The process of demographic translation

Abstract

RESUMEN "Tra~laci6n dem~qrdfica" es el establecimiento de interrelaciones entre una eerie cronol6gica de obse:vactone~en seccton transver.salen periodos de tiemposucesivos y las series cronol6gicas delmismo indice, refertdo.a cohortes suceswas.Este documento presenta dos tipos de soluciones a este problema y dd algunos e)emplos de cadauno. THE NATURE OF THE PROBLEMThe question with which this paper is concerned begins with a table of measurements which are specific for age and time.To summarize this table with respect to changes in the measurements through time, it is customary to compute some index which combines the measurements over the entire span of ages and study the time series of such indices year by year.But there are two ways of organizing such a table into temporal segments: first, as age-specific measurements for a series of years; second, as age-specific measurements for a series of birth cohorts.The problem to be solved is the relationship between a time series of some index for successive periods, and the time series of the same index for successive cohorts.This paper presents two directions of general solution of the problem, and some elementary examples of each.It then attempts to argue the merits of the translation process, as it is here named, for various problems in demography.