What is Social Demography?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → It is concerned with the wider causes and consequences of population structure and change.
Social demography enquires into the wider causes and consequences of population structures and change; it traces the social reasons behind population trends. Option (1) describes formal demography, which measures and analyses the components of population change with mathematical methods.
NCERT (2025-26): “…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.” |