This blog is intended to go along with Population: An Introduction to Concepts and Issues, by John R. Weeks, published by Cengage Learning. The latest edition is the 13th (it will be out in January 2020), but this blog is meant to complement any edition of the book by showing the way in which demographic issues are regularly in the news.

You can download an iPhone app for the 13th edition from the App Store (search for Weeks Population).

If you are a user of my textbook and would like to suggest a blog post idea, please email me at: john.weeks@sdsu.edu

Friday, October 22, 2010

Deaths Give a Little and Take a Little

As we move through the health and mortality transition, we find that some groups gain and some lose in the process. There was good news this week from the US Centers for Disease Control that the number of teenage fatalities from car crashes have declined by about a third over the past five years. This is attributed to safer cars, better highways, and the high cost of gasoline that may keep some teenagers off the streets, but not to any improvement in the quality of driving among teenagers.


At the same time, however, the CDC is worried that the current increase in obesity could lead to a situation by 2050 in which one in three adults could have diabetes. To be sure, medical treatment has lowered the fatality rate from diabetes, but the cost of providing that treatment, not to mention the diminution of the quality of life associated with any major degenerative disease, does not bode well for the future.

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