Sociologists have long looked at population issues as central to understanding human interactions.
Below we will look at four theories about population that inform sociological thought: Malthusian, zero population growth, cornucopian, and demographic transition theories..
Stages of the Demographic Transition
Stage 1—High birth and death rates lead to slow population growth.
Stage 2—The death rate falls but the birth rate remains high, leading to faster population growth.
Stage 3—The birth rate starts to fall, so population growth starts to slow..
Demographic analysis is the study of a population-based on factors such as age, race, and sex.
Demographic data refers to socioeconomic information expressed statistically, including employment, education, income, marriage rates, birth and death rates, and more..
For a while, the cover of Demography (official journal of the Population Association of America) defined the field as ‘the statistical study of human populations,’ seeming to imply that demography is a branch of statistics, not a science in its own right
2Demographic theory is concerned with how population systems regulate themselves given available resources and external shocks to population size
This chapter provides an overview of demographic theory, focusing specifically on relationships between population size, population growth, and welfare
There are three main demographic theories regarding human behavior:
Theories of Demography
