Historical demography
Encyclopedia
Fertility
Fertility is the natural capability of producing offsprings. As a measure, "fertility rate" is the number of children born per couple, person or population. Fertility differs from fecundity, which is defined as the potential for reproduction...
, mortality
Mortality rate
Mortality rate is a measure of the number of deaths in a population, scaled to the size of that population, per unit time...
, and migration
Human migration
Human migration is physical movement by humans from one area to another, sometimes over long distances or in large groups. Historically this movement was nomadic, often causing significant conflict with the indigenous population and their displacement or cultural assimilation. Only a few nomadic...
--and with population characteristics related to those components, such as marriage
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
, socioeconomic status
Socioeconomic status
Socioeconomic status is an economic and sociological combined total measure of a person's work experience and of an individual's or family’s economic and social position in relation to others, based on income, education, and occupation...
, and the configuration of families
Family
In human context, a family is a group of people affiliated by consanguinity, affinity, or co-residence. In most societies it is the principal institution for the socialization of children...
.
Sources
The sources of historical demography vary according to the period under study. PaleodemographyPaleodemography
Paleodemography is the study of ancient human mortality, fertility, and migration.More specifically, paleodemography looks at the changes in pre-modern populations in order to determine something about the influences on the lifespan and health of earlier peoples.Because case studies that are common...
, based on the study of skeletal remains, is the primary approach for populations that precede the modern era. In the early modern period, historical demographers rely heavily on ecclesiastical records of baptisms, marriages, and burials, using methods developed by French historian Louis Henry
Louis Henry
Louis Henry was a French historian. Founder of the historical demography and one-place study fields. His 1956 book co-written with Michel Fleury, Des registres paroissiaux à l'histoire de la population...
. For the recent period - beginning in the early nineteenth century in most European countries, and later in the rest of the world - historical demographers make use of data collected by governments, including census
Census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
es and vital statistics.
History
Historical analysis has played a central role in the study of population, from Thomas MalthusThomas Malthus
The Reverend Thomas Robert Malthus FRS was an English scholar, influential in political economy and demography. Malthus popularized the economic theory of rent....
in the eighteenth century to major twentieth-century demographers such as Ansley Coale and Samuel Preston
Samuel Preston
Samuel Dylan Murray Preston is a British singer, who was the lead singer of pop band The Ordinary Boys. He appeared in the reality television show Celebrity Big Brother in 2006, in which he finished fourth. After The Ordinary Boys split up, he embarked on a successful song writing career...
. The French historian Louis Henry
Louis Henry
Louis Henry was a French historian. Founder of the historical demography and one-place study fields. His 1956 book co-written with Michel Fleury, Des registres paroissiaux à l'histoire de la population...
(1911-1991) is widely credited with the development of historical demography as a distinct subfield of demography. In recent years, new research in historical demography has proliferated owing to the development of massive new population data collections, including the Demographic Data Base in Umeå, Sweden, the Historical Sample of the Netherlands , and the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS).
Historical population of the world
World population
The world population is the total number of living humans on the planet Earth. As of today, it is estimated to be billion by the United States Census Bureau...
grew slowly but the growth rate accelerated between 900 and 1300 CE when the population doubled. During the 14th century, there was a fall in population associated with the Black Death
Black Death
The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. Of several competing theories, the dominant explanation for the Black Death is the plague theory, which attributes the outbreak to the bacterium Yersinia pestis. Thought to have...
that spread from Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
to Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
. This was followed by a period of restrained growth until the 18th century when world population entered a period of accelerated growth again. As previously the acceleration was more marked in the European population, due to scientific revolution
Scientific revolution
The Scientific Revolution is an era associated primarily with the 16th and 17th centuries during which new ideas and knowledge in physics, astronomy, biology, medicine and chemistry transformed medieval and ancient views of nature and laid the foundations for modern science...
and resulting inventions lowering the childbirth mortality rate. European population reached a peak growth rate of 10 per thousand per year in the second half of the 19th century.
During the 20th century, the growth rate among the European populations fell and was overtaken by a rapid acceleration in the growth rate in other continents, which reached 21 per thousand per year in the last 50 years of the millennium. Between 1900 and 2000 CE the population of the world increased by 277 %, a fourfold increase from 1.5 billion to 6 billion. The European component increased by 124 %, and the remainder by 349 %.
See also
- DemographyDemographyDemography is the statistical study of human population. It can be a very general science that can be applied to any kind of dynamic human population, that is, one that changes over time or space...
- PaleodemographyPaleodemographyPaleodemography is the study of ancient human mortality, fertility, and migration.More specifically, paleodemography looks at the changes in pre-modern populations in order to determine something about the influences on the lifespan and health of earlier peoples.Because case studies that are common...
- Prehistoric demographyPrehistoric demographyPrehistoric demography is the study of the demography of human and hominid populations from the origin of hominids about 6,000,000 years ago through the origin of modern humans about 200,000 years ago, to the beginning of the agricultural revolution about 10,000 years ago.-Hominid population...
- Classical demographyClassical demographyClassical demography refers to the study of human demography in the Classical period. It often focuses on the absolute number of people who were alive in civilizations around the Mediterranean Sea between the Bronze Age and the Fall of the Roman Empire, but in recent decades historians have been...
- Medieval demographyMedieval demographyThis article discusses human demography in Europe during the Middle Ages, including population trends and movements. Demographic changes helped to shape and define the Middle Ages...
- Demographic TransitionDemographic transitionThe demographic transition model is the transition from high birth and death rates to low birth and death rates as a country develops from a pre-industrial to an industrialized economic system. The theory is based on an interpretation of demographic history developed in 1929 by the American...
- World populationWorld populationThe world population is the total number of living humans on the planet Earth. As of today, it is estimated to be billion by the United States Census Bureau...
- Population history of American indigenous peoplesPopulation history of American indigenous peoplesThe population figures for Indigenous peoples in the Americas before the 1492 voyage of Christopher Columbus have proven difficult to establish and rely on archaeological data and written records from European settlers...
- Historical demography of Poland
- Population reconstructionPopulation reconstructionPopulation reconstitution is a method used by historical demographers. Using records such as church registries the size and composition of families living in a given region in a given past time is determined...
Further reading
- J. Dennis Willigan and Katherine A. Lynch, Sources and Methods of Historical Demography, New York: Academic Press, 1982.
- An Introduction to English Historical Demography, ed. E. A. Wrigely, London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1966.
- David V. Glass and David E.C. Eversley, Population in History: Essays in Historical Demography, London: Edward E. Arnold, 1965
- Irena Gieysztorowa, Wstęp do demografii staropolskiej, Warszawa 1976.
- Louis HenryLouis HenryLouis Henry was a French historian. Founder of the historical demography and one-place study fields. His 1956 book co-written with Michel Fleury, Des registres paroissiaux à l'histoire de la population...
, Michel Fleury, Des registres paroissiaux à l'histoire de la population. Manuel de dépouillement et d'exploitation de l'état civil ancien, Paris, INED, 1956. - Jerzy Michalewicz, Elementy demografii historycznej. Materiały do wykładów,ćwiczeń i metodyki prac badawczych, Warszawa 1979.
External links
- International Commission for Historical Demography
- H-Demog, an international scholarly online discussion list on demographic history
- POPULATION STATISTICS in historical perspective