A researcher explains a district's falling birth rate through women's schooling, marriage customs and kinship norms. Consider these statements about the field of her approach:
(A) It is also known as population studies.
(B) It holds that social processes and structures regulate demographic processes.
(C) It is primarily concerned with the measurement and analysis of the components of population change.
(D) Like sociologists, it seeks the social reasons that account for population trends.
How many of the above statements are correct?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → Only three
(A) It is also known as population studies. — Correct. Explaining the birth rate through schooling, marriage customs and kinship is social demography. The book uses population studies as another name for this field.
(B) It holds that social processes and structures regulate demographic processes. — Correct. Social demographers believe that social processes and structures regulate demographic processes. Marriage customs shaping the birth rate is one such case.
(C) It is primarily concerned with the measurement and analysis of the components of population change. — Incorrect. Measuring and analysing the components of population change is the main concern of formal demography, a largely quantitative field. Her approach looks for social causes instead.
(D) Like sociologists, it seeks the social reasons that account for population trends. — Correct. Like sociologists, social demographers trace the social reasons behind population trends, such as women's schooling behind a falling birth rate.
NCERT (2026-27): “Sometimes a distinction is made between formal demography and a broader field of population studies. Formal demography is primarily concerned with the measurement and analysis of the components of population change. Its focus is on quantitative analysis for which it has a highly developed mathematical methodology suitable for forecasting population growth and changes in the composition of population. Population studies or social demography, on the other hand, enquires into the wider causes and consequences of population structures and change. Social demographers believe that social processes and structures regulate demographic processes; like sociologists, they seek to trace the social reasons that account for population trends.” |