Survival and Growth

Abstract

The first step in demographic analysis was to compute so-called birth rates and death rates, or numbers of births and deaths per year, expressed per thousand of existing population. For much of the world even this simple information is still not available. It can only be obtained by a system of registration of births and deaths, which we take for granted, but which in fact is only possible with a reasonably literate population, and a widely diffused network of responsible public officials. Complete systems of birth and death registration are still found in only six countries in Asia (Japan and five small countries), three in Africa and three in Latin America. For other countries (for most of the world, in fact) we have to rely upon estimates, based on samples or on indirect sources of information, which sometimes may be quite wide of the mark.