Demography definition

Demography is the statistical study of human populations. Demography examines the size, structure, and movements of populations over space and time. It uses methods from history, economics, anthropology, sociology, and other fields. Demography is useful for governments and private businesses as a means of analyzing and predicting social, cultural, and economic trends related to population. While basic demographic studies, such as censuses, were conducted in the ancient world as far back as 6,000 years ago, demographers as we know them, such as John Graunt from the United Kingdom, came about in the 16th century. The earliest statistical studies were concerned mostly with mortality (how many people died and at what age). Through studying baptism and burial records, Graunt could estimate the number of men of military age, and the number of women of childbearing age. His study represents one of the earliest statistical examinations of the population of a region. Demographic studies were often carried out by early insurance agents to determine life insurance rates. These early demographic studies were mostly concerned with mortality. However, in the 19th century, studies showed that there was a decline in the number of births, and researchers began to study fertility as well as mortality. These studies led to the idea of “ differential fertility.” Differential fertility suggests that different groups within a population have different numbers of children due to factors, such as...

The demographic transition As societies industrialize or modernize, their populations undergo drastic changes. This process is known as In fact, fertility rates fall during development, as mothers no longer need to compensate for child mortality and providing for larger families can become a burden. Demographic progress is generally accompanied by a In time, birth rates plateau at a relatively low level, in line with death rates, and this marks the end of the demographic transition in many countries. However, some countries’ demographic patterns have evolved differently thereafter, and imbalanced birth and death rates in regions considered among the most advanced (such as Germany and Japan) have led to natural population decline and rapidly aging populations. Demographics today Around 70 percent of the world lives in Asia and Latin America, and most of these countries are coming to the end of their demographic transitions, where population growth is slowing. Previous conceptions of so-called “developed” and “developing” societies are now being challenged, as countries such as Colombia, China, and Thailand have similar or higher th century. Today, the region of Sub-Saharan Africa is considered the least demographically developed, but all countries are Future growth By 2100, the world’s population is expected to reach Clicking on the following button will update the content below. us Clicking on the following button will update the content below. sg Clicking on the following...

Demographic analysis, the statistical description of human populations, is a tool used by government agencies, political parties, and manufacturers of consumer goods. Polls conducted on every topic imaginable, from age to toothpaste preference, give the government and corporations an idea of who the public is and what it needs and wants. The government's census, which is conducted every ten years, is the largest demographic survey of all. Today demographic is also being used as a noun; so, for example, TV advertisers are constantly worrying about how to appeal to "the 18-to-24-year-old demographic". Noun The town's demographics suggest that the restaurant will do well there. The newspaper will be making some changes in order to adapt to the region's shifting demographics. The demographics of the disease are changing, and we are seeing much younger people being affected by it. Adjective The demographic information shows that the population increased but the average income went down. Noun Detailed data about the demographics of Tesla’s workforce released for the first time this week show men vastly outnumber women at the upper levels of billionaire Elon Musk’s electric car manufacturer. — Jessica Guynn, USA TODAY, 2 June 2023 This change in demographics came as Texas home prices rose by tens of thousands of dollars, alongside a rapid rise in mortgage rates that overwhelmed many buyers with much larger monthly payments. — Mitchell Parton, Dallas News, 26 May 2023 Lynn Reaser,...

• Demographics is the collection and analysis of general characteristics about groups of people and populations, such as age, gender, and income. • Demographic data is used by businesses to develop marketing strategies and advertising campaigns and for responding to changes in consumer demand. • Data is gathered from sources such as the government, private research firms, broadcast media, websites, and consumer surveys. • Today, businesses often combine demographic and psychographic research to create more effective advertising strategies. Demographics Definition and Use In advertising, demographics are key to creating targeted marketing campaigns that appeal to specific groups of consumers. For example, Southwest Airlines, which prides itself on being a basic low-fare carrier with frequent direct flights to many locations, targets its advertising toward middle-class families, Faced with the growing costs of consumer marketing, businesses increasingly rely on demographics to identify the best possible target audiences for their advertising campaigns. Since the size and preferences of different demographic groups change over time, it is also important for companies to identify demographic trends. For example, companies use demographics to anticipate the needs of the aging U.S. population. As people grow older, they tend to spend more on health care products and services, and the method and tone of advertising to these older customers is very different from that of younger c...

A field of study concerned with the analysis of how social and cultural factors are related to population characteristics. Its major focus is the impact of social and cultural factors on demographic features of society, such as patterns of marriage and childbearing, the age-structure of the population, life-expectancy, and so forth. In addition, however, social demography also encompasses examination of the social consequences of demographic change. Since the demographic characteristics of a society or social group are themselves social phenomena, and the immediate product of the social (but also biological) events of birth and death, in one sense the demographic study of any human population is a form of social demography. However, whereas demography itself is primarily concerned with determining and measuring population characteristics and the interrelationship between demographic variables, social demographers seek to understand and explain these demographic patterns. In so doing they draw on the expertise of sociology as well as of demography. The three main variables underlying population change are fertility, mortality, and migration, variables themselves associated with factors such as age at marriage, the proportions marrying, contraceptive use, levels and types of morbidity, rural-urban migration, and so forth. All receive attention from social demographers, who seek to understand these processes in terms of a range of standard social factors such as the levels an...

DEMOGRAPHY, HISTORY OF Demography is the study of a human population, a definable group of people, and of additions to and subtractions from its number. A population is increased by births and immigration and decreased by deaths and emigration. In a "closed population," there is no migration and attention is paid only to reproduction and mortality. Demographers prefer to study populations that are sufficiently large to be unaffected by the idiosyncratic behavior of individuals. Nevertheless, most would argue that their findings are the best description of the behavior of the typical individual. Demographers, especially when studying recent times, are almost always interested in change; consequently, the time dimension is stronger in their work than it is in most social sciences. Demography is not easy to practice. Its practitioners need to know the numbers and vital rates of large human aggregations and require some comprehension of mathematics and scientific concepts to do their analyses. Adequate measurements of large populations require wealth and a centralized administration and have developed slowly. Historically, such measurements were not carried out for demographic purposes but to assess military strength or the tax base. Frequently, the data were not centralized, making analysis difficult. The registration of births and deaths usually was done for legal purposes such as establishing inheritance rights and was not equally relevant to all parts of society. The Mater...

Phonetic Spelling • American English – /di-mAH-gruh-fee/ • British English – /dee-mO-gruh-fee/ International Phonetic Alphabet • American English – /dəˈmɑɡrəfi/ • British English – /dᵻˈmɒɡrəfi/ Usage Notes • Plural: demographies • Demographers • demographics. • A ( noun) demographer ( demographist) adjective) demographi c or ( adjective) demographical adverb) demographically. Related Videos Additional Information • • Ehrlich, Paul R. 1968. The Population Bomb . New York: Ballantine. • Ehrlich, Paul R., and Anne H. Ehrlich. 1990. The Population Explosion . New York: Simon and Schuster. • Malthus, Thomas R., and Shannon C. Stimson. [1798] 2018. An Essay on the Principle of Population . New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Related Terms • • • • • • • • • • • Works Consulted Abercrombie, Nicholas, Stephen Hill, and Bryan Turner. 2006. The Penguin Dictionary of Sociology. 5th ed. London: Penguin. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. 5th ed. 2011. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Andersen, Margaret L., and Howard Francis Taylor. 2011. Sociology: The Essentials . 6th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. Brinkerhoff, David, Lynn White, Suzanne Ortega, and Rose Weitz. 2011. Essentials of Sociology . 8th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. Bruce, Steve, and Steven Yearley. 2006. The SAGE Dictionary of Sociology. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE. Brym, Robert J., and John Lie. 2007. Sociology: Your Compass for a New World . 3rd ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. Ferrante, Joan. 2011. Sociolog...