Emergence of Demography
In 1962, the issues of the population become known by a scholar named John Graunt (London); he is generally regarded as the father of Demography and these achievements were a result of his publication (natural and political observation made upon the bill) in 1962. The publication marks the beginning of serious consideration of Demography. The history behind this, is that, in the early 16th century, the city of London ordered that the number of deaths will be recorded in every parish along with the number of christenings (births) [children that have been named] beginning from 1592. It is the record that is referred to as BILLS RECORD. These bills were conducted by each PARISH CLERK recorded at every end of the week will be recorded and circulated on weekly basis. "Note, the period of plague is also referred to as period of epidemics" this plague motivated for the bills of mortality; the cause of death is ordered to also be recorded and the sex of the death not only the number of the deaths, the age of those dying is also added in the 18century. The materials that were compiled from 1592 to1662 were all collected and studied by John Graunt.
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In 1962, he analysis the series of volume; Graunt is not a professor but a haberdasher; a person who sells small articles of sewing, such as buttons, ribbons, zip etc. after his analysis Graunt found the following.
In London of that day, deaths exceeded births whereas in rural areas, the reverse is the case.
He discovers the Biological phenomena that at birth the number of male infants exceeded the number of female infants and that there is a distinctive age pattern of death.
He classifies deaths by cause, and learned that the causes of varied from place to place and from year to year example the highest causes of death in the city might be accident.
He is credited from accrued Mortality Table that otherwise known as Life Table. He discovered from the life table you can predict your expectancy of living.
He undertook & estimates the trends of growths and size of London's population and correctly identifies mortality, fertility & migration as the components of growth.
He was able to evaluate the data used in any research to learn the extent, types and probable courses of errors and to devise adjustment and correction factors to remove bias in statistical measures computed from the data.
He established as a leading goal of population study the development of explanation for the underlined regularities observe. He developed the act of explanation on every discovery made.
These were the observation of john Graunt from an unpromising material made from the BILL OF MORTALITY. He has a friend called WILLIAM PETTY from a society of the influential. He discourse his work with William Petty, his friend and he encourages Graunt with the work. He was the one that circulated the work in the Royal Society. He brought the work to the attention to the scientific world in 1970s. Petty’s work (political arithmetic] was published in 1690. From the two works, Petty generated many original and stimulating ideas of population.
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The empirical research of John Graunt supplement by the insight of William Petty marks the emergence of demography as a scientific discipline. The influence of the two men spread to France and later to Germany and other Europeans countries and during the 18th century, there was an awakening of interest in population study. This often led to the form of compiling of many facts as possible of the entire nation and led to the Early Census of duration or the commencement of the vital registration.
“Demographic thoughts traced back to antiquity, and were present in many civilisations and cultures, like Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, India and China. In ancient Greece, this can be found in the writings of Herodotus, Thucydides, Hippocrates, Epicurus, Protagoras, Polus, Plato and Aristotle. In Rome, writers and philosophers like Cicero, Seneca, Pliny the elder, Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, Cato, and Collumella also expressed important ideas on this ground. In the Middle ages, Christian thinkers devoted much time in refuting the Classical ideas on demography. Important contributors to the field were Conches, Bartholomew, William of Auvergne, William of Pagula, and Ibn Khaldun.
One of the earliest demographic studies in the modern period was Natural and Political Observations Made upon the Bills of Mortality (1662) by John Graunt, which contains a primitive form of life table. Among the study's findings were that one third of the children in London died before their sixteenth birthday. Mathematicians, such as Edmond Halley, developed the life table as the basis for life insurance mathematics. Richard Price was credited with the first textbook on life contingencies published in 1771, followed later by Augustus de Morgan, ‘On the Application of Probabilities to Life Contingencies’ (1838).
At the end of the 18th century, Thomas Robert Malthus concluded that, if unchecked, populations would be subject to exponential growth. He feared that population growth would tend to outstrip growth in food production, leading to ever-increasing famine and poverty. He is seen as the intellectual father of ideas of overpopulation and the limits to growth. Later, more sophisticated and realistic models were presented by Benjamin Gompertz and Verhulst.
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The period 1860-1910 can be characterised as a period of transition wherein demography emerged from statistics as a separate field of interest. This period included a panoply of international ‘great demographers’ like Adolphe Quételet (1796–1874), William Farr (1807–1883), Louis-Adolphe Bertillon (1821–1883) and his son Jacques(1851–1922), Joseph Körösi (1844–1906), Anders Nicolas Kaier (1838–1919), Richard Böckh (1824–1907), Émile Durkheim (1858-1917), Wilhelm Lexis (1837–1914), and Luigi Bodio (1840–1920) contributed to the development of demography and to the toolkit of methods and techniques of demographic analysis.
What is Demography?
Demography (from prefix demo- from Ancient Greek δῆμος dēmos meaning "the people", and –graphy from γράφω graphō, implies "writing, description or measurement” is the statistical study of populations, especially human beings. As a very general science, it can analyze any kind of dynamic living population, i.e., one that changes over time or space (see population dynamics). Demography encompasses the study of the size, structure, and distribution of these populations, and spatial or temporal changes in them in response to birth, migration, aging, and death. Based on the demographic research of the earth, earth's population up to the year 2050 and 2100 can be estimated by demographers. Demographics are quantifiable characteristics of a given population.
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Demographic analysis can cover whole societies or groups defined by criteria such as education, nationality, religion, and ethnicity. Educational institutions usually treat demography as a field of sociology, though there are a number of independent demography departments.
Demography is the statistical study of human populations. It includes the study of the size, structure, and distributions of different populations and changes in them in response to birth, migration, aging, and death. It also includes the analysis of the relationships between economic, social, cultural, and biological process influencing a population.
Demography is widely used for various purposes and can encompass small, targeted populations or mass populations. Governments use demography for political observations, scientists use demography for research purposes, and businesses use demography for the purpose of advertising.
Statistical concepts essential to demography include birth rate, death rate, infant mortality rate, fertility rate, and life expectancy. These concepts can be further broken down into more specific data, such as the ratio of men to women and the life expectancy of each gender. A census helps provide much of this information, in addition to vital statistic records. In some studies, the demography of an area is expanded to include education, income, the structure of the family unit, housing, race or ethnicity, and religion. The information gathered and studied for a demographic overview of a population depends on the party utilizing the information.
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Demography is the study of human populations – their size, composition and distribution across space – and the process through which populations change. Births, deaths and migration are the ‘big three’ of demography, jointly producing population stability or change.
A population’s composition may be described in terms of basic demographic features – age, sex, family and household status – and by features of the population’s social and economic context – language, education, occupation, ethnicity, religion, income and wealth. The distribution of populations can be defined at multiple levels (local, regional, national, global) and with different types of boundaries (political, economic, geographic). Demography is a central component of societal contexts and social change.
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European Population Conference illustrates demography’s breadth:
Fertility, Families and Households
Ageing and Intergenerational Relations
Internal Migration and Urbanization
Mortality and Longevity
Economics, Human Capital and Labour Markets
Development and Environment
Integration processes of migrant populations
Health inequalities at older ages
Population and the welfare state
Population projections of small areas and special groups
Religion and demographic behavior
Demography is very useful for understanding social and economic problems and identifying potential solutions. Demographers are engaged in social planning, market research, insurance forecasting, labor market analysis, economic development and so on. They work for private firms and public agencies at local, regional, national and international levels.
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Since antiquity a number of thinkers have expressed their views on the level of economic development and the size of population. During the time of Confucius, many Chinese and Greek writers, and following them Aristotle, Plato and Kautilya (around the year 300 B.C.) have expressed their thoughts on the subject of population. Thus, as a subject, population education is as old as human civilization.
Demography is the empirical, statistical & mathematical study of human population (Bogue 1969, PI)1 It is the quantitative study of the size, distribution & composition of human population & of the major components of change in these features. The dynamic components comprise fertility, mortality and migration, to which some demographers would also add marriage & social mobility.
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This term was probably first used by the Frenchman A. Guillard in his book, Elements de Statistique Humaine (1855). He defined it as ‘the natural and social history of the human species, or in a narrower sense, the mathematical study of population, their general movements, and their physical, civil, intellectual and moral conditions’.
According to U.N (1958: 3) The Multilingual Demographic Dictionary defines “demography as the scientific study of human populations, primarily with respect to their size, their structure and their development.” The Multilingual Demographic Dictionary, however, differentiates between various aspects of demography by defining separately demographic statistics, economic demography and social demography; the latter two imply the study of relations between demographic phenomena on the one hand and economic and social phenomena on.
According to Peter R. Cox, “Demography is the study of statistical methods of human population involving primarily the measurements of the size, growth and diminution of the numbers of the people, the proportions of living being born or dying within the same area or region and the related functions of fertility, mortality and marriage.”
According to Dictionary of Sociology by P. Scott, “Demography is the study of population size, composition, and distribution and the patterns of change there in. The narrowest concept of demography views it as the study of vital statistics (birth and death rates and related statistics).
According to Thompson and Lewis, “The population student is interested in a population size, composition and distributions; and in changes in these aspects through time and the causes of these changes. Ultimately he is interested in these changes because they are related to, human welfare.”
This definition emphasis was on the study of (1) the, size of population, (2) the composition of population, and (3) the distribution of population.
According to Von Mayor, “Demography is the numerical analysis of the state and movement of human population inclusive of census enumerations and registration of vital processes and of whatever qualitative analysis can be made of the state and movement of population on the basis of fundamental census and registration data.”
This definition traces historical origin of demography as a subject and shows its close link with statistics. -Although Von Mayor himself did not mention about any demographic theory, yet he has explicitly stated the importance of such theories in the subjects Demography can thus be regarded as a kind of biological book keeping, a continuous inventory and analysis of human population and its vital processes.
According to Social Work Dictionary, “Demography is the systematic study of population variable and characteristics.”
According to Encyclopedia of Britannica, “Demography, statistical study of human populations, especially with reference to size and density, distribution, and vital statistics (births, marriages, deaths, etc.). Contemporary demographic concerns include the “population explosion,” the interplay between population and economic development, the effects of birth control, urban congestion, illegal immigration, and labour force statistics.”
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Writers like William Peterson, Hauser and Duncan consider “Population Studies” and “Demography” to be different. According to them, ‘Demography’ encompasses limited spheres and it studies only the decisive factors of population growth, whereas in ‘Population Studies’ besides the social, economic, geographical, political and biological aspects of population, their ensuing relationships are also studied.
The Oxford Dictionary of Economics defines demography as “The study of the characteristics of human populations.” According to the UN Multilingual Demographic Dictionary, “Demography is the scientific study of human populations, primarily with respect to their size, their structure and their development.”
According to W. G. Barckley, “The numerical portrayal of human population is known as demography.” Similarly, according to Thomson and Lewis, “The population study is interested in population’s size, composition and distribution; and in changes in these aspects through time and causes of these changes.”
All these definitions take a narrow view because they emphasise only the quantitative aspects of demography. Some other writers have defined demography in wide sense by taking the quantitative and qualitative aspects of population studies
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In this context, according to Hauser and Duncan (1959), “Demography is the study of size, territorial distribution and composition of population, changes therein, and the components of such changes, which may be identified as natality, mortality, territorial movement (migration), and social mobility (change of status).” In simple terms, it is the study of the size, structure and development of human population.
In this definition, composition of population implies (1) such traits as age, sex, race, and ethnic origin (the biological or fixed traits), (2) such life cycle attributes as educational level and marital and household status; and (3) such variable characteristics as occupation, socio-economic status, income, etc.
According to Frank Lorimer, “In broad sense, demography includes both demographic analysis and population studies. A broad study of demography
Thus, according to Donald J. Bougue, “Demography is a statistical and mathematical study of the size, composition, spatial distribution of human population, and of changes overtime in these aspects through the operation of the five processes of fertility, mortality, marriage, migration and social mobility. Although it maintains a continuous descriptive and comparative analysis of trends, in each of these processes and in its net result, its long run goal is to develop a body of theory to explain the events that it charts and compares. ”
These broad definitions take into view not only the size, composition and distribution of population and changes in them in the long run but also imply human migration and change in the status of the population through education, employment, social status, etc.
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Finally, Demography is a science of population. Demographic issues are as old as humankind. The issues of life and death, survival, birth, marriage/cohabitation, and ageing, are deeply rooted in man’s biological, social and spiritual being. The knowledge of population growth appeared within many sciences making demography an interdisciplinary science related to statistics, sociology, economics, medicine, biology, anthropology, psychology and other scientific disciplines.
Demography is a broad social science discipline concerned with the study of human populations, primary with respect to their size, their structure and their development. Demographers deal with the collection, presentation and analysis of data relating to the basic life-cycle events and experiences of people: birth, marriage, divorce, household and family formation, employment, ageing, migration and death. The discipline emphasises empirical investigation of population processes, including the conceptualisation and measurement of these processes and the study of their determinants and consequences. The field of demography is also concerned with the broader nature of social and economic change, and with the impact of demographics change on the natural environment.
According to ‘The Penguin Dictionary of Sociology’, “Demography can be defined as the analysis of the Size, structure and development of human populations, although it is occasionally employed to cover the study of animal populations. The crude statistics of population size and change are provided by the relationship between the birth and death rates and by migration and emigration. Two central features of population structure are the sex and age composition of human groups. Demographic analysis also includes the geographical distribution of populations, population and natural resources, genetic composition, population projections, family planning, and demographic features of the labour supply. Because the demography of human populations is crucial for economic and social planning, the development of demographic analysis has become important for national and international government forecasting. Partly in response to government requirements and partly because of the nature of demographic data, demographers have developed sophisticated mathematical models of population change and structure which permit statistical forecasting, population projections and the creation of actuarial life-tables. It is now common place, therefore, to distinguish between formal or mathematical demography, which is concerned with the mathematical structure and functions of human populations, and social or historical demography, which studies the historical conditions of population change such as the nature of the demographic transition.
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The demographic characteristics of human populations are clearly of major importance for any sociological understanding of human society. Population change in both size and structure has a direct bearing on, for example, the availability of housing, education, health and employment. Despite these obvious connections between demography and sociology, it is perhaps surprising that the two disciplines have tended to develop as separate and distinct approaches to human society. Although the question of population density played an important part in early sociological theories of social contract and division of labour, subsequent sociological theory and research did not take the demographic features of society to be of central analytical significance in sociological explanation.
One explanation of the neglect of demography by sociologists may lie in the fact that sociologists like T. Parsons came to equate an interest in the demography of society with a 'biologizing' tendency in sociological theory. Biological determinism attempts to employ the study of animal populations as the basis for the study of human groups, perceiving the latter in terms of basic laws of population growth in relation to fixed resources. While demographers were inclined to ignore the cultural and social factors which mediate between population and environment, sociologists have neglected population variables between society and environment.
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This mirror-image ignorance between demography and sociology has now changed fundamentally with recent developments in the social history of human populations which is centrally concerned with such questions as marriage practices, bastardy, family structure and generally with the impact of social conditions on fertility, mortality and migration.”
Scope and importance of Demography
The scope of demography is very wide. It includes the subject matter of demography, is it a micro or macro study? Whether it is a science or art? These are vexed questions about the scope of demography about which there is no unanimity among writers on demography.
According to P.M. Heuser & O. D. Duncan, “There is no standard conception of the scope or the framework of demography.”
According to W.R Thomson and D.T Lewis, “The field of demography changes according to time, place and circumstances”
On the basis of nature, characteristics, magnitude and area of discussion, the scope of demography has been categorized into two main sectors.
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Micro Demography
This is the study of a growth distribution and redistribution of the population within community, state, economics area and other local area. It studies small units like individual, family, groups etc. these includes numerical (statistical) and compositional aspect and it performed by using meaningful subdivision of community or local area.
In this sense, According to Dictionary of Sociology by P. Scott, “Demography is the study of population size, composition, and distribution and the patterns of change there in. The narrowest concept of demography views it as the study of vital statistics (birth and death rates and related statistics
In this context, according to Hauser and Duncan (1959), “Demography is the study of size, territorial distribution and composition of population, changes therein, and the components of such changes, which may be identified as natality, mortality, territorial movement (migration), and social mobility (change of status).” In simple terms, it is the study of the size, structure and development of human population.
In this definition, composition of population implies (1) such traits as age, sex, race, and ethnic origin (the biological or fixed traits), (2) such life cycle attributes as educational level and marital and household status; and (3) such variable characteristics as occupation, socio-economic status, income, etc.
Micro demography is the narrow view of population studies. Among others, Hauser and Duncan include the study of fertility, mortality, distribution, migration, etc. of an individual, a family or group of a particular city or area or community.
As pointed out by Bogue, “Micro demography is the study of the growth, distribution and redistribution of the population within community, state, economic area or other local area.” According to the micro view, demography is primarily concerned with quantative relations of demographic phenomena.
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Macro Demography
Writers like Bogue, Lorimer and others favour a balanced view of population studies. They do not believe in dividing the study of demography into two separate micro and macro divisions.
Prof. Bogue explains macro demography as “the mathematical and statistical study of the size, composition, and spatial distribution of human population and of changes over time in these aspects through the operations of the five processes of fertility, mortality, marriage, migration and social mobility. It maintains a continuous descriptive and comparative analysis of trends, in each of these processes and in their net result. Its long run goal is to develop theories to explain the events that it charts and compares.”
A majority of writers take the macro view of population studies and include the qualitative aspects of demography. To them, demography includes the interrelationships between population and social, economic and cultural conditions of the country and their effects on population growth.
It studies size, composition and distribution of population, and long run changes in them. Why migrations take place and what are their effects? What leads to urbanisation and what are its consequences? All these form part of macro aspects of population studies which also include unemployment, poverty and policies relating to them; population control and family welfare; and theories of population, migration and urbanisation etc.
William P. Scott explained Demography as a broad sense in his book of ‘Dictionary of Sociology’, “In the broadest view of demography is the study of population composition and distribution include not only such variables as fertility, mortality, age, and sex, but also marriage, divorce, family size, race, education, illiteracy, unemployment, distribution, crime rates, density of population, migration etc.
According to Frank Lorimer, “In broad sense, demography includes both demographic analysis and population studies. A broad study of demography studies both qualitative and quantitative aspects of population”.
As pointed out by Lorimer, “A demographer limited to the merely formal treatment of changes in fertility, mortality and mobility would be in a position like that of a formal chemist observing the compression of mercury with no information about associated changes in temperature or the constituent of the liquid.”
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Therefore, the scope of demography should include both micro and macro aspects of population. According to Thompson and Lewis, it should relate to fertility, mortality, information about female population, their health, marital status, distribution and classification of population according to occupation, and collection and study of information about social and economic condition, and migration of population.
This deals with such studies as the cause of rapid or slow growth of birth rate, death rate, population growth, sex ratio and health conditions. Many economic issues like unemployment, income condition, standard of living, labour condition and living standard, production, consumption, saving habits, relationship between population and economic development are all parts of macro demographic studies. Also, social problems like mental status, family composition, growing trends about education, religion etc. and problems of migration, urbanization, etc. form of macro demography.
In the World Population Conferences held by the United Nations ([UN) organization in 1954 & 1968, the following topics were discussed.
Fertility
Mortality
Migration
Genetic Composition
Future Prospects
Population and Resources
Techniques of Measurement
Training of Demographers
Distribution of Population
Family Planning
Population Projections
Demographic aspects of housing, education, saving of investment.
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Importance of Studying Demography for Social Work
Demography deals with the analysis & measurement of fertility, morbidity, mortality, migration, & net change in population. Demography as a subject has historically contained elements both of a social science & a policy science. Demography now is much more than the study of vital statistics but less than the all - encompassing science of human being would be an error to regard demography as a very wide subject.
Demography studies (i) theories, (ii) events, (iii) vista, & (iv) Policy propositions. We study “how to adjust the economy to the requirements of population”, but this is “economics of development we can study “how to adjust population to the requirements of the development of economy”, & this is part of population studies. The border between the two types of the studies is however, an “open” one.
Demography deals with vital issues relating to the events of marriage, births, living, migration & deaths & hence its relationship can be traced with some important disciplines of pure as well as social sciences. Demography deals with vital issues relating to the events of marriage, births, living, migration & deaths & hence its relationship can be traced with some important disciplines of pure as well as social sciences. An organic, & not mechanical, view is lateen of everything.
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It provides the different idea of different variables and concepts of demography
Techniques of population measurements are learnt through it.
It helps to know theoretical perspective of increasing, decreasing and changing trends of population.
It gives an idea in regard to natural resources and different economic factors such as (income, savings, investment, employment)
Different population problems and their solutions are discussed in demography
Formulation, Implementation, and evaluation of population policy, planning and programmes are examined by demography
It provides the idea regarding the trend and root of social mobility through demographic elements
It is important for health, planning, education, housing planning, planning of food supply and concerning migration rate etc.
It helps to compare different dimension of population among national, regional and international level.
Overall, Demographic knowledge helps to transfer population into human resources.