Essay On Population And Demography

1.0 INTRODUCTION

Population and demography are two closely related terms and for the purpose of this study we define them for better understanding. Population- according to dictionary.com is defined as the total number of persons inhabiting a country, city, or any district or area while

Demography has been described as the "quantitative study of human populations" (Ross 1982).

Population growth refers to the increase in the total number of individuals in a population. It is determined by the number of births, number of deaths and inflow or outflow of people from that locality. The scientists have gone further to quantify it using various parameters e.g. population growth rate.

Population growth rate is the change in population over a unit

Population Growth Rate is often expressed as a % of the number of individuals in the population at the beginning of that period . This can be written as: GROWTH RATE = Population at End of Period - Population at Beginning of Period / Population at Beginning of Period .

It can be further expanded as: GROWTH RATE = Crude Birth Rate (CBR) - Crude Death Rate (CDR) + Net Immigrant Rate (NIR). or Population / Population = (Birth / Population) - (Death / Population) + (Immigrant / Population) - (Emigrant / Population).

DEMOGRAPHIC TRANSITION THEORY

The demographic transition theory is a generalized description of the changing pattern of mortality, fertility and growth rates as societies move from one demographic regime to another. The term was first coined by the American demographer Frank W. Notestein in the mid-twentieth century, but it has since been elaborated and expanded upon by many others. There are four stages to the classical demographic transition model but recently scientists have added a fifth