Demography is destiny … or not

Abstract It is increasingly recognized that population change plays a key role in our political systems, economies, and societies at the local, national, regional, and global level. ‘Demography is destiny … or not’ explains that demography has at its core the notion of drivers of population change—mortality, fertility, and migration—and how these then interact to change populations. Contemporary demography is divided into three separate areas of study: the characteristics of past or current populations, with regard to their size and make-up; the different demographic drivers that directly influence this composition, primarily fertility, mortality, and migration; and the relationship between these static characteristics and dynamic processes and the social, economic, and cultural environments within which they interact.