Open AccessSimultaneous Estimations of Population Growth : The Pakistan Experience
Author(s) -
Nazir Ahmed,
Karol J. Krótki
Publication year - 1963
Publication title -
pakistan development review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.154
H-Index - 26
ISSN - 0030-9729
DOI - 10.30541/v3i1pp.37-65
Subject(s) - feeling , census , population , population growth , estimation , completeness (order theory) , plan (archaeology) , birth rate , developing country , geography , economic growth , demography , psychology , research methodology , economics , sociology , social psychology , mathematical analysis , mathematics , management , archaeology
The PGE (abbreviation for Population Growth Estimation)experiment has arisen out of the widely held feeling among economistsand development planners that in many underdeveloped countriespopulation growth is the most critical of all relevant variables.Demographers, census takers and registrars of vital events are unable toprovide accurate and up-to-date information in this crucial fieldbecause of the difficulties inherent in collecting the information. Thisdeficiency has been apparent in Pakistan for a long time. The current(Second) Five Year Plan, in fact, states: "It is important that thereshould be continuing surveys of the current size and characteristics ofthe population and the levels of birth and death rates"2. Judging by theexperience of Western-type countries, a system of vital-eventsregistration takes decades, if not centuries, before it reaches anacceptable degree of completeness. Periodic surveys provide, or at leastaim at providing, a swifter answer but depending basically—as they do—onhuman recollection and on a consistent understanding of a timereference, they frequently produce obviously inadequate answers. Thefeeling has long been shared among demographers that a combination ofboth methods