Population Change, Modernization and Welfare. By Joseph Spengler. Prentice-Hall Inc., Englewood Cliffs, N.J. 1974.

The book covers a wide field, touching on almost all aspects of population change on a world-wide scale. It discusses, using world and country data, the relationships between demographic and socio-economic variables, and elaborates on” their relative importance in the determination of population problems which confront the world as a whole and nations individually. Policies designed to alleviate these problems are discussed with an emphasis on those related to population control. The first chapter is entitled “Population Growth: Past and Prospective” and reviews the various parameters associated with population change in the past and in the future. It touches upon the concept of a stable population in order to show the elements which cause a population to change (i.e. remove it from its stable condition). The main elements of change, population growth, migration, mortality and natality are discussed individually. The chapter is concluded by a description of the main differences in these elements and other socio-economic conditions as they exist in the less-developed and developed countries.