Population Dynamics: Key Terms and Concepts

Infant mortality: Number of deaths among the population under one year old in a year and place.

Movement and spatial mobility: Transfer of population from one place to another, i.e., migration.

Natural movements: These reflect the growth or decrease in the number of inhabitants of a place, taking into account births and deaths.

Malthusianism: Theory that defends limiting population growth through birth control practices.

Municipal register: Record of inhabitants of a municipality; the data are similar to the census.

De jure population: Sum of present and absent residents in a municipality; this includes registered foreigners and their families.

De facto population: Sum of present residents and passers-by in a municipality at the time of the census, including foreign workers and their families.

Baby boom: Time period with a very high number of births.

Census population: Population count and demographic record carried out and published regularly.

Natural growth: Also called vegetative growth, refers to the difference between the number of births and deaths that occur in a region or country.

Real growth: Relationship between the effects of natural increase and net migration of population in a period.

Population density: Relates the population of a territory to its space and shows the average occupancy rate of the territory.

Aging population: Occurs in a country where the percentage of people over 65 is over 12% of the total population.

Life expectancy: This concept refers to the average number of years a person can live in a country and is usually established for a given year.

Population structure: Refers to the distribution by sex and age group. Analysis is often conducted using population pyramids, which indirectly reflect birth, mortality, and migration of the population of a given area.

Parental family: Family that consists of two adult members (in the past era).

Population policies: Measures taken by a government to influence the size, growth, distribution, and composition of the country's population or a social group.

Replacement or generational fertility rate: Indicators to assess whether a population can replace itself within a certain period of time by vegetative growth.

Net migration: Difference or balance between the number of immigrants and emigrants in a specific place or at any given time.

Demographic decline: Accounting for the continued decline of the population of a place.

Mortality rate: Number of deaths that have occurred in a year and a given territory, in relation to the total population per thousand inhabitants.

Birth rate: Number of births in one year and territory in relation to the total population per thousand inhabitants.

Demographic transition: Model that explains the evolution of the population and its growth as a result of a modernization process in the patterns of birth and mortality.