Mathematical Demography, the study of population and its analysis
through mathematical models, has received increased interest in the
mathematical com- munity in recent years. It was not until the twentieth
century, however, that the study of population, predominantly human
population, achieved its math- ematical character. The subject of
mathematical demography can be viewed from either a deterministic
viewpoint or from a stochastic viewpoint. For the sake of brevity,
stochastic models are not included in this work. It is, therefore, my
intention to consider only established deterministic models in this
discussion, starting with the life table as the earliest model, to a
generalized matrix model which is developed in this treatise. These
deterministic models provide sufficient de- velopment and conclusions to
formulate sound mathematical population analy- sis and estimates of
population projections. It should be noted that although the subject of
mathematical demography focuses on human populations, the development
and results may be applied to any population as long as the
preconditions that make the model valid are maintained. Information
concerning mathematical demography is at best fragmented.