Demographic data collection

Abstract

Although demographic data serve both administrative and scientific purposes, the fact that only a government Can mobilize the very considerable resources and energies necessary to the large-scale collected of such data, and also that only a government can provide that legal backing necessary for any approximation to complete coverage, results in the context of demographic inquiries being determined primarily on the basis of the administrative uses of demographic data range from the determination of legislative apportionment to the provision of legal proof of an individual’s identify and civil status; but the use of demographic data most germane to the present discussion is that related to national planning.