Modelling in Demography: From Statistics to Simulations

This chapter describes the history of demography, setting up the context for our discussions around the introduction of agent-based models into this area of social science. We will discuss the empirical strengths of demography, it’s theoretical shortcomings, and prospects for the future. Subsequent chapters will demonstrate the state-of-the-art in integrating agent-based models with the statistical frameworks more commonly used in demography.