Population Studies - A Brief Overview

The systematic study of the population is known as demography. The word demography comes from the Greek words demos (people) and graphein (describe), implying the description of people. This article will help you understand the meaning of population studies.

Population Studies – What Does it Study?

Demography studies or population studies try to understand the processes and trends of the following:

• Structure and composition of the population, such as different age groups, and the relative proportions of men and women.
• Patterns of migration
• Patterns of births and deaths.
• Changes in the size of the population.

Population Studies – Through Census

The census is carried out to study the population systematically. The first modern census to study the population was conducted in America in 1790. This was followed in Europe in the early 1800s.

• The British government started conducting censuses in India between 1862-72.
• Since 1881, the census has been conducted in India regularly. It was a decennial census, meaning it was conducted once every ten years.
• Since India gained independence, the census has been conducted once every 10 years, starting from 1951.
• The last census in India was conducted in 2011. It was supposed to be conducted in 2021, but it was not feasible due to the global pandemic.
• The Indian census is considered to be the largest in the world.