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Multilingual Demographic Dictionary, second unified edition, English volume

Human ecology

Multilingual Demographic Dictionary, second unified edition, English vol.
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Human ecology  (HUMAN ecology)


The study of relations between demographic phenomena on one hand and economic and social phenomena on the other forms another branch of the subject. The terms economic demography 1 and social demography 2 have been used by some writers. Demography also deals with the study of population quality 3. This phrase may be used with reference to all sorts of social and personal characteristics. In a slightly different sense the term primarily refers to the distribution and transmission of hereditary characteristics (910-3) which are the subject of population genetics 4 . Human ecology 5 is the study of the distribution and organization of communities with attention to the operation of competitive and cooperative processes and has part of its subject matter in common with demography. Fields of research and methodology are even more intertwined in the case of demography and human geography 7★. It is also the case for biometry 6 or biometrics 6 and epidemiology 8★ which deal with the application of statistical methods to all forms of biological and medical research.

  • 4. Population genetics is distinct from human genetics, which deals with the transmission of inheritable characteristics in man: population genetics includes the study of the distribution and transmission of hereditary traits in plant, animal and human populations.
  • 5. Ecology, n. - ecological, adj. - ecologist, n.: a specialist in ecology.
  • 6. Biometry, n. - biometrics, n. - biometric, adj. - biometrician, n.: a specialist in biometry. The terms biostatistics, n. - biostatistical, adj. - and biostatistician, n. are frequently encountered and are synonymous with the terms given for biometry.

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