Which of the following is a correct statement about demography?

The correct answer is Option (4) → Demographic change is based on economic, social and cultural variables.

Option (1) Demographic change is purely biological. — Incorrect. Births and deaths happen to individuals, but a death rate is a social phenomenon and must be explained at the social level. The falling sex ratio, for instance, is linked to social norms of son preference, not to biology.

Option (2) Demographic data is a static data for a population. Incorrect. Demography studies the trends and processes of population: changes in its size, patterns of births, deaths and migration, and changes in its structure. India has held a census every ten years since 1881 to follow these changes.

Option (3) Population explosion does not happen in every country. Incorrect. The theory of demographic transition holds that every society follows a typical pattern of development-related population growth. The transitional stage, the ‘population explosion’, came to Western Europe in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, and less developed countries follow more or less similar patterns.

Option (4) Demographic change is based on economic, social and cultural variables. — Correct. Population growth is linked to the level of economic development a society has reached. The explosion itself happens because death rates fall quickly with disease control, public health and better nutrition, while it takes longer for society to alter its reproductive behaviour, which is shaped by social norms and culture.