Introduction: During the last half century, all indices of mortality imply the prompt and continuous decrease of nationwide mortality. Alongside reduction of mortality, there happened a comprehensive form of transition of mortality causes, from epidemical and other communicable diseases such as mothers' (birth giving) mortalities and birth related ones, to other causes like chronic diseases r...

This article gives a concise overview of the theoretical development of the concept of the "second demographic transition" since it was coined in 1986, its components, and its applicability, first to European populations and subsequently also to non-European societies as well. Both the demographic and the societal contrasts between the first demographic transition (FDT) and the second demograph...

This chapter discusses the concept of the second demographic transition (SDT) and its relevance for explaining the ongoing changes in family and fertility patterns across Europe. It takes a closer look at the shifts in values and attitudes related to family, reproduction, and children, and their representation in different chapters in this collection. It re-examines the link between the second ...

Most life history studies assume that demographic transition rates within a population are temporally and spatially invariant. A violation of these assumptions may have important consequences in the analysis of long-term processes such as population growth and stability. To examine the potential problems, I studied the demography of a size-classified population of Danthonia sericea, a long-live...

Selection (genetic and cultural) and environmental variation are the principal mechanisms determining patterns of demographic change in human populations. Conditions exist under which the nature and intensity of these forces can be inferred from temporal trends in the demographic variables. These conditions, which can be expressed in terms of relations between the Malthusian parameter and popul...

Ð We use Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) to compare ``poverty'' at two or more points in time within and between African countries. Our welfare measure is an index resulting from a factor analysis of various household characteristics, durables, and household headsÕ education. An advantage of this measure is that for intertemporal and intraregional comparisons, we need not rely on suspect p...