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Multilingual Demographic Dictionary, second unified edition, English volume

Mean population

Multilingual Demographic Dictionary, second unified edition, English vol.
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Mean population  (MEAN population)


The study of mortality 1 deals with the effect of death on the population. The general terms mortality rate 2 or death rate 2 encompass all the rates (133-4) which measure the frequency of deaths 3. Where the expression death rate is used without any qualifying adjective the crude death rate 4 is usually meant (cf. 136-8 for a general discussion of crude rates). This is generally an annual rate and consists of the ratio of the annual number of deaths occurring during a calendar year to the number exposed to the risk of dying during the same period. This number is equivalent to the mean population 5 or average population 5 for the period, and the population at the mid-point of the period can usually be substituted for the average population without appreciable error, if the size of the population is changing fairly uniformly. If the mortality of a sub-population (101-6) only is studied, we speak of specific death rates (134-6) among which sex-age-specific death rates 6 are the most common. Age specific death rates 7 without distinction of sex are also used on occasion.

  • 2. Occasionally the term mortality is used as a synonym for mortality rate or death rate.
  • 3. Death, n. - die, v. - dead, adj. syn. - deceased, adj. or n.
  • 5. When the observation period exceeds one year, the mean population is generally obtained as the average of several estimates of the size of the population for each year. The average number of persons years (135-6) is also used as denominator.

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