demography

Etymology

It is formed from English demo- + -graphy,^[2][3][1] that is, from Ancient Greek δῆμος (dêmos, “the people”)^[4][5][6][7] and the combining form -graphy, from Ancient Greek -γραφία (-graphía), from γράφω (gráphō, “to write”).^[3][1][8] The American Heritage Dictionary, Collins and Merriam-Webster Unabridged derive it instead from French démographie;^[9][10][11] the OED, revised in 2014, dates the English word to 1834 and only compares the French one, which it dates to 1855.^[4] The American Heritage Dictionary traces the Greek word to the root Proto-Indo-European *dā-.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The study of human populations, especially through statistics of births, deaths, disease and migration: 1834, in the Transactions of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association.^[4][12] Etymonline and Merriam-Webster Unabridged date the word to 1880,^[5][11] Dictionary.com to 1875–80,^[2] and the Shorter Oxford to the late 19th century.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline gives an early definition of it as the branch of anthropology that studies the conditions of life of a people through its vital and social statistics.^[5] From 1837 the word also meant the make-up of a particular population.^[4] From 1917 biologists used it for the study of the size and age structure of populations of plants and animals.^[4] The Shorter Oxford dates demographer to the late 19th century.^[6]

Timeline

• 1834 – the study of human populations and their statistics.^[4][12]
• 1837 – the composition of a particular human population.^[4]
• 1917 – in biology, the study of populations of plants or animals.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The statistical study of human populations, their size, structure, distribution, growth and movement, and the effect of these on society.^[10][11][4]
2. The make-up of a particular population: The town's demography changed as young families moved in.^[4][1]
3. (biology) The study of the size and structure of populations of animals or plants.^[4][1]

Word family

• demographer
• demographic

Related words

• demographics
• democracy
• demotic
• demos
• -graphy

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
3. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ The Chambers Dictionary (2008), 11th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap
9. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ a b Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)