This paper provides a description of demographic resources available on the Internet. These resources include census data online databases and home sites of demographic organizations. The description of demographic Internet resources is divided into five sections: North American demography international demography general interest items health-related sources and geography-related sources. The paper is followed by two appendices. The first provides a brief introduction to the Internet and to Internet access; the second contains a quick-reference list of Internet sites. Readers who are unfamiliar with the Internet should consider reading Appendix I before proceeding. Because one paper cannot reference every demographic resource on the Internet this paper should be seen primarily as an attempt to impart enough knowledge for readers to seek out further information on their own according to their particular research interests. (authors)
A prior review published in this journal considered the consequences of international migration for national economic development. In this article we examine theories and research on the relationship between international migration and development at the community level. Once again we conclude that prior work has been unduly pessimistic about the prospects for development as a result of international migration, largely because it has failed to Lake into account the complex, often indirect ways that migration and remittances influence the economic status of households and the communities that contain them.
This paper has two goals. First, it provides an account of the current state of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, with special emphasis on the situation in the developing world, where the bulk of new cases is arising, and where the effects of the epidemic are likely to be most devastating. An attempt is made to evaluate forecasts and projections made during the past 10 to 15 years, and to examine the reasons for their relatively unsatisfactory performance. The second goal is to analyze the relation between the known characteristics of the epidemic, and the properties of the various demographic and epidemiological models that have been used to represent the spread of the virus. Some fault lines in these models are identified, and ways to improve them and apply them more effectively in the future outlined.
"In this review, we examine theories, data, and research on the macroeconomic relationship between international migration and national development in all world regions. Earlier reviews have generally been pessimistic about the prospects for economic development as a result of international migration. Until recently, however, theories and data have not recognized the complex, multifaceted, and often indirect ways that international migration can influence the economic status of households, communities, and nations, and they have generally failed to appreciate how these relationships can change over time. When these complexities are incorporated into theoretical models, research designs, and data collection, a more nuanced and far more positive picture emerges. Given a supportive mix of macroeconomic policies and infrastructure, international migration may function as a dynamic force promoting economic growth and national development, so long as it does not bring about the selective emigration of scarce human capital needed for development at home."
"This paper outlines the development of U.S. national vital statistics based on the local registration of vital events in the United States during the twentieth century, including the organization of the National Vital Statistics System. Current data developments and selected publications of the National Center for Health Statistics are presented as they relate to vital statistics. The paper concludes with an overview of ongoing efforts at the local, state, and federal levels to improve the timeliness and quality of vital statistics through the redesign and automation of data collection, processing, and dissemination systems."
The author comments on a recent article by Eric S. Rothman and Thomas J. Espenshade concerning the fiscal impacts of immigration to the United States. A reply by Espenshade is also included (pp. 354-6).
In this paper, I begin with a brief sketch of the history of human ecology. I then point out that its problems are more complex than those of general ecology and review some basic features. A discussion of how the demography of households can be approached from an ecological perspective follows, then I outline ways to improve the formal and methodological aspects of human ecology. To conclude the paper, I argue that demographers could gain by thinking in human-ecological terms.
"This paper examines recent developments and prospects for population statistics in the former Soviet Union, whose dissolution provides both opportunities and problems. It is important for scholars to be aware of past limitations of Soviet data, since the formation of independent states has neither removed bureaucratic impediments to the production of high-quality data, nor has it led to a population more ready to answer questions fully. Temporarily at least, there is a decrease in the amount and comparability of available information, and in some instances, in its quality. We begin with an overview of the system used to gather population statistics in the former Soviet Union and its inherent problems. We then discuss the challenges faced by the newly independent countries and the changes they need to make to achieve global comparability, including a shift toward the use of standard international definitions and away from political restrictions on data availability."
This paper reviews demographic trends in marriage, divorce, fertility, and labor force participation that have dramatically affected the structure of families in the United States in the last four decades. We summarize what is known about the determinants of these trends, the interrelations among them, and their consequences for women, men, and children. Increases in divorce and nonmarital childbearing have led to a considerable increase in the number of children living in single-parent (usually female-headed) households. The purported consequences of living in such families (or of having a teenage mother) tend to be overstated if one does not take into account the selectivity of those who become single mothers (or teenage mothers). Another important trend affecting families is the dramatic increase in the proportion of women, at all stages of family formation, who work outside their homes. This has led to some changes in roles within the household and appears to be an important correlate of many of the other demographic trends reviewed herein.
"Increases in the number of children living in single-parent (usually female-headed) households and in the proportion of mothers who work outside their homes have raised concern in the United States about the effects of these trends on the well-being of children and the possible need for policy intervention. This paper discusses the arguments for and against policies that affect families. We review a number of such policies and what research suggests about their likely effects. The policies discussed...include those concerning child support, welfare, income taxes, child and dependent care, family leave, family planning, programs to improve parenting skills and family function, and economic growth."
In the developing world, measures of child mortality are needed for a variety of purposes, and estimates of child mortality can be obtained by a variety of approaches. In this paper, the author reviews the characteristics that child mortality measures should have for particular purposes, and then examines the available measurement approaches to determine the extent to which they provide accurate measures with the required characteristics. Particular emphasis is put on the comparative performance of different approaches in different settings to produce estimates of recent levels and trends in child mortality. He concludes that no single approach can satisfy all measurement purposes and that all approaches are sensitive to the quality of data collection, but that many needs can be met by relatively inexpensive data collection and analysis methods.
Regularities in age-specific growth rates are explored over age and time, with regard to age-aggregated summary measures and with respect to the spectral decomposition of a population. Using a new approach to the differentiation of population functions, changes in many crude rates are shown to reflect the covariance between age patterns of demographic behavior and age-specific growth. For example, the marginal change in the crude birth rate is simply the covariance between the age-specific schedules of fertility and growth, indicating that the birth rate increases to the extent that ages with higher fertility experience greater growth. Age-specific growth is an important demographic variable because of its ability to relate observed changes to mathematical models of population dynamics.
Since the 1950 U.S. census, demographic methods based on the fundamental balancing equation of demography have played an important role in the evaluation of the census net undercount. Application of this set of methods, called demographic analysis, results in national estimates of the net undercount for age-race-sex groups. Although results of demographic analysis are readily available in Bureau of the Census publications, the procedures used to estimate each of the components of population change are less well-known. In this paper we review the historical foundation of demographic analysis, beginning with Coale's 1950 census evaluation project and concluding with the recent evaluation of the 1990 census. We examine each of the components of the method, how their estimation has changed over time, and how they were estimated for the 1990 census.
"The purpose of this paper is to fill a gap in the demographic literature by reviewing previous fiscal studies of immigration in the United States. Each study is introduced by describing the data it uses, the methodologies employed in calculating costs and revenues, and the resulting estimates of fiscal consequences. Evaluative comments are also stressed. Seventeen studies are included in this review, divided into those that emphasize national fiscal impacts (these studies aggregate the effects of immigrants across all levels of government), state fiscal impacts, and fiscal effects on local governments."
"This paper considers the effects of health conditions in childhood on an individual's mortality risks as an adult. It examines epidemiologic evidence on some of the major mechanisms expected to create a linkage between childhood and adult mortality and reviews demographic and epidemiologic studies for evidence of the hypothesized linkages....Many empirical studies support the notion that childhood conditions play a major role in adult mortality, but only in the case of respiratory tuberculosis has the demographic importance of a specific mechanism been established by cohort studies. One's date and place of birth also appear to be persistently associated with risks of adult death in a wide variety of circumstances. An individual's height, perhaps the single best indicator of nutritional and disease environment in childhood, has recently been linked to adult mortality, especially from cardiovascular diseases. Further research is needed, however, before causal mechanisms can be identified."
"Contemporary academic economists, unlike those of the nineteenth century, find that although population growth and density can have bad effects on development, these will only be severe with wrong economic policies. Technical advance and substitution in free markets avoid major difficulties, for example shortage of materials. But ecologists see the poor cutting trees for firewood, the rich pouring carbon in to the atmosphere, and doubt the capacity of the environment to absorb the effects of dense and growing populations and their present technologies. On both sides are distinguished scholars, whose writings cannot here be covered exhaustively, but only enough said for background to the question posed to demographers: Should this central population issue not be on our research agendas?"
