Demography Flashcards
Demography definition?
Demography is the study of a population in its static and dynamic aspects
What are the static and dynamic aspects in demography?
- Static aspects include characteristics at a point in time such as composition by:
–Age, sex, race, marital status, economic characteristics - Dynamic aspects are:
Fertility, mortality, nuptiality, migration, growth
What is the second definition of demography?
Demography is the scientific study of human populations primarily with respect to their size, their structure (composition) and their development (change)
What does demography study?
- change in size and composition
- determinants (causes) of population trends
- consequences of these trends, including problems resulting from them
What is population studies?
Population studies is the study of the relationship between demographic variables and other variables such as social and economic variables
What are the main components of population variation and change?
Size, distribution, structure and change of the population
Define the following: Size, distribution, structure and change.
- Size refers to the number of persons/people in the population
- Distribution is the spatial (geographical) spread of the population at a given time
- Structure refers to the distribution of the population among the age and sex groupings
- Change refers to the growth or decline of the population
How is population and planning related?
Population is the center of all planning.
All planning programs usually take the population into account.
What is the first step of population forecast? And when is analysis applied?
- Analysis of past and current demographic levels is the first step in population forecast.
- Forms the basis for national plans for economic development and population policies
- Applied in areas of health includng public health & family planning, land use planning, acturial sciences, education etc
What are some traditional and non-traditional sources of demographic data?
Traditional Sources
Civil registration
Censuses
Sample surveys
Non-traditional Sources
Parish registers
School registers
Maternity clinics
Immigration office registers
Social security files, etc
Define civil/vital registration. Why is it called civil registration?
This is the continuous registration of basic (vital) events pertaining to life.
Birth
Death
Marriage
Divorce
It is usually undertaken by governments and therefore referred to as civil registration.
Give a brief history of civil registration
- Relatively modern concept in its present format
- Churches have long maintained baptism and burial registries
- Provided insight on the demographic situation since the late Middle Ages
What type of civil registration system does Ghana practice and what problems are associated with it?
- Ghana practices the passive system
- The system is concentrated in urban centers with just over 50% of the population covered
- This has created problem of low registration
What is the purpose of civil registration?
- Primarily administrative
- To collect data on the vital events happening in a population
Generally concerned with live births, deaths, marriages and divorces - Help understand demographic characteristics of different populations at different points in time
Give the administrative uses of civil registration
- It provides necessary legal documentary evidence of a person’s age, parentage, nationality, citizenship, etc.
- Birth certificate is used to determine a person’s legibility for admission to school, vote, etc.
- Required for civil functions – entitlement to family allowances, insurance claims, tax deductions and benefits.
- Death certificate provides legal evidence relevant to claims to property, insurance of a deceased person, right of surviving spouse to remarry, etc.