ABSTRACT
Auguste Comte, the French mathematician, philosopher, and the founder of sociology, is believed to be the first person to have written about the effects that demography and the demographic processes have on society and society’s future (see the selection from Martineau’s The Positive Philosophy of Auguste Comte in Thompson (1976:156-157)). Were Comte writing today and in English, he would likely be stating that “demography is destiny.” This phrase means that population processes and their effects on the changing composition of their members have important impacts on the future society. Demography is destiny precisely because once the demographic shifts and changes have occurred, the future is set. Based on the demographic events that have occurred, astute observers are able to figure out what will happen in the future, or at least what might happen in the future, before the events of the future actually occur.
