed in millions are as follows for different subgroup

Whites- 3.57 Africans -15.06 Coloured- 2.02 Asians- 0.62

The ratio of African to Whites = 15.06/3.57 = 4.22, which can be interpreted as 4 Africans per 1 white or
422 Africans per 100 Whites.

Class exercise- Describe different subgroups of the population relative to the Whites in ratio

Proportion: This is the relation of a population sub-group to the entire population; that is, a population
sub-group divided by the entire population. An example is proportion urban in a country, which is
derived from the count of urban population divided by the entire population of that country.

Example
 Population
Subgroups in millions Proportions Percentages Per 1000
Whites 3.57 0.168 16.78 168
Africans 15.06 0.708 70.80 708
Coloured 2.02 0.095 9.50 95
Asians 0.62 0.029 2.91 29
Total 21.27 1 100

Constant: This is an unchanging, arbitrary number by which rates, ratios or proportions can be
multiplied to express these measures in more understandable or intuitive fashion. Most rates are
multiplied by 1000 and expressed as ‘per 1000 population’; ratios and proportions are usually multiplied
by 100 and expressed as ‘per 100 subgroup or population’.

Cohort Measures: These are statistics that measure events occurring to a cohort, that is, a group of
people sharing a common demographic experience being followed or observed through time. The most
commonly used cohort is the birth cohort, which is, a group people born in the same year or period. Other
kinds of cohorts include marriage cohorts, school class cohorts, NYSC cohort, etc.

Period Measure: These are statistics that measure events occurring to all or part of a population during
one period of time. In effect, it is like taking a ‘snap-shot’ of a population. An example is death rate,
which is a measure of all deaths occurring to the entire population in a year or period.

Class exercise
1. In a South Africa, the census figures expressed in millions are as follows for different subgroup
Whites 3.57
Africans 15.06
Coloured 2.02
Asians 0.62
Describe different subgroups of the population relative to the Whites in ratio.

2. Fill in the gaps

Population
Subgroups in millions Proportions Percentages Per 1000
Whites 3.57 0.168 16.78 168
Africans 15.06
Coloured 2.02
Asians 0.62
Total 21.27