Demography

Demography=Demos (People) + Graphein (To write)

According to D. J. Boque, "Demography is the Mathematical and Statistical study of size,

composition and spatial distribution of human population and of change overtime in these aspects,
through the operation of five process of fertility, mortality, marriage, migration and social mobility.
The long run goal of demography is to develop theories to explain their events."

Scope of demography:

Scope of demography is to examine the-

 Size (number of individuals in a population)

 Distribution (Spatial)
 Structure (with respect to Gender, Age etc.) &
 Their change.

Sources of population data:

De jure Count
Population
Census
De facto Count

Single-round
Survey
Sample Survey
Multi-round
Vital Survey
National
Registration
Sources
System (VRS)

Population
Registers

Non-traditional
Sources

Publications
 United Nations
Demographic
Yearbook

International Population
Sources Index

WHO

National Sources

a. Population Census: the total process of collecting, compiling and publishing

demographic, economic data pertaining a specified time or times to all person in a country.

Advantages:
 Main source of demographic data for under-developed and developing
countries.
 Satisfactory method of recording size, structure and other characteristics of
the population

Disadvantages:
 Only limited number of questions can be asked
 Very costly and need huge manpower
 The time needed for processing an entire census is too long to satisfy
urgent requirements for information

Information collected in a census:

 Age, sex, ethnic group, marital status, literacy, work status, occupation, No.
of children etc.
Uses:
 Estimating the future population sizes and distribution which are
fundamental to long run planning of many public programs, for example
educational needs ( the number of school places and teachers), health
needs (the number and location of hospitals), and manpower needs (the
employment of the population etc.), and housing programs.
 Investigating the adequacy of the relationship between demographic and
socio-economic processes
 Measuring the levels and trends in the standard of living of the population
 The allocation of parliamentary seats
 The allocation of resources
 DE FACTO & DE JURE ENUMERATION:

De Facto count: A de facto count of the total population is the enumeration of the
persons physically present at a specified place on census night.

Advantages of de facto count:

 It is simple and unambiguous
 The enumerator has to record only persons who spent census night at a
given place

Disadvantages of de facto count:

 Faces problems in enumerating floating population
 Persons may forgot or willfully misinform as to where they spent census
night, especially if the enumeration process drags on for a long time
 This type of count is not suitable for administrative and planning purpose

De Jure count: A de jure count of the total population is the enumeration of the
persons who usually reside in a given place

Advantages of de jure count:

 More suitable for administrative and planning purpose

Disadvantages of de jure count:

 It is complicated, difficult and increase duplications

b. Sample Survey: A sample survey seeks to collect information only from a fraction of the
population. It is employed to arrive at estimates of demographic characteristics- size, distribution,
mortality, fertility and migration.

Advantages:
 Simple, flexible, less costly and less time consuming

Disadvantages:
 Estimated result is less perfect than the actual results

Uses:
 The estimation of total population and its geographic distribution
 Checking the accuracy of a population census
 The estimation of the components of population change (fertility,
mortality, and migration)
 The estimation of a number of other demographic characteristics of the
existing population.

SINGLE & MULTI ROUND SURVEY:

Single round survey: In single-round surveys the people enumerated only once at
the time of the survey and retrospective questions are asked

Multi-round survey: In multi-round surveys (repeated surveys or follow-up surveys)

repeated visits are made to households in selected sample areas in order to ascertain what events
have occurred during the intervals between the visits.
 c. Vital Registration System: Vital registration consists of continuous registration of vital
events such as birth, death, marriage, and migration. In developed countries it is the main source of
demographic data. But in developing countries it does not exists. If exists, the data are inadequate,
inaccurate and defective.

Uses:
 Birth registration records provide the necessary legal and documentary
evidence to certify a person's age, parentage, birth place, and nationality.
This also used to determine a person's eligibility for admission to school, to
obtain passport, to enter certain fields of employment and to vote in an
election.
 The death certificate is required for civic functions such as entitlement to
family allowances, insurance claims, property claims, care of children etc.
 Marriage and divorce records are the basis for claims involving the status of
women, such as dependency, tax deductions and allowances. It also import
to establish the right to remarry.
 The data from vital registration gives information on the seasonality of the
births and deaths, which is important for planning related services.
 In populous countries vital statistics can be useful in formulating
population-control programs and for evaluating effectiveness of such
programs
 Epidemiological studies based on morbidity data have a strong influence on
the reduction of mortality and are usually based on records of vital
statistics

d. Population Registers: This source is usually employed by the developed countries who
maintain a regular up-dated list of people residing in a country with details of sex, date of birth,
marital status etc.

Uses:
 Identification of persons
 Control of electoral rolls
 Preparation of tax lists
 To control food rationing in times of shortage
 For implementation of regulations concerning compulsory education
 It is also a source of population statistics, vital statistics, migration
statistics, size & characteristics of the population, population changes,
social security statistics, health statistics, educational statistics, statistics
of family income and consumption, labor statistics, income tax statistics,
family and housing statistics etc.

International Sources

a. United Nations Demographic Yearbook: The United Nations Demographic Yearbook

collects, compiles and disseminates official statistics on a wide range of topics. Data
have been collected from national statistical authorities since 1948 through a set of
 questionnaires dispatched annually by the United Nations Statistics Division to over
230 national statistical offices.
The Demographic Yearbook disseminates statistics on population size and composition,
births, deaths, marriage and divorce on an annual basis. Demographic Yearbook special
topics issues cover a wide range of additional topics including economic activity,
educational attainment, household characteristics, housing, ethnicity and language,
among others.

b. Population Index: Population Index, published between 1937 and 1999, was the
primary reference tool to the world's population literature. It presented an annotated
bibliography of recently published books, journal articles, working papers, and other
materials on population topics.

c. World Health Organization (WHO): WHO provides Global Health Observatory (GHO)
data. The Global Health Observatory (GHO) is WHO's gateway to health-related
statistics for more than 1000 indicators for its 194 Member States. Data are organized
to monitor progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including
health status indicators to monitor progress towards for the overall health goal,
indicators to track equity in health indicators, and the indicators for the specific health
and health-related targets of the SDGs.

Quality of population data:

The accuracy of census/ survey information has varied from time to time and from place to
place all over world, but some generalizations are possible about the types of errors found in
censuses and surveys.

Two main errors in censuses are common:

a. Errors in Coverage:
- Under enumeration (Some persons/ households are not counted at all)
- Over enumeration (Persons/ households are counted more than once)

b. Errors in Content
- Age heaping (digital preference e.g. 0 or 5) (respondents give ages as ending in
certain preferred digits like 0 or 5)
- Age shifting (telling more age of older persons and less age for younger persons)

Two main errors in sample surveys are:

a. Sampling error
A measure of degree to which the sample estimate differs from the true population
value and occurs because a part and not all the units is covered. This errors are easy
to control using through the choice of suitable sample designs
b. Non-sampling error
Common both in censuses and survey, and occurs due to misinformation,
inadequate, incomplete information.