From Birth to Death: A Consumer's Guide to Population Studies / Edition 1

by William Petersen

Overview

From Birth to Death is a detailed analysis of how population statistics are collected in the United States, particularly by the Bureau of the Census. It describes the errors and other flaws typically found in such data.

Petersen sets out the fundamentals of demography and reviews the current proposal to use sampling in the census. He then reviews examples of how ignoring age and sex structure leads to false conclusions. Petersen explores race and ethnicity and the dilemmas inherent in the necessarily ambiguous definitions of these categories. He also analyzes the problems of women who postpone having children to ages when risks of failure become significant.

The author also reviews the two most prominent population theories—Malthus and the fertility transition—and questions why predictions of future population size are often completely wrong. The final chapter discusses the pros and cons of state intervention in the control of fertility and efforts to cut family size in less developed countries and their unclear results. A principal topic is the relative accuracy of population statistics and the degree to which one should accept data as published. The main focus is on the United States and especially on the Bureau of the Census, but general points are sometimes illustrated with examples of how data from other countries should be evaluated.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780765800060
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	05/31/2000
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	206
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

William Petersen is Robert Lazarus Professor of Social Demography Emeritus at Ohio State University and is known throughout the profession as a leading demographer. His work has appeared in Population and Development Review, Annual Review of Sociology, and Demography.

Table of Contents

1: Population: The Fundamentals; 2: Age and Sex; 3: Population Composition; 4: From Fecundity to Fertility; 5: Mortality; 6: Health; 7: Prehistoric and Primitive Populations; 8: Population Theories; 9: Forecasts and Projections; 10: State Control of Population; 11: Conclusions

Editorial Reviews

"Looking for an entertaining and instructive read in a subject that you might have thought bereft of stimulating material? Try William Petersen's 'walk-about' . . . book on population studies. . . . Petersen's book is idiosyncratic, chatty, anecdotal, and often instructive. . . . [Its] audience might easily be drawn from demographers and lay public alike." —Gordon F. Sutton, Contemporary Sociology “This short and often entertaining account of the field might well be recommended as introductory reading for a student embarking on the study of demography.” —Population and Development Review

From the Publisher