Abortion Rate

The number of abortions per 1,000 women ages 15-44 or 15-49 in a given year.

Abortion Ratio

The number of abortions per 1,000 live births in a given year.

African American

People classified as Black, Not of Hispanic Origin: Persons having origins in any of the Black racial groups of Africa. An American of African ancestry.

Age

Age classification. An individual's development measured in terms of the years requisite for like development of an average individual. On some surveys, people are asked to select an age-group: under age 12, 12-20 years, 21-30 years, etc.

Age-Dependency Ratio

The ratio of persons in the ages defined as dependent (under 15 years and over 64 years) to persons in the ages defined as economically productive (15-64 years) in a population.

Age-Sex Structure

The composition of a population as determined by the number or proportion of males and females in each age category. The age-sex structure of a population is the cumulative result of past trends in fertility, mortality, and migration. Information on age-sex composition is essential for the description and analysis of many other types of demographic data. See also population pyramid.

Age-specific fertility rate .

The number of births during a year to women in a particular age group, usually per 1,000 women in a 5-year age group at midyear.

Age-Specific Rate

Rate obtained for specific age groups (for example, age-specific fertility rate, death rate, marriage rate, illiteracy rate, or school enrollment rate).

Aging

An increase in the proportion of the population in the older ages. May also be measured as an increase in the median age of the population.

Aging of Population

A process in which the proportions of adults and elderly increase in a population, while the proportions of children and adolescents decrease. This process results in a rise in the median age of the population. Aging occurs when fertility rates decline while life expectancy remains constant or improves at the older ages.

American Indian (or Native American)

Includes persons who indicated their race as "American Indian," entered the name of an Indian tribe, or reported such entries as Canadian Indian, French-American Indian, or Spanish-American Indian.

Area

The size, in square miles, recorded for each geographic entity. Square miles may be multiplied by 2.59 to convert an area measurement to square kilometers. Land Area was calculated by the Census Bureau from the specific set of boundaries recorded for each entity in its geographic data base. 

Average

The number found by dividing the sum of all quantities by the total number of quantities. For example, Aggregate Income divided by Total Households equals Average Household Income.

Asian

Includes persons who classified themselves as such in one of the following specific race categories: Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Asian Indian, Korean, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Hmong, Laotian, Thai, Other Asian.

Asian/Pacific Islander

A category used by US census and others which classifies people into one race category that includes Asians (see definition above) and Pacific Islanders that include among others: Polynesian, Native Hawaiian, Samoan, Tahitian, Micronesian, Melanesian, and Fijian.

Average Income of Households

Includes the income of the householder and all other persons 15 years and over in the household, whether related to the householder or not. Because many households consists of only one person, average household income is usually less than average family income.

Average Household Income

The average or mean income is obtained by dividing total household income by the total number of households. Because the average is influenced strongly by extreme values in the distribution, it is especially susceptible to the effects of sampling variability.

Average Household Size

Average household size is calculated by dividing the number of persons in households by the number of households.

Baby Boom

A dramatic increase in fertility rates and in the absolute number of births in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand during the period following World War II (1947-1961).

Baby Bust

A rapid decline in U.S. fertility rates to record-low levels during the period immediately after the baby boom.

Balancing Equation

A basic demographic formula used to estimate total population change between two points in time — or to estimate any unknown component of population change, provided that the other components are known. The balancing equation includes all components of population change: births, deaths, immigration, emigration, in-migration, and out-migration.

Base population

The population, usually by age and sex, for the initial year of a projection.

Birth Control

Practices employed by couples that permit sexual intercourse with reduced likelihood of conception and birth. The term birth control is often used synonymously with such terms as contraception, fertility control, and family planning. But birth control includes abortion to prevent a birth, whereas family planning methods explicitly do not include abortion.

Birthplace (or Place of Birth)

place of birth or origin

Birth Rate (or crude birth rate)

The number of live births per 1,000 population in a given year. Not to be confused with the growth rate.

Birth Rate for Unmarried Women

The number of live births per 1,000 unmarried women (never married, widowed, or divorced) ages 15-49 in a given year.

Black

People classified as of African ancestry, Not of Hispanic Origin: Persons having origins in any of the Black racial groups of Africa.

Blue Collar Worker

of, relating to, or constituting the class of wage earners whose duties call for the wearing of work clothes or protective clothing ; having characteristics associated with blue-collar workers—having, showing, or appealing to unpretentious or unsophisticated tastes

Brain Drain

The emigration of a significant proportion of a country's highly skilled, highly educated professional population, usually to other countries offering better economic and social opportunity (for example, physicians leaving a developing country to practice medicine in a developed country).

Carrying Capacity

 The maximum sustainable size of a resident population in a given ecosystem.

Case Fatality Rate

The proportion of persons contracting a disease who die from it during a specified time period.

Case Rate

The number of reported cases of a specific disease per 100,000 population in a given year.

Caucasian (also White or European)

of, constituting, or characteristic of a race of humankind native to Europe, North Africa, and southwest Asia and classified according to physical features —used especially in referring to persons of European descent having usually light skin pigmentation.

Cause-Specific Death Rate

The number of deaths attributable to a specific cause per 100,000 population in a given year.

Census

a usually complete enumeration of a population; specifically: a periodic governmental enumeration of population. A canvass of a given area, resulting in an enumeration of the entire population and often the compilation of other demographic, social, and economic information pertaining to that population at a specific time. See also survey.

Childbearing Years

The reproductive age span of women, assumed for statistical purposes to be 15-44 or 15-49 years of age.

Child-Woman Ratio

The number of children under age 5 per 1,000 women ages 15-44 or 15-49 in a population in a given year. This crude fertility measure, based on basic census data, is sometimes used when more specific fertility information is not available.

Children

Sons and/or daughters of human parents ; descendants

Children ever born

The total number of births a woman has had, regardless of whether the children are living or dead at the time of the inquiry.

Children surviving

The number of children a woman has had that are still living at the time of the inquiry.

City

An urban area: an inhabited place of greater size, population, or importance than a town or village; a usually large or important municipality in the United States governed under a charter granted by the state (definition may vary from country to country); the people of a city.

Closed Population

A population with no migratory flow either in or out, so that changes in population size occur only through births and deaths.

Cohort

A group of people sharing a common temporal demographic experience who are observed through time. For example, the birth cohort of 1900 is the people born in that year. There are also marriage cohorts, school class cohorts, and so forth.

Cohort Analysis

Observation of a cohort's demographic behavior through life or through many periods; for example, examining the fertility behavior of the cohort of people born between 1940 and 1945 through their entire childbearing years. Rates derived from such cohort analyses are cohort measures. Compare with period analysis.

Collar Ratio

This variable is the ratio of White Collar Workers in an area to Blue Collar Workers.  This is a derived value from the 1990 Census. See White Collar Worker and Blue Collar Worker

Comparison Report

This report displays data of geographic areas side by side, thus comparing the areas.

Completed Fertility Rate

The number of children born per woman to a cohort of women by the end of their childbearing years.

Consensual Union

Cohabitation by an unmarried couple for an extended period of time. Although such unions may be quite stable, they are not regarded as legal marriages in official statistics.

Consumption Expenditures  

The total dollar value of all goods and services purchased by the household sector for current use.

Contraceptive

The conscious effort of couples to regulate the number and spacing of births. Also known as family planning.

Contraceptive prevalence

Percentage of couples currently using a contraceptive method. The percent of currently married women of reproductive age (normally defined as the range 15 to 49 years) who use contraception.

Current

(1): presently elapsing <the current year> (2): occurring in or existing at the present time <the current crisis> (3): most recent <the magazine's current issue>

Currently married women.

Women ages 15 to 49 either formally married or living in union with a man (consensual unions). Same as "married women of reproductive age."

Death Rate (or crude death rate)

The number of deaths per 1,000 population in a given year.

Demographic Transition

The historical shift of birth and death rates from high to low levels in a population. The decline of mortality usually precedes the decline in fertility, thus resulting in rapid population growth during the transition period.

Demographic variable

A raw number, percentage, average, median, index value, etc. for a geographic area.  Examples: Total Population for a zip, Median Income for a country.

Density

Population divided by the county's square miles of land area. A simple basis for relating population to a county's size. Thus, two counties with the same population can have sharply divergent densities because of difference in land area. The figure may suffer because the land area will include railroad freight yards, wildlife preserves, industrial parks and other nonresidential areas, resulting in a misleading density level.

Demography

The scientific study of human populations, including their sizes, compositions, distributions, densities, growth, and other characteristics, as well as the causes and consequences of changes in these factors.

Dependency Ratio

The ratio of the economically dependent part of the population to the productive part; arbitrarily defined as the ratio of the elderly (ages 65 and older) plus the young (under age 15) to the population in the working ages (ages 15-64).

Depopulation

The state of population decline.

Development category

The classification of regions into "less developed" and "more developed" according to their general level of economic development. In this report, countries are classified according to the grouping used by the United Nations. See references to these terms in the Glossary for details.

Divorce Rate (or crude divorce rate)

The number of divorces per 1,000 population in a given year.

Doubling Time

The number of years required for the population of an area to double its present size, given the current rate of population growth.

Earner (also wage earner)

a person who works for wages or salary

Educational Attainment (or Highest Level of Education)

(25+)–The Education Attainment category provides data based on those households with individuals 25 years of age or older.  This category is displayed in the Demographic Trend reports.  The educational attainment bundle includes the following variables; Associate Degree, Bachelor's Degree, Grade 9-12, Graduate Degree, High School Graduate, Less that Grade 9, and Some College no Degree.  Data source US Census.

Education Ratio

This variable is the ratio of those individuals 25 years of age and older who completed at least a Bachelor’s Degree to those whom did not.

Emigration

The process of leaving one country to take up permanent or semi-permanent residence in another.

Emigration Rate

The number of emigrants departing an area of origin per 1,000 population in that area of origin in a given year.

Employment

Work by which one is paid or receives a salary; activity in which one engages or is employed

Employment Status

refers to the three recognized work schedules of full-time, part-time and temporary employment; The legal definition of whether you are a "worker" or an "employee" or "self-employed"; professional or laborer; service provider; white or blue collar worker; etc.

Ethnic Origin

Ancestry or parentage of or relating to large groups of people classed according to common racial, national, tribal, religious, linguistic, or cultural origin or background; being a member of a specified ethnic group: in the US—White (Caucasian or European), Native Americans, Blacks (African American), Asian/Pacific islanders, and Spanish or Hispanic. It should be noted that persons of Hispanic origin may be of any race.

Ethnic Population 

Comprising a head count of all persons who consider themselves of ethnic origin. The main groups in the US are Native Americans, Blacks (African American), Asian/Pacific islanders, and Spanish-speaking (Latino) or Hispanic. It should be noted that persons of Hispanic origin may be of any race.

Ethnicity

The cultural practices, language, cuisine, and traditions — not biological or physical differences — used to distinguish groups of people; a particular ethnic affiliation or group; Sometimes refers to Race

European

a person of European descent; often describing race: White or Caucasian

Family

Usually two or more persons living together and related by birth, marriage, or adoption. Families may consist of siblings or other relatives as well as married couples and any children they have.

Family Planning

The conscious effort of couples to regulate the number and spacing of births through artificial and natural methods of contraception. Family planning connotes conception control to avoid pregnancy and abortion, but it also includes efforts of couples to induce pregnancy.

Fecundity

The physiological capacity of a woman to produce a child.

Female

of, relating to, or being the sex or gender that bears young or produces; composed of members of the female sex <the female population>

Fertility

The actual reproductive performance of an individual, a couple, a group, or a population. See general fertility rate.

Gender

Male and Female population totals. Sex—the female and male gender

Gender Orientation (or Sexual Orientation)

Refers to a person's preference for the same or opposite sex partners, e.g., homosexual, heterosexual, bisexual.

Gender or Sex Ratio

The number of males per 100 females in a population.

Geographic data

The location and descriptions of geographic features.  The composite of spatial data and descriptive data. 

General Fertility Rate

The number of live births per 1,000 women ages 15-44 or 15-49 years in a given year.

Gross National Income in Purchasing Power Parity (GNI PPP) Per Capita

GNI PPP per capita is gross national income in purchasing power parity divided by midyear population. GNI PPP refers to gross national income converted to “international” dollars using a purchasing power parity conversion factor. International dollars indicate the amount of goods and services one could buy in the United States with a given amount of money.

Gross Reproduction Rate (GRR)

The average number of daughters that would be born alive to a woman (or group of women) during her lifetime if she passed through her childbearing years conforming to the age-specific fertility rates of a given year. See also net reproduction rate and total fertility rate.

Growth Rate

The number of people added to (or subtracted from) a population in a year due to natural increase and net migration expressed as a percentage of the population at the beginning of the time period.

Highest Level of Education

This category provides data based on those households with individuals 25 years of age or older.  It includes the following variables; Associate Degree, Bachelor's Degree, Grade 9-12, Graduate Degree, High School Graduate, Less that Grade 9, and Some College no Degree.  Data source US Census.

High-risk pregnancies

Pregnancies occurring under the following conditions: too closely spaces, too frequent, mother too young or too old, or accompanied by such high-risk factors as high blood pressure or diabetes.

Hispanic Origin 

Persons who classify themselves in the census as being of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban or "other Spanish/Hispanic" origin. Persons of "other Spanish/Hispanic" origin are those whose origins are from Spain, the Spanish-speaking countries of Central or South America, or the Dominican Republic, or are persons of Hispanic origin identifying themselves generally as Spanish, Spanish-American, Hispanic, Hispano, Latino, and so on. Origin can be viewed as the ancestry, nationality group, lineage, or country of birth of the person or the person's parents or ancestors before their arrival in the United States. Where households or families are classified by Hispanic origin, the Hispanic origin of the householder is customarily used. NOTE: Persons of Hispanic origin may be of any race.

Household

A household consists of all the people occupying a single housing unit. A housing unit is defined as a house, apartment, mobile home, group of rooms, or a single room that is occupied. In addition, the members of a household need not be related, and a single person living alone in a housing unit is also considered a household.  Persons who are not counted as members of households comprise those living in group quarters such as college dormitories, military barracks, rooming houses, long-term-care hospitals, nursing homes, and prisons.

Illegal Alien (sometimes called undocumented alien or worker)

A foreigner who has entered a country without inspection or without proper documents, or who has violated the terms of legal admission to the country, for example, by overstaying the duration of a tourist or student visa.

Immigration

The process of entering one country from another to take up permanent or semi-permanent residence.

Immigration Rate

The number of immigrants arriving at a destination per 1,000 population at that destination in a given year.

Incidence Rate

The number of persons contracting a disease per 1,000 population at risk, for a given period of time.

Income

Income is the aggregate of wages and salaries, net farm and non-farm self-employment income, interest, dividends, net rental and royalty income, Social Security and railroad retirement income, other retirement and disability income, public assistance income, unemployment compensation, Veterans Administration payments, alimony and child support, military family allotments, net winnings from gambling, and other periodic income.

Income of Households 

Includes the income of the householder and all other persons 15 years old and over in the household, whether related to the householder or not. Because many households consist of only one person, average household income is usually less than average family income.

Infant Mortality Rate

The number of deaths of infants under age 1 per 1,000 live births in a given year.

In-migration

The process of leaving residence in one subdivision of a country to take up residence in the same sub-division.

Job Title

A label used to describe a specific set of activities, responsibilities, duties and tasks. The word or words that identify a job such as “Manager,” “Service Worker,” “Registered Nurse,” “Teacher,” etc.

Less developed countries

The "less developed" countries include all of Africa, all of Asia except Japan, the Trans-Caucasian and Central Asian republics of the NIS, all of Latin America and the Caribbean, and all of Oceania except Australia and New Zealand. This category matches the "less developed country" classification employed by the United Nations. "Less developed" countries are also referred to in the report as "developing" countries.

Life expectancy at birth

The average number of years a group of people born in the same year can be expected to live if mortality at each age remains constant in the future.

Life Span

The maximum age that human beings could reach under optimum conditions.

Life table

A tabular display of life expectancy and the probability of dying at each age (or age group) for a given population, according to the age-specific death rates prevailing at that time. The life table gives an organized, complete picture of a population's mortality.

Male

of, relating to, or being the sex or gender of man and boy.

Malthus, Thomas R. (1766-1834)

English clergyman and economist famous for his theory (expounded in the 'Essay on the Principle of Population') that the world's population tends to increase faster than the food supply and that unless fertility is controlled (by late marriage or celibacy), famine, disease, and war must serve as natural population restrictions. See neo-Malthusian.

Marital Fertility Rate

Number of live births to married women per 1,000 married women ages 15-44 or 15-49 in a given year.

Marital status

the condition of being married or unmarried: married (have a spouse), single (not married), separated (not living with spouse, but not divorced), divorced (legally ended a marriage), widowed (spouse is deceased), engaged (will marry—promised to someone), annulled (cancelled marriage—by religious leaders usually), cohabitating (living together without legal or ceremonial acknowledgement), common law marriage (in some places, government legally acknowledges people cohabiting as married), deceased (dead).

Marriage Rate (or crude marriage rate)

The number of marriages per 1,000 population in a given year.

Married women of reproductive age (MWRA)

Women ages 15 to 49 either formally married or living in union with a man (consensual unions). Same as "currently married women."

Maternal Mortality Ratio

The number of women who die as a result of pregnancy and childbirth complications per 100,000 live births in a given year.

Mean Age

The mathematical average age of all the members of a population.

Median

A calculated value that divides the distribution in an area into two equal parts. One half falls above the value and one half falls below. For example, if the median age is 21, half the population is younger than 21 and the other half is older than 21.

Median Age

The age that divides a population into two numerically equal groups; that is, half the people are younger than this age and half are older.

Median Income  

The median represents the middle of the income, dividing the income distribution into two equal parts, one having income above the median and the other having income below the median.

Megalopolis

A term denoting an interconnected group of cities and connecting urbanized bands.

Metropolitan Area

A large concentration of population, usually an area with 100,000 or more people. The area typically includes an important city with 50,000 or more inhabitants and the administrative areas bordering the city that are socially and economically integrated with it.

Migration

The movement of people across a specified boundary for the purpose of establishing a new or semipermanent residence. Divided into international migration (migration between countries) and internal migration (migration within a country).

Mobility

The geographic movement of people.

Modern methods of contraception

Condoms, injectables, IUD's, pills, vaginal methods (spermicides, diaphragms, or caps), and voluntary sterilization of a woman or her partner.

Morbidity

The frequency of disease, illness, injuries, and disabilities in a population.

More Developed Countries

Following United Nations' definitions, "more developed countries," or industrialized countries (or regions), include Europe (including all of Russia), the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan.

Mortality

Deaths as a component of population change.

Natality

Births as a component of population change.

National origin

The nation in which a person is born; ethnicity.

Natural Increase (or Decrease)

The surplus (or deficit) of births over deaths in a population in a given time period.

Neo-Malthusian

An advocate of restricting population growth through the use of birth control. (Thomas Malthus himself did not advocate birth control as a remedy for rapid population growth.)

Neonatal Mortality Rate

The number of deaths to infants under 28 days of age in a given year per 1,000 live births in that year.

Net Migration

The net effect of immigration and emigration on an area's population in a given time period, expressed as an increase or decrease.

New Independent States ( NIS)

Fifteen nations formed from the former Soviet Union. The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) refers to these countries excluding the three Baltic nations of Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania.

Nuptiality

The frequency, characteristics, and dissolution of marriages in a population.

"Old" Population

A population with a relatively high proportion of middle-age and elderly persons, a high median age, and thus a lower growth potential.

Out-migration

The process of leaving one subdivision of a country to take up residence in another.

Other Race 

Includes all other persons not included in the White, Black, American Indian, Eskimo or Aleut and Asian or Pacific Islander race categories. Persons reporting in the "Other Race" category and providing write-in entries such as multiracial, multiethnic, mixed, interracial, Wesort, or a Spanish/Hispanic origin group (such as Mexican, Cuban, or Puerto Rican) are included here.

Pacific Islander 

Includes persons who indicated their race as "Pacific Islander" or reported entries such as: Native Hawaiian, Samoan, from Guam, Polynesian, Tahitian, Micronesian, Melanesian, and Fijian, among others.

Pandemic

A global epidemic.

Per Capita Income  

Average obtained by dividing total Income by total Population.

Perinatal Mortality Rate

The number of fetal deaths after 28 weeks of pregnancy (late fetal deaths) plus the number of deaths to infants under 7 days of age per 1,000 live births.

Period Analysis

Observation of a population at a specific period of time. Such an analysis in effect takes a 'snapshot' of a population in a relatively short time period — for example, one year. Most rates are derived from period data and therefore are period rates. Compare to cohort analysis.

Place of birth

place of birth or origin

Population

Updated from the 1990 Census of Population and Housing, total Population is a head count estimate of all people living in a given geographic area as of  January 1, 1997. It includes people living in group quarters, such as colleges, hospitals, institutions, and nursing homes, as well as armed forces personnel permanently assigned to the area.

Population By Age and Sex  

Male and female population totals for 11 age groups are useful for marketers who seek to aim their products or services at specific sales targets. For example, the 12- to 17-year-old population is a favorite target of those marketing soft drinks and compact disks. Several of the age groups are also associated with lifestyle stages such as the preschoolers (0-5 years), teenagers (12-17 years), and young adults (18-24 years), which are critical to the formulation of marketing strategies.

Population Control

A broad concept that addresses the relationship between fertility, mortality, and migration, but is most commonly used to refer to efforts to slow population growth through action to lower fertility. It should not be confused with family planning. See also family planning.

Population Density

Population per unit of land area; for example, people per square mile or people per square kilometer of arable land.

Population Distribution

The patterns of settlement and dispersal of a population.

"Population Explosion" (or "Population Bomb")

Expressions used to describe the 20th century worldwide trend of rapid population growth, resulting from a world birth rate much higher than the world death rate.

Population Increase

The total population increase resulting from the interaction of births, deaths, and migration in a population in a given period of time.

Population Per Square Mile

See density. 

Population Momentum

The tendency for population growth to continue beyond the time that replacement-level fertility has been achieved because of the relatively high concentration of people in the childbearing years.

Population Policy

Explicit or implicit measures instituted by a government to influence population size, growth, distribution, or composition.

Population Projection

Computation of future changes in population numbers, given certain assumptions about future trends in the rates of fertility, mortality, and migration. Demographers often issue low, medium, and high projections of the same population, based on different assumptions of how these rates will change in the future.

Population Pyramid

A bar chart, arranged vertically, that shows the distribution of a population by age and sex. By convention, the younger ages are at the bottom, with males on the left and females on the right.

Population Register

A government data collection system in which the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of all or part of the population are continuously recorded. Denmark, Sweden, and Israel are among the countries that maintain universal registers for demographic purposes — recording the major events (birth, marriage, moves, death) that happen to each individual so that up-to-date information on the whole population is readily available. Other countries, like the United States, keep partial registers, such as social security and voter registration, for administrative purposes.

Post-Neonatal Mortality Rate

The annual number of deaths of infants ages 28 days to 1 year per 1,000 live births in a given year.

Prevalence Rate

The number of people having a particular disease at a given point in time per 1,000 population at risk.

Projections

Data on population and vital rates derived for future years based on statistics from population censuses, vital registration systems, or sample surveys pertaining to the recent past, and on assumptions about future trends.

Pronatalist Policy

The policy of a government, society, or social group to increase population growth by attempting to raise the number of births.

Province

an administrative district or division of a country. The US uses the term “States” instead.

"Push-Pull" Hypothesis

A migration theory that suggests that circumstances at the place of origin (such as poverty and unemployment) repel or push people out of that place to other places that exert a positive attraction or pull (such as a high standard of living or job opportunities).

Race

The concept of race as used by the Census Bureau does not denote any clear-cut scientific definition of biological stock. The data for race represent self-classification by people according to the race with which they most closely identify. Furthermore, it is recognized that the categories of the race item include both, racial and national origin or socio-cultural groups.

The racial categories of the USA 1990 census (before modification) are provided below:

• White
• Black
• American Indian, Eskimo, or Aleut
• Asian or Pacific Islander
• Other

Race is defined primarily by society, not by genetics, and there are no universally accepted categories.

Region

An enclosed area defined by one or more polygons. If a region contains one or more lakes or islands, each lake or island is a separate polygon.

Rate of Natural Increase (or Decrease)

The rate at which a population is increasing (or decreasing) in a given year due to a surplus (or deficit) of births over deaths, expressed as a percentage of the base population.

Religious affiliation

The religious group to which a person belongs or adheres. Some examples may be: Islam, Christian, Buddhist, Hinduism, Judaism, Humanism, Atheist . . .

Remarriage Rate

The number of remarriages per 1,000 formerly married (that is, widowed or divorced) men or women in a given year.

Replacement–Level Fertility

The level of fertility at which a couple has only enough children to replace themselves, or about two children per couple.

Reproductive Age

See childbearing years.

Reproductive Health

Reproductive health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity, in all matters relating to the reproductive system and to its functions and processes.

School Enrollment

(3+)–The School Enrollment category provides data based on those households with individuals 3 years of age or older and includes data from both private and public schools.  This category is displayed in the Demographic Trend reports.  The school enrollment bundle includes the following variables; Enrollment in College, Enrollment in Elementary/High School, Enrollment in Preprimary School.  Data source US Census.

Socioeconomic Measure  

This variable was created via a proprietary method that involved a weighting of individual demographic variables which proved to be significant in determining the overall socioeconomic status of a region. Variables included in the analysis were education, home value, income, age, ethnicity, occupational class, and many others.  Once scores were modeled, they were smoothed to maintain the bounds of 0 and 100.  We make a special note that geographic areas do not aggregate well.  Unless one is looking at small custom geographies, the scores are best used as a measure of comparison between areas of the same relative size.

Social Mobility

A change in status (for example, an occupational change).

Source

The company which created the data.

Stable Population

A population with an unchanging rate of growth and an unchanging age composition as a result of age-specific birth and death rates that have remained constant over a sufficient period of time.

State

The primary division of the United States. The District of Columbia is treated as a state. In other countries, these divisions are sometimes called provinces.

Survey

A canvass of selected persons or households in a population usually used to infer demographic characteristics or trends for a larger segment or all of the population. See also census

Survival Rate

The proportion of persons in a specified group (age, sex, or health status) alive at the beginning of an interval (such as a five-year period) who survive to the end of the interval

Sustainable development

The term refers to achieving economic and social development in ways that do not exhaust a country's natural resources. See, also, Ashford (1995) and The World Commission on Environment and Development (1987). In the Commission's words: "... sustainable development is ... a process of change in which the exploitation of resources, the direction of investments, the orientation of technological development, and institutional change are made consistent with the future as well as present needs" (Ibid: 9).

Thematic Map

A type of map which uses a variety of graphic styles (e.g., colors or fill patterns) to display information about the map's underlying data. Thus, a thematic map of population might show one region in deep red (to indicate the population density in that region is high), while showing another region in very pale red (to indicate the population density in that region is relatively low). 

Total fertility rate

The average number of children that would be born per woman if all women lived to the end of their childbearing years and bore children according to a given set of age-specific fertility rates.

Trade Area

A trade area is a user defined radius around an advertiser

Traditional methods of contraception

Periodic abstinence, rhythm, withdrawal, douche, and folk methods. Also known as natural methods.

Traffic Volumes

Traffic Volumes are intersection statistics that provide detailed information on the average daily traffic count.  The data includes the traffic location and count. 

Under-5 mortality

Number of deaths of children under 5 years of age from a cohort of 1,000 live births. Denoted 5q0, it is the probability of dying between birth and exact age 5.

Under-numeration

In a census, the erroneous counting of fewer persons in a population than actually belong to it.

Unmet need for family planning

Nonuse of contraception among women who would like to regulate their fertility, measured as the proportion of currently married women of reproductive age not using contraception but wishing either to postpone the next wanted birth or to prevent unwanted childbearing after having achieved their desired number of children.

Urban

Countries differ in the way they classify population as 'urban' or 'rural.' Typically, a community or settlement with a population of 2,000 or more is considered urban. A listing of country definitions is published annually in the United Nations Demographic Yearbook.

Urbanization

Growth in the proportion of a population living in urban areas

Vital events

Births and deaths.

Vital rates

Birth rates and death rates.

Vital statistics

Demographic data on births, deaths, fetal deaths, marriages and divorces.

Wage earner

a person who works for wages or salary

Wages

a payment usually of money for labor or services usually according to contract and on an hourly, daily, or piecework basis —often used in plural

White

A person belonging to a light-skinned race. Caucasian. of, constituting, or characteristic of a race of humankind native to Europe, North Africa, and southwest Asia and classified according to physical features —used especially in referring to persons of European descent having usually light skin pigmentation

White Collar Worker

of, relating to, or constituting the class of salaried employees whose duties do not call for the wearing of work clothes or protective clothing

WHO

World Health Organization.

Yearly

occurring, appearing, made, done, or acted upon every year or once a year: annually

"Young" Population

A population with a relatively high proportion of children, adolescents, and young adults; a low median age; and thus a high growth potential.

Zero population growth

A population in equilibrium, with a growth rate of zero, achieved when births plus immigration equal deaths plus emigration.

ZIP Code 

Administrative units established by the United States Postal Service (USPS) for the efficient distribution of mail. ZIP Codes generally do not respect political or census statistical area boundaries, nor do they usually have clearly identifiable boundaries. In addition, ZIP Codes often serve a continually changing area, are changed periodically to meet postal requirements and do not cover all the land area of the United States. The first three digits of the five-digit code identify a major city or sectional distribution center while the last two digits signify a specific post office delivery area or point. In other countries a similar system may be called a postal code.