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Article: Demography and Demographic Trends
- Article from:
- Dictionary of American History
- Author:
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DEMOGRAPHY AND DEMOGRAPHIC TRENDS
DEMOGRAPHY AND DEMOGRAPHIC TRENDS.
Demography is the study of the growth, structure, and movement of human populations. It focuses on enumerations (censuses), which take stock of a population at a moment in time, and also flows of vital event
s
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births, deaths, marriages, and migratory movements. These two sources furnish the basis for the statistical underpinnings of this article.
The Census
The demographic history of the United States can readily be divided into two segments based on the availability of "modern" demographic data, mainly before and after 1790, the date of the first federal census. The United States was the first nation to have ...