Demography

High school (ages 12+)
People & Society

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/demography

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the primary drivers of population change?Fertility (births), mortality (deaths), and migration (movement of people)
2. Why do scientists study fertility, mortality, and migration?These three things – how many babies are born, how many people die, and how many people move – help demographers understand how a population grows or shrinks and plan for the future.
3. How did demography start in history?People first counted populations for taxes and control, but it became a science in the 1600s when John Graunt used London death records to learn about life and death patterns.

Fertility Rate: A measure of the average number of children born to a woman over her lifetime.
Life Expectancy: The average number of years a person is expected to live, based on current mortality rates.
Demographic Transition: The historical shift from high birth and death rates to low birth and death rates in a population.