Question

What is Social Demography?

• A. It is concerned with measurement and analysis of the components of population change.
• B. It is concerned with the wider causes and consequences of population structure and change.
• C. It is concerned with the changes in the population due to genetic influence.
• D. It studies the changes in the population due to climatic conditions.

Hint:

Formal demography measures; social demography studies wider causes and consequences.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is B

Step 1: Understanding the Concept:
Demography is the systematic study of population. Sociologists divide it into two broad streams. One stream counts and measures. The other stream asks why population changes and what those changes do to society.

Step 2: Key Formula or Approach:
Formal demography deals with numbers: births, deaths, migration and the methods to measure them. Social demography links those numbers to social causes and social consequences.

Step 3: Check option 1:
This describes formal demography. It is about measuring and analysing the components of population change such as fertility, mortality and migration. It is not the social side of the subject. So option 1 is wrong.

Step 4: Check option 2:
Social demography looks at the wider social, economic and cultural causes behind the structure and change of a population, and also at what these changes mean for society. This matches the definition exactly. So option 2 is correct.

Step 5: Check option 3:
Genetic influence on population is a topic of biology and population genetics, not of social demography. So option 3 is wrong.

Step 6: Check option 4:
Climate can affect settlement, but studying population change only through climatic conditions is the work of geography or environmental science. It is not the definition of social demography. So option 4 is wrong.

Step 7: Final Answer:
Social demography is concerned with the wider causes and consequences of population structure and change. This is option 2. \[ \boxed{\text{Option 2}} \]