Demography and Book Population Problems free essay sample

Define the nature and scope of demography. Explain the Malthusian Theory of population growth. Can this theory be applied to the Philippine situation today? Enumerate the sources of demographic data. What are censuses of the Philippines available for demographic study? The term,† Demography†, is derived from Greek words ‘Demos’ which means ‘ the people’ and ‘Graphy’ which means ‘to draw or write’. Thus demography means to draw or write about people. Demography is the science of population. Demography is the scientific study of human population involving the statistical measurement of the size, growth and the diminution of the number of the people, the proportion of living being born or dying within the same area or region and the related function of fertility, morality and marriage. This definition of demography is not sufficiently wide. In fact the field of demography changes according to time, place circumstances. This point has been particularly raised by Warren S. Thompson and David T. Lewis in their book Population Problems (1965). According to Von Maoyer Demography is the numerical analysis of the sate and movement of population inclusive of census enumeration and registration of vital process and of whatever qualitative analysis can be made the state and movement of population on the basis of fundamental census and registration data. Explaining the scientific nature of demography, Irene Taeuber has pointed out, â€Å"With improved data, new techniques and the precise measurement of the demographic transition that is occurring, demography has become science rather than literature†. It was also emphasized by John V. Grauman when he said, â€Å"Demography is both an abstract science and applied technology. † Demography today uses scientific methods, the most important of which is analysis. As S. N, Agarwala said, â€Å"Demography deals with population dynamics and composition, which covers a wider area. We are shifting from demography to population studies. † Demographers seek to understand population dynamics by investigating three main demographic processes: birth, migration, and aging (including death). All three of these processes contribute to changes in populations, including how people inhabit the earth, form nations and societies, and develop culture. While most of the discipline’s research focuses on humans, the MPIDR is also committed to the specialized field of biodemography. Today, there is growing interest among the public in demography, as â€Å"demographic change† has become the subject of political debates in many developed countries. Most of these countries have birth rates below the replacement level of 2. 1 children per woman, and, at the same time, life expectancy has been rising considerably and continues to rise – a development sometimes called â€Å"the aging of societies. † While demography cannot offer political advice on how to tackle demographic change, demographers seek to describe the phenomena related to this change, and to understand their causes. Using reliable data and the statistical processing of these data, modern demographic research embraces many scientific disciplines, including mathematics, economics and other social sciences, geography or biology. NATURE OF DEMOGRAPHY It employs scientific study and method. The observations are presented systematically. Demography makes factual study of population census as the principle method of study. Demography defines causes and effect relation to events social reaction and in social facts. Demography can predict about social relations events etc. SCOPE AND SUBJECT MATTER OF DEMOGRAPHY The following are the scope of Demography: SIZE OF POPULATION The number of people dwelling in a given area at a given time, its comparison with previous period and the future projection are import and element of the size of population. The causes of change, like natality, morality and migration are analyzed with the use of biological, social, economic and culture variables. COMPOSITION OF POPULATION Composition of population covers all measurable characteristics of the people who form a given population. The most widely used characteristics are age and sex, rural and urban residence marital status, occupation, education, religion etc. are some other characteristics in the composition of population. SIZE OF POPULATION Under we study how population are distributed in the world is rural and urban distribution of people. Labor Fore Labor force is an important field of economic study and such labor force falls into two classes such as (i) economically active labor force which include employed and involuntarily unemployed labor. (ii) Economically dependent or innative labor force which includes houses wives, students fixed income recipients. Population Policy A proper population policy has become an inevitable adjunct of population since the socioeconomic development of a country. The scope of demography has been classified into two sections: Macro-demography and micro-demography. While the former includes studies of systems, cultures and societies on a large scale, the later study the individual and the family as a unit of society. Thus the later study has smaller units and it is conducted intensively. In the words of Donald J. Bogue, â€Å"It is the study of the growth, distribution and redistribution of the population within a community, state, economic area or other local area. This includes both numerical and compositional aspects and is performed by using meaningful subdivisions of community or local areas. † However, most of the population studies are conducted in the field known as Micro-demography. The two fields help each other, For example, death rate is studied both from the macro and the micro standpoint. Similar is the case concerning birth rate, fertility, migration, etc. The field of demography includes the subjects which are discussed in world population conferences since 1954. The two conferences of 1954 and 1965 discussed the subjects: fertility, death rate, migration, genetic composition, future probabilities, population and means of subsistence, techniques of population measurement and training of the demographers. Other subjects included in the scope of demography are: distribution of population, qualitative aspect of demographic data, family planning, growth of population, demographic aspects of housing and the demographic aspect of saving and investment. The scope of demography has further increased after 1965. The computer techniques are the contribution of this decade. In the words of Peter R. Cox: â€Å"Computer techniques, using stimulation, have been developed in order that stochastic variability can be provided for in various stages. This is a rapidly growing area of demography, and prospects of future progress are almost as important as the work already done. † Importance of Demography: Demography presents population data in a systematic manner. It importance can be felt in the manner below. Political: The factual demography give the information the rate by which the number of vote are increasing. This will help in identifying the voters and by which the arrangement is done for conducting elections. Economic: 1. It helps in farming economic progress which can contribute to economic development. 2. The Assessment of economic development with rate of growth in population can be made. 3. It helps to court the growth and modernization of economy. 4. It focuses on the dimension of unemployment. 5. Demography give the information of per capita income and production. Economic planning: With the help of population figure alone the planning authorities would be able to allocate resources to the various section of the economy. MALTHUSIAN THEORY OF POPULATION GROWTH The Reverend Thomas Robert Malthus FRS (13 February 1766 – 23 December 1834) was an English cleric and scholar, influential in the fields of political economy and demography. Malthus himself used only his middle name Robert. Malthus hypothesized that unchecked population growth would quickly exceed carrying capacity, leading to overpopulation and social problems. MAJOR POINTS: Thomas Malthus warned that population growth would exceed resource growth, leading to catastrophic checks on overpopulation. This would occur because population grew exponentially while food supply grew arithmetically. Without population control, the population would be reduced by catastrophes such as famine or war according to Malthusian theory. As a solution, Malthus urged moral restraint: people must practice abstinence, sterilization, and have criminal punishments for those who have more children than they can support. Malthusian catastrophes refer to naturally ocurring checks on population growth such as famine, disease, or war. These Malthusian catastrophes have not taken place on a global scale due to progress in agricultural technology. However, many argue that future pressures on food production, combined with threats such as global warming, make overpopulation a still more serious threat in the future. Early in the 19th century, the English scholar Reverend Thomas Malthus published An Essay on the Principle of Population. In it, he argued that overpopulation was the cause of many of the social ills observed in the industrial societies of Europe: poverty, malnutrition, and disease could all be attributed to overpopulation. According to Malthus, this was a mathematical inevitability. Malthus observed that, while resources tended to grow arithmetically, populations exhibit exponential growth. Thus, if left unrestricted, human populations would continue to grow until they would become too large to be supported by the food grown on available agricultural land. In other words, humans would outpace their local carrying capacity, the capacity of ecosystems or societies to support the local population. As a solution, Malthus urged moral restraint. That is, he declared that people must practice abstinence before marriage, forced sterilization where necessary, and institute criminal punishments for so-called unprepared parents who had more children than they could support. Even in his time, this solution was controversial. According to Malthus, the only alternative to moral restraint was certain disaster: if allowed to grow unchecked, population would outstrip available resources, resulting in what came to be known as Malthusian catastrophes: naturally occurring checks on population growth such as famine, disease, or war. Over the two hundred years following Malthuss projections, famine has overtaken numerous individual regions. Proponents of this theory, Neo-Malthusians, state that these famines were examples of Malthusian catastrophes. On a global scale, however, food production has grown faster than population due to transformational advances in agricultural technology. It has often been argued that future pressures on food production, combined with threats to other aspects of the earths habitat such as global warming, make overpopulation a still more serious threat in the future. TERMS Malthusian catastrophes- ? Malthusian catastrophes are naturally occurring checks on population growth such as famine, disease, or war. Exponential Growth- ? The growth in the value of a quantity, in which the rate of growth is proportional to the instantaneous value of the quantity; for example, when the value has doubled, the rate of increase will also have doubled. The rate may be positive or negative. Carrying Capacity- ? The number of individuals of a particular species that an environment can support. EXAMPLE: Advocates of Malthusian theory point to epidemics that diminished urban populations after early periods of urbanization as evidence that Mathus predictions were correct. For example, from 1918-1922, an estimated 75,000,000 people worldwide are thought to have died from an influenza epidemic. Malthusians would cite this as a natural check on populations that were outpacing natural resource availability. ? Overpopulated Urban Slums? Malthusians would cite epidemics and starvation in overpopulated urban slums, like this one in Cairo, as natural checks on growing populations that have exceeded the carrying capacities of their local environments. The Malthusian Theory can be applied in the Philippines. It can be applied in the Philippines because the population is rapidly increasing while the resources is depleting. The anti-life and anti-family advocates and their atrocious supporters and financiers have infinite strategies of adroit and astute tactics and clever ways to continually infiltrate the Filipino people through their western-based agenda through legislations, intimidations, misrepresentations and fraud. At present, the anti-life and anti-family advocates with international and global connections have already filed 21 anti-life and anti-family bills of various concerns of very imaginable deception and sham and now being consolidated into an omnibus law, the House Bill 3773 covering reproductive health, population control policy and programme, mandatory two-child policy and sex education for the youth. Of all these bills, accordingly, at least, 3 bills promote and advocate the use of artificial contraceptives, abortifacients in the guise of promoting and protecting Filipino womens health. The basis of argument of most anti-life and anti-family advocates, supporters, proponents and financiers is the erroneous understanding and belief that there can be economic growth and development when the population is low in density or in decline. Thomas Robert Malthus was an English demographer and political economist on his time who lived around 1766 to 1834. He prognosticated that the increasing world population would outrun the food supply that believed to be leading to poverty, hunger and lack of foods. He developed a pessimistic philosophy, obviously on the fear of growing population in his time, that proven to be spurious. It is unfortunate that Filipinos are very much influenced by Malthusian theory that leads to all and many moral evils. They continue to cling to Malthus theory as advocators, adherents and promoters and even radically misinterpret his thoughts. Many of the anti-life and anti-family advocators and of those who claimed to be population management experts or peritus in the Philippines and in the world use the Malthus theory worst than Malthus himself, for their own insatiable vested interest and their vain desire to follow or emulate the Western culture of licentious behaviours in the name of freedom and democracy but ipso facto, the wrong use of it. They are engaged in adroit conspiracy putting up some sorts of smokescreen to keep them looking at the fact that has effectively debunked Malthus since 1960s that there is no iota of truth that population growth is causing scarcity of food supply. As a matter of fact, it is a reality that we are now in the age of global plenty and there should be no hunger of populations in the world most particularly in Christian nations. But there is hunger, not because of the population growth, but because of the lack or absence of money and worse, the control of money to have access to food supply and production. And of course, obviously, as the signs of the times tell us, the lack and absence of love or charity and justice of humanity today and charity and justice is denied to greater humanity because of the policies of the present economic anti-life system. And so, therefore Malthus is debunked, there is no such thing as population explosion or bomb. What I know is FOOD SUPPLY EXPLOSION as food production is proven to be more faster than the rate of population in the world as a whole and no valid reason to fear for hunger though money crisis or lack or absence of income is causing us fear for survival. The only solution is justice and charity for life. Malthusian economic philosophy advocated solutions, but wrong solutions. Malthus also advocated moral restraint and vice which sound good, that were interpreted during his time as population control strategy called for late marriage and sexual abstinence but on the negative side or evil side, the Malthusian economy or philosophy also advocated infanticide, abortion, murder, contraception and homosexuality and others, that would be applicable to the poor and working classes. In the Malthusian argument, only the lower social classes would assume responsibility for societal ills. SOURCES OF DEMOGRAPHIC DATA POPULATION CENSUS- The main source f demographic data worldwide. A census is the process of collecting, compiling, evaluating, and disseminating demographic data at a specified time covering all persons in a country or in a well delimited part of the country. The Population Census is unique in that it provides the possibility of examining small and special population groups, and acquiring information on small geographic units (localities, neighbourhoods). The census is conducted in Israel every decade. ADMINISTRATIVE RECORDS- The compilation of notices, background reports and environmental review documents that provide a record of the environmental review, public involvement and decision-making processes required by CEQA related to the project. VITAL REGISTRATION SYSTEM- Vital statistics are statistics on live births, deaths, fetal deaths, marriages and divorces. The most common way of collecting information on these events is through civil registration, an administrative system used by governments to record vital events which occur in their populations. Efforts to improve the quality of vital statistics will therefore be closely related to the development of civil registration systems in countries. SAMPLE SURVEYS- Sample survey is the technique used to study about a population with the help of a sample. Population is the totality all objects about which the study is proposed. Sample is only a portion of this population, which is selected using certain statistical principles called sampling designs (this is for guaranteeing that a representative sample is obtained for the study). Once the sample decided information will be collected from this sample, which process is called sample survey. UNIVERSAL POPULATION REGISTERS- citizens are required to register their place of residence with the relevant authorities, who use the information for the planning and delivery of state services and to contact people. There are also other forms of population registration that indirectly but decisively determine to what extent individuals enjoy certain basic rights, including mechanisms for the registration of such life events as birth, death and marriage. This information can determine a person’s eligibility to vote, to access education and health care, and to receive social services or a pension. SOURCES OF DEMOGRAPHIC DATA In 1960, the government of the Philippines conducted a survey on both population, and housing. The population was pegged at 27,087,685. Successive surveys were again conducted on 1970, 1975, 1980, and 1990, which gave the population as 36,684,948, 42,070,660, 48,098,460, and 60,703,206 respectively. On 1995, the POPCEN was launched, undertaken at the month of September, The data provided the bases for the Internal Revenue Allocation to local government units, and for the creation of new legislative areas. The count was made official by then President Fidel Ramos by Proclamation No, 849 on August 14, 1995, The population was 68,616,536. According to the executive director of the Commission on Population Tomas Osias, the population of the Philippines may reach 101. 2 million by 2014. Attempts to introduce a reproductive health law to bring down the population growth rate has been consistently opposed by the Catholic Church, the dominant religion of the country.