From Clio Infrastructure

Gender, Family and Demography

A new hub set up by IISH

New growth theory is increasingly emphasising the role of demography and gender relations in bringing about processes of economic change – most fundamentally, the escape from the Malthusian trap is linked to demographic choices – between the quantity and quality of offspring – which are determined by marriage patterns (age of marriage), the level of education of particularly women, etc. Therefore, economic change, gender relations and demographic developments are closely intertwined.

Demographic data figure in several ways in CLIO-INFRA. They are basic data (e.g. the population size of countries at different points in time), measure economic growth (e.g. urbanisation), tell us about wellbeing (e.g. gender equality, (infant) mortality) or explain changes (e.g. migration). This hub will collect the following data: - population size - life expectancy - urbanisation - migration ratio - marriage rate - average age of marriage (male/female) - fertility These will be collected with a 50-year interval, for the period 1500-2000.Some of the material, for instance on life expectancy, is already available in related hubs. For urbanization (in Europe), two famous data sets exits, namely those collected by De Vries and Bairoch. Working from these, and a number of other existing data sets, we will build a collaboratory for the collection of urban population data worldwide. For migration history we will work with migration ratio’s, i.e. the percentage of the population that at least once in their lives crossed the border with another cultural community. This includes moving from the countryside to a town. These will be collected with 50 year intervals. This can build on work already done on global migration flows at the IISH in the past.