[Population trends and population theory in the past and present: German Society for Demography twenty-first conference]

This publication contains 16 papers presented at the twenty-first meeting of the German Society for Demography held in 1987 in Berlin Federal Republic of Germany. Four main topics are covered: the practical significance of the historical development of population theory; the beginnings of demography and population statistics in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; demography and population statistics at the beginning of the twentieth century; and the tasks and concepts of demography today. The geographic focus is on Germany and other European countries. One of the papers is in English.