DEFINITION OF DEMOGRAPHY

To define demography there need to start with by population. The influence of statistics is immense in demography. As such, population to a demographer refers to an average of people possessing some specified characteristics within a precisely defined area. We can use either geographic or social space or both to demarcate one population from another.

The credit of adding the word Demography to our vocabulary goes to Achillle Guillard. The term has variously been used in economics, geography, sociology, anthropology and other social science. They have defined the term from their own point of view to suit their conveniences. Therefore some definitions are too narrow and some are too broad to include a wide variety of things. Some definitions are as follow:

Demography is a function of fertility, mortality and migration.

                                                                                                   -Gywalli, Damother

The study of the size, composition and the distribution of population is demography.

                                                                                                         -Thomson and Lewis

Demography is the numerical analysis of the state and movement of human population inclusive of census enumerations and registration of vital processes and whatever qualitative analysis can be made of the state and the movement of population on the basis of fundamental census and registration data.

                                                                                                                      -Von Mayor

The mathematical, scientific and statistical study of the size, composition and spatial distribution of the population through the operation of five processes of fertility, mortality, marriage, migration and social mobility its long run goal is to develop theories to explain the events that is charts and compare.

                                                                                                             -Donald J. Bogue

Demography is the study of the size, territorial distribution and composition of the population changes therein and the components of such changes, which may be identified as natality, mortality, territorial movement and social mobility.

                                                                                                      -Hauser and Duncan

Scientific study of human population primary with their size, their structure and their development is demography.

                                                                                         -The Multilingual Dictionary

Demography does not deal with the behavior of individual but only with the aggregates of people or even part therefore the numerical of human population is known as demography.

                                                                                                           -W.G. Barckly