EurAsian history of population and family

Indian urban family structure is in a transitional stage and it is gradually moving from joint to nuclear families. The rapid urbanization and increasing number of urbanites changes the traditional family structure and religious composition of urban centres through differential migration. Religion and Caste played a vital role for determining the family structure and social composition. Slums are mainly dense households, settling beside the roadways and along the railway tracks, haunted the industrial and commercial set up in urban environment. Cities’ social areas are determined by these two components. The social and family composition varies from cities to cities. The study shows the comparison between slum and non-slum households in eight cities. The presence of slum households is higher in metropolitan cities as compared to other cities and towns. Most of the slums and non-slums of metropolitan cities are of nuclear type. There is no impact of religion and caste on the family structures of slum and non-slum households. Also among slum households, the family structure is independent of caste and religious affiliation, but is strongly dependent on age and educational levels of the head households.

Census survival ratios (CSRs) are the oldest and most widely applicable methods of estimating adult mortality. For populations with negligible migration they can provide excellent results of both mortality and expectation of life. Swanson and Tedrow developed a new approach for using CSRs that is less involved than the existing approach. Tests on available data indicate that the alternative approach works reasonably well. In this paper we extend the use of their approach to a population defined by ethnicity, Native Hawaiians. We use the early 20th century as the period for this examination, which is a time when this population was subject to negligible migration. The development of life tables for this population allows us to compare our life expectancy estimates to those derived from the “gold standard” of life expectancy. Our examination suggests that the alternative CSR method works well in estimating life expectancy for Native Hawaiians, which suggests that it can be used elsewhere. Our study also has revealed some cautionary notes about the effect of migration, net census undercount error, and changing conceptions of ethnic identity.