Demography, translated from Greek, literallymeans "narodoseniya". What is demography in general? This is the science of the methods, types of reproduction of various peoples and the factors that (one way or another) influence this process.
The author of the term "demography" was French.scientist A. Giyyar in 1855, and in Russia this concept began to be used from the 70s of the 18th century. Initially, the concepts of "population statistics" and "demography" were considered synonymous, but over time the situation has changed somewhat. Currently, demography is an independent science that studies the factors that affect mortality, fertility, marriage, and termination of marriage. In addition, this science also analyzes and predicts demographic processes using special methods. To understand what is demography, it is necessary to study the structure of this science. So, the demographic theory is responsible for the explanation of important processes, the formulation of hypotheses, the compilation of data and the derivation of trends.
The collection of primary data is carried out in the processpopulation census, which is conducted with a certain frequency. Another source of information is federal statistics. Information processing techniques are borrowed from sociometry and statistics, which, in general, is natural. In addition, this science describes demographic processes. Analytical demography studies the links between various demographic phenomena and processes. Thus, demographers can explain a sharp or gradual decrease in population size or an increase in the birth rate by the influence of various economic, social, environmental and other factors. In addition, there is a historical, social, military demography. The problems of demography in Russia have been studied since the mid-18th century. What is demography in Tsarist Russia? This is mainly a study of population statistics. In the first half of the 20th century, the works of scientists A.A. Chuprova, on the impact of wars on the process of entering into and dissolution of marriage and fertility, and Novoselsky, who studied mortality in detail.
Переписи населения проводились после Октябрьской revolution. And these data became the basis for various studies (not only demographic). However, in the 30s all research of this kind was discontinued. Demographics were revived in the 1960s. By that time, scientists realized that this science is not limited only to population statistics. Researchers began to study the influence of factors that increase and decrease fertility, marriage, and family development. Since the 70s of the last century, the concept of the demographic revolution has been developing, the author of which was A.G. Vishnevsky. The cagorny method and the method of modeling have firmly entered into Russian demography, and domestic science has gradually integrated into the world one. By the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century, researchers pay special attention to the study of mortality, patterns of fertility and nuptiality, as well as the development of modeling and forecasting. All this together allows us to answer the question of what is demography.
