Multilingual Demographic Dictionary, second unified edition, English volume

Disclaimer : The sponsors of Demopaedia do not necessarily agree with all the definitions contained in this version of the Dictionary. The harmonization of all the second editions of the Multilingual Demographic Dictionary is an ongoing process. Please consult the discussion area of this page for further comments.

This page is an excerpt of the first edition of the Multilingual Demographic Dictionary. Please suppress this warning if you modify it.

930

A population policy (104-2) is a series of measures taken by public authorities to influence the trend of population, or principles offered as a basis for such measures. A distinction is made between expansionist ¹ policies, sometimes also called populationist ¹ which are designed to increase the population, to accelerate its rate of growth or to check actual or incipient population decline or depopulation ², and restrictionist ³ policies for the purpose of checking population growth or reducing the rate of increase. Among the former, pro-natalist ⁴ policies, which attempt to increase the birth rate (630-1), are particularly important. In contrast to pro-natalist policies, there are anti-natalist ⁵ policies designed to reduce the frequency of births.

931

In many countries allowances ¹,benefits ¹ or grants ² are given to the parents of children. In general an allowance is a sum of money which is paid periodically, whereas a grant is paid on a single occasion only. Family allowance ³ or children’s allowance ³ denotes a sum of money paid regularly to parents with a specified number of children. In many fiscal systems, tax rebates ⁴ are granted in respect of dependent children. Other monetary benefits paid in some countries include maternity grants ⁵ or birth grants ⁵, which are paid on the birth of a child, pre-natal allowances ⁶paid to expectant mothers during pregnancy, and on occasions marriage loans ⁷, which are granted to newly-married couples in order to assist them in setting up a household (110-3).

932

Many other public measures, such as housing programmes or measures in the field of public health ¹ may have an impact on demographic phenomena. The provision of services for pregnant women, such as ante-natal clinics ², and for parturient (cf. 603-4*) women may help in reducing late foetal, infant and maternal mortality (cf. para. 410, 424-4). Services which are primarily designed to help the mother are called maternity services ³; those meant to assist the young child are infant welfare services ⁴ or child welfare services ⁴.