The scope of this Dictionary is the past and present determinants and consequences of population trends throughout the world. With the collaboration of an international panel of fifty-seven experts, authors William Petersen and Renee Petersen have included not only the subject matter of demography and related disciplines but the institutional setting and results of research in countries around the world. The subject matter of formal demography is given its proper prominent place. Such terms as cohort are defined, such tools as the life table and the computer are described, and key topics like fertility, mortality, and migration are expounded in essays of some depth. Medical terms that one is likely to find in a work on demography are defined, and there are full discussions of major diseases of the past and of current causes of death. Notable demographic studies are described. Several dozen computer programs, usually labelled only with their acronyms, are identified and described. Other entries detail the effect on population trends of political movements, major religions, and membership in particular ethnic groups.

Almost every entry is supplemented by a list of references to sources of additional information. A very full index notes every mention of persons, countries, and major topics of demographic analysis, organizing the Dictionary 's great store of information for quick and easy reference.