People and Peoples

Abstract

The global society consists of more than seven billion of us humans. Human beings come in all shapes, sizes and colors. They are born individually and they die individually—with few exceptions such as multiple births and collective deaths. But any moment between birth and death is as diverse as life can be. Mostly life is lived in community with others—close and distant. But life is also lived vertically that is across generational stages defined by age, context and aspiration. Life is a matter of cycles and yet again each of them is different from any of us as individuals. When seen in the abstract, human life becomes demography. Demography is about the number of people in a given place, the age pyramid and the effects of age cohorts on the socio-economic development of a society. Demography generates interdependencies among societies and demographic trends are affected by actions or non-actions elsewhere. Demographic trends are highly political. Often, demographic analyses are linked to trends, assumptions of alleged path dependencies and the potential effects of demographic features on societies. But first and foremost, demography is not about projections and phantasies. Demography is about the foundation of the global society.