ABSTRACT

This chapter traces the historical development of population research in Asia in the twentieth century. It begins with an international perspective on the development of population research institutions especially in the United States and, from 1946, by the United Nations. The historical role of the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population is also discussed. While population growth in Asia was a topic of major interest in the United States prior to the Second World War, this did not flow through to the development of research institutions in Asia. This was to occur after the war through the auspices of the United Nations and the activities of US-based agencies such as the Population Council, the Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation. The US Government was also very active in this regard between 1950 and 1980. The development of population research centres in Asian countries tended to mirror the development of national family planning programmes and perhaps became overly dependent upon research of family planning issues rather than development planning issues. With some exceptions, especially India, this left the Asian institutions in a shaky situation after 1980 as the international funding related to family planning diminished.