Volume 13 - Article 13 | Pages 301–334  

Population observatories as sources of information on mortality in developing countries

By Gilles Pison

This article is part of the Special Collection 4 "Human Mortality over Age, Time, Sex, and Place: The 1^st HMD Symposium"

Abstract

A ‘population observatory’ is a study in which a whole population of a defined geographical area is monitored over a long period (several years or decades), and information on the events that happen (births, deaths, marriages, migration) is collected on a regular basis.
This paper presents the collection method used in population observatories, the type of results that they provide, and how they are useful for the study of mortality in the nations of the South. In the first part, the different observatories in the developing countries are reviewed, and certain specific aspects of their methodology are studied in detail. In the second part two examples are presented - the observatories of Bandafassi and Mlomp, in Senegal.

Author's Affiliation

• Gilles Pison - Muséum national d'histoire naturelle, France EMAIL

Other articles by the same author/authors in Demographic Research

The Human Multiple Births Database (HMBD): An international database on twin and other multiple births
Volume 48 - Article 4

Estimating mortality from census data: A record-linkage study of the Nouna Health and Demographic Surveillance System in Burkina Faso
Volume 46 - Article 22

Estimating mortality from external causes using data from retrospective surveys: A validation study in Niakhar (Senegal)
Volume 38 - Article 32

Adult mortality in a rural area of Senegal: Non-communicable diseases have a large impact in Mlomp
Volume 19 - Article 37

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