Demography: A Very Short Introduction

Very Short Introductions #565

by Sarah Harper

The generation into which each person is born, the demographic composition of that cohort, and its relation to those born at the same time in other places influences not only a person's life chances, but also the economic and political structures within which that life is lived; the person's access to social and natural resources (food, water, education, jobs, sexual partners); and even the length of that person's life. Demography, literally the study of people, addresses the size, distribution, composition, and density of populations, and considers the impact the drivers which mediate these will have on both individual lives and the changing structure of human populations.

This Very Short Introduction considers the way in which the global population has evolved over time and space. Sarah Harper discusses the theorists, theories, and methods involved in studying population trends and movements. She then looks at the emergence of new demographic sub-disciplines and addresses some of the future population challenges of the 21st century.

ABOUT THE The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Politics, Audiobook, Geography, Economics

132 pages, Paperback

Published July 24, 2018

About the author

Librarian Note:
There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Radiantflux · Rating 1 out of 5]

110th book for 2019.

An awful take on demography. Almost written as if no one was ever going to read it. Just lists of names and dates, plus a very superficial mention of certain topics. A waste of time to read.

1-star.

[Chris Esposo · Rating 1 out of 5]

Another strange bird of a book, neither a conceptual layman treatise on demography as a phenomenon, one that would explain basic notions like carrying capacity, exponential growth models, birth/death cycles etc., nor is it those concepts applied in understanding/explaining some pertinent social phenomena, such as differential forecast of the one-child policy in China for the next 2 or 3 decades, or how sex-selection pressuring either through policy or war could impact society.

Some of the above topics are very briefly covered, and there is a very short discussion on life tables and notions of population stability from an empirical standpoint. What the book is, is mostly a history of the discipline of demography. Specifically, where it came from, who were the founders, how the discipline grew academically and has specialized in recent years etc.

These are interesting but of little value. This "short book" was a little too short. I wish it had more relevant content. Not recommended

[Ali Jazib Rizvi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this one. Recently, I had been searching around and hypothesizing how to optimize myself for my future career aspirations and the like, and naturally, due to my interest in the social sciences, I did come across the field of Demography (and its Applied Demography concentration) and thought it would be amazing to apply modern Data Science tools to it.

So, I ended up liking the field even more and trying to probe into. It is not a big domain of expertise - at least not as big or established as Economics or Medicine - so it was hard to find specialized books on it. But, I was familiar with the "A Very Short Introduction" series and decided to give this eBook a go through my Community College's online library access.

I liked the overview of the field; its historical figures, the relation with other factors and fields of study (e.g., how governments that introduce more educational opportunities inevitably place in incentives for later family-bearing, higher marriage age, lower children per women, and more spacing between children), how policies relating to demographic composition are undertaken to influence a nation's long-term future, etc.

However, I would have very much appreciated if it had gone more into detail regarding the methodologies used to measure demographic factors - the book talked about what is measured, but not how it is or maybe did not go into as much detail as I would have liked.

[Brice Fuqua · Rating 5 out of 5]

Concise overview of the science of demography. It includes the history and development along with biographies of important figures in the discipline. A helpful glossary is included.

[Lovis · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first part was quite interesting while the second part was a bit underwhelming. However, it is a good introduction worth reading.

[Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a bit of a hotmess, unsure of what it is doing. The author starts out by giving a history of the development of the discipline of demography, ends by briefly introducing different branches of demography, and, in between, she has scattered, amongst a lot of meandery prose, a handful of interesting things to say about the topic. This seems like one of the Very Short Introduction (VSI) where a scholar came in, had no idea how to think about structure or address a lay audience and so she just muddled through it as best as she could (which was not all that good). I am surprised by how little editorial guidance there is in the VSI series. Some are great introductions, some are dogshit. This one was not quite dogshit, but it was closer to dogshit than to the great ones.