Introduction
A demographic policy is an organic and integrated set of procedures designed to influence population growth and movement, directly and indirectly, in accordance with predetermined objectives. This topic covers demographic policy (with the examples of China and Romania) and family planning: methods, women's rights and the principles of delivering contraceptive services.
Demographic policy
- Such a policy can affect age-sex distribution, marital patterns, health and the geographical distribution of people within a country.
- It must be an integral part of social welfare policy, of which socioeconomic development is one of the most important aspects.
- Family size, both ideal and realised, and the factors entering into decisions on family size are discussed as a primary component of population increase. The cost of children to poor and rich communities is contrasted.
Demographic policy affects:
- Population statics and dynamics
- Economic patterns, e.g. the purchasing power of a cohort
- Social processes, e.g. the availability of family support in old age
- Social policy, e.g. the effect of population ageing on pension or healthcare policy
- Demographic determination ignores intervening variables, e.g. economic, political and social ones.
- Researchers and the media have used and misused demographic data to present a crisis when the factual evidence does not support it.
Six stages of demographic research
- Study of available material
- Selection of goals
- Preview of long- and short-term results
- Comparison of results with the set goals
- Establishment of corrective action
- Investigation of political action variables