DEMOGRAPHYY

VITAL STATISTICS
EPIDEMIOLOGY

Essential Questions

What is it?
Why is it important to public health practice?
What essential information does it supply -i.e., how does it function relative to public
health practice?
Who uses this information and for what
purposes?
What problems of information reliability and
validity are encountered?

PRINCIPAL APPLICATIONS OF
STATISTICS IN PUBLIC HEASLTH

Population estimation and forecasting

Surveys of population characteristics
Analysis of health trends
Epidemiological research
Program evaluation
Program planning
Budget preparation and justification
Operational and administrative decision-making
Health education

DEMOGRAPHY

Demography is one branch of the interdisciplinary

study of human populations
Demography deals with the social characteristics
of populations and their development through
time
Demographic data may include the following:
Analysis of a population on the basis of age,natality, race
or ethnicity, marital status, occupation, level of
education, income and poverty, housing, urban or rural
residence, population density . . . Etc.
Changes in population as a result of births, marriages
and deaths

DEMOGRAPHY
Statistics on migration and their effects, and their
relation to economic conditions
Statistics of crime, illegitimacy and suicide

Demographic information serves as the data

base for many calculations of vital statistics -i.e., relating the numbers of various kinds of
vital events that occur over a time period to
the size of the affected population

Information Gleaned from

Demographic Studies

Size of population
Age distribution
Sex/Gender distribution
Income levels
Education levels
Occupation
Race/Ethnicity
Residence

Who Uses
Demographic Information?

Health departments (all levels0

Housing offices
Businesses (especially employers considering
location)
School systems (all types)
Transportation planners
Housing planners/developers
Hospitals (re. location of health facilities)

DEMOGRAPHIC TRENDS

Several important demographic trends will

continue to affect health care in the U.S. Five
such trends are:
Slowing population growth
Increasing diversity of the population
Changes in family structure
Persistent inequalities in access to health
services
Variability in health insurance coverage

HEALTH INSURANCE COVERAGE

Percent of persons under age 65 without health

insurance = 16.1% (1996)
Number of persons under age 65 without health
insurance = 38.9 million (1996)
Percent of children under age 18 without health
insurance = 13.5%
Business establishments with fewer than 50
employees offered health insurance to 42% of
workers, compared to 94% of workers in business
establishments with 50 or more employees

DEMOGRAPHY OF AGING

Average age of the U.S. population rose from 23

years to 33 years between 1900-1990
Average age of the U.S. population is expected
to climb to 39 years by 2035
Between 1990-2030, the oldest age group in the
U.S. (persons age 85 and older) is projected to
triple in size from 3 million to 9 million
When todays college students are in their 70s,
they will represent over one-third of the U.S.
population over 25 years of age