Introduction

No attempt will be made, in this concluding chapter, to give a succinct summary of the whole contents of this book. Each student should make his own condensed assessment from his notes, and should find this process helpful. A more fitting end for the text would seem to consist of a broad examination of the status of the subject today and its prospects for the future. Some introduction to the past history of population study is desirable as a prelude to this examination.

The beginnings

Theories of population preceded the scientific study of demographic statistics by many centuries. For instance, ancient Chinese philosophers, including Confucius, held that excessive growth in the numbers of people may depress the standard of living. Aristotle, too, argued that land and property could not be increased as rapidly as the number of inhabitants and that poverty was likely to be the outcome. Hebrew and Moslem authors placed emphasis, however, on the desirability of rapid multiplication and density of population. Similar ranges of views were expressed by European writers in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. These views were not derived from any inspection of the results of the early enumerations. The idea of using such statistics for any purpose other than the practical matter in hand does not appear to have occurred to the collectors. Indeed, the very concept of a ‘population’ does not appear to have been entertained until the beginning of the seventeenth century AD.

Not long after this, men appeared who were able to develop an interest in the numbers of their fellow creatures for the sake of these numbers alone, and for what they implied for the society of the day.