Demography as Science

Demography is the social science dealing with the study of reproduction of human populations (gr. demos - people, grafein - describe)

The object ofdemography: human populations

Population (lat. populus - people) - the social formation encompassing human beings with individual qualities, living in a given geographic area or space, and the reproduction taking place among them.

The focus of demography: demographic events (phenomena) related to reproduction of human populations; demographic reproduction

The demographic event - a vital event directly related to human reproduction; an individual event in life of human being and for him/her is a real transition from one state to another; demographic events include: marriage, birth, abortion, death, divorce, change of address of residence

The demographic process - a process where demographic events are registered and monitored as collective phenomena. The demographic process is manifested by a demographic event; the demographic processes are: marriage rate, migration rate

The structure of demography: Demographic statics (the number and structures of population); Demographic dynamics (marriage, birth, abortion, death, divorce, change of the address of residence); Demographic prognostics (projections, extrapolations)

The methods of demography: research, statistics, analysis, prognoses, modelling

Thebranches of demography: historical demography, theoretical demography, mathematical demography, geodemography, regional demography, economic demography, demographic methodology

Thebasic sources of demographic data: demographic reporting; population censuses; population registers

The prominents of the world demography:
John Graunt (1620 -1674), Eng. - a founder of demography
Edmund Halley (1656 -1742), Eng. - designed the first life tables
Thomas Robert Malthus (1766 -1834), Eng. - stated a formal relationship between growth of food supply and population growth
Adolphe Lambert Quételet (1796 - 1874), Belg. - set the rules of modern population censuses and founded the international statistical institute (1853)
Achille Guillard (1799 -1876), Fr. - the first to use the term ´demography´ for the science on population (1855), and he defined demography as a natural and social science on the human race.
Wilhelm Lexis (1837 -1914), Eng. - prepared the conception for calculation of the gross and net reproduction rates
Axel Gustav Sundbarg (1857 -1917), Swed. - published the classification of populations´ age structures (1900)
Alfred James Lotka (1880 - 1949), Am. - constructed models of the stable population (in relation to reproduction rates)
Antonín Boháč (1882 - 1950), Czech. - a founder demography in Czechoslovakia
Louis Henry (1911-1991), Fr. - published manuals on demographic analysis, methods of population projections
Ronald Pressat (1923), Fr. - dealt with the problems of demographic analysis
Gary Stanley Becker (1930), Am. - applied mathematical and economic models to demography
Dirk van de Kaa (1933 ), Netherl.- evaluates recent demographic changes in Europe

The prominents of the Slovak demography:
Matej Bel (1684 -1749) - a polymath, described Slovak districts paying special attention to local inhabitant´s customs and way of life
Samuel Timon (1675 -1736) - a polymath, a founder of the critical historiography
Ján Čaplovič (1780 -1847) - described the problems of ethnic groups living in Slovakia
Emil Stodola (1862 - 1945) - dealt with the problems of ethnic composition of municipalities
Štefan Janšák (1886 - 1972) - studied population of Slovakia using the questionnaire method
Alojz J.Chura (1899 - 1979) - analysed the demographic regression
Ján Svetoň ( 1905 - 1966) - compiled demographic data of Slovakia from the 18^th and 19^th century data, and analysed the reasons and the extent of Slovak emigration