Sources: The World's Population: An Encyclopedia of Critical Issues, Crises, and Ever-Growing Countries

Abstract

The introduction to The World's Population states that its purpose is "to address population-related questions in hopes of shedding light on relationships between population issues and other major problems of contemporary and future global concern" (xv). The preface, which provides an overview of traditional demography, presents questions: "How many people live on the earth today? How has this number of people changed in the past? Will the number of people currently living on the earth continue to rise as it has in recent decades? How many people can the earth support? Why do people move from place to place?" (xi).