ABSTRACT
The success or failure of an economic development programme will be measured by its effect on human welfare: people, in fact, are at the centre and form the target of the development process. In one sense, a country's population may be treated as an asset, a human resource comparable in some ways to a natural one. In another sense, it is likely to be put on the debit side of the balance sheet, especially if the growth in population outruns, or comes near to matching, that of the national income. Any analysis of demographic trends needs the raw material of reasonably reliable population data. The dry statistics of population growth or decline give us valuable clues to social and cultural development; under the figures may lie appalling tragedies — wars, plagues and famines — as well as changes in such diverse fields as the pattern of employment, or popular attitudes to birth control.
