| 1. Title: Historical demography and classical demography. Author: HENRY L Source: In: Kammeyer, K.C.W. (comp.). Population studies. selected essays and research. 2nd edition. Chicago, Illinois, Rand McNally, 1975. p. 94-97 Abstract: Since the science of demography began in 1662, its history has been marked by the following 2 preoccupations: 1) the study of mortality, and 2) official statistical services. As these 2 concerns are dependent upon each other, a study of mortality is clearly not possible without a census which records the number of people and their classification by age. In demography everything has been studied by a judicious combination of the data extracted from the census and vital statistics. In that a census could be taken only by a statistical service, this service actually had a monopoly on statistical observation, on demography itself. Prior to World War 2 all that was not classical demography was marginal and without real importance. After 1945, in the U.S. and Britain, the analysis of demographic phenomena by periods, transversal analysis, was thought to be poorly suited to phenomena other than mortality. Consequently, demographers in those countries substituted an analysis based on the experience of each generation or cohort throughout its lifetime (longitudinal analysis) for transversal analysis. Presently, longitudinal analysis has essentially conquered demographic studies. Reflection on the procedures of statistical observation has made the need of the census and vital statistics data somewhat less imperative. Sample surveys came into use, offering new possibilities and putting demographic observation within the reach of more organizations. In demography, the important factor is to be able to dispose of homogeneous retrospective statistics extending as far into the past as possible rather than to possess the most recent information about the population of a certain country or city. Language: English Keywords: DEMOGRAPHY | Social Sciences Document Number: 755013 |
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