Sources of Population Data – Geography – UGC NET – Notes

Introduction

• Concerned with the regional differences in the earth’s covering of people and their characteristics, population geography is basically an empirical science. In order to achieve the objectives, it is necessary for a population geographer to have data or facts on human population. There are two main aspects of population on which geographers generally require data.
• These are the state of population at a given time for a territorial unit including its geographical distribution and its composition, and the dynamics of population in time and space as a result of the combined effects of births, deaths and migration. Data pertaining to these two aspects are collected in two different ways. While in the case of former, data is collected at a particular point of time, the latter refers to the recording of events on a continuous basis.
• The former, generally known as stock data, is represented by census and various social surveys, and provides information on size, distribution and various social, demographic and economic attributes of the population. The latter, on the other hand, is known as flow data and relates to the registration of such events as births, deaths and migration.

The Census

• Census is the single largest source of data for population studies all over the world. Though modern census is the phenomenon of a more recent time in past in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, evidences indicate that enumeration of people were carried out in different parts of the world even during the ancient time. The purpose of such enumeration was, however, very limited, i.e., tax collection, or military conscription, or both.
• The earliest example of modern type of census is known to have been conducted in New France (present-day Quebec) in Canada, in 1665 and Iceland in 1703. The first periodical census began in the United States in 1790 and in Britain and France in 1802 (Cox, 1976:28; Woods, 1979:17). By the middle of the nineteenth century, almost the whole of Europe had developed the system. At the present time, almost all the countries of the world, excluding a few exceptions (notably China), conduct census counting at regular interval (Woods, 1979:19).
• The modern population census has been defined by the United Nations as “the total process of collecting, compiling and publishing demographic, economic and social data pertaining, at a specified time or times, to all persons of a defined territory”. In other words, enumeration of the entire population of a country or a region at a particular time is called a census. Periodicity is an important characteristic of a census (Clarke, 1972:8) in that such counting is done at a regular interval. Most of the countries, including India, conduct census every 10 years.
• Another characteristic feature of a census is simultaneity, which implies that the entire population is counted simultaneously at a specified point of time. Since census involves counting of all the individuals of a country or a region, the actual exercise is invariably spread over a period of time, say a week or a fortnight. The actual counts, however, refer to a particular date and time known as reference date or census moment or census time.
• This is achieved by adjusting the figures for the births, deaths and migration that take place between the actual counting and the reference date through additional inquiries soon after the reference date. Further, in the enumeration process, two approaches are adopted.
• These are: de facto and de jure. While in the de facto approach, used in Australia for instance, each individual is recorded at the place where he/she is found at the time of enumeration. As against this, in de jure approach, as in the United States, people are recorded at their normal or usual place of residence. In some countries, however, a combination of both the approaches is used, for example, in Brazil and England.
• One of the major problems for a population geographer concerning census data is the difference in the level of detail provided, the accuracy of returns and the period of coverage across different countries of the world. This renders any international comparison very difficult.
• However, with the initiatives of the United Nations, a good amount of comparability has been achieved in data, though limited to small number of variables, of different countries. Furthermore, the census data of the more advanced countries are, in general, more accurate and reliable than those of the underdeveloped or developing countries.
• The censuses in such countries are nominative and require individuals or household to complete their own forms (Woods, 1979:19). After the Second World War, with the assistance of the United Nations, the developing countries have begun census operations in a more scientific manner, and the output is becoming more and more reliable.