UPDATED: Topic Overview: Population: A Lively Introduction

Demography, or more generally, population studies, is the study of human populations: their size, composition, and distribution, as well as the causes and consequences of changes in these characteristics. Demography is clearly a discipline because it is a field with its own body of interrelated concepts, techniques, journals, departments, and professional associations. It is also an interdisciplinary field because it draws from many disciplines, including sociology, economics, biology, geography, history, and the health sciences…In the newest edition of “Population: A Lively Introduction,” McFalls introduces the basics of population studies in a way that everyone can understand. He explains how to calculate the total fertility rate (TFR)—the average number of children a woman will have given current birth rates—but also reviews the social and biological factors that affect when women have children and how many they will have. Cultural attitudes—for example, about when young people can engage in sex, whether to use birth control, how long to breastfeed a baby, and when women should or should not have babies—affect the TFR.

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36 pages; PDF

Source: Population Research Bureau

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