ABSTRACT
Population is one of the basic factors which are frequently used to account for social changes. The growth of population, its movement and the relation between the number and the quality of the people and the available natural resources are matters of paramount importance, not only in theoretical scientific studies but also in all practical, sound policies for national and international welfare. The object of the present study is twofold. Firstly it is an attempt to start local demographic studies in different parts of Egypt in order to have a clear idea about the actual position of the population problem in different provinces of the country. Secondly such a demographic study is a fundamental step for a true understanding of the social conditions prevailing in any community. Actually we are not primarily concerned with the pure numerical study of the population of Sharqiya. Our real aim is to present a picture of some of the more important aspects of the social life of this particular rural community so far as they help us to understand the standard of living of its people. That is why we do not confine the term "demography" to the narrow sense in which it was first used by Achille Guillard 1 in his "Elements de Statistique Humaine ou Démographie Comparée" (1855) • But between the number of the population and the standard of living of the community there exists a complex relationship so intricate and so thoroughly reciprocal, that it is impossible to understand the latter without a complete knowledge of the growth of the population, its density, its distribution by sex and age, its fertility and mortality. Such aspects of the study of the population must precede the two other phases of the question, i.e. the bio-social phase, which is concerned with the differential rates of movement, and the socio-economic phase, in which the interrelations between population and social and economic institutions are studied. 2
