Year Book of Labour Statistics 1957.Review by: David L. KaplanJournal of the American Statistical Association, Vol. 54, No. 285 (Mar., 1959), pp. 329-330Published by: American Statistical AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2282169 .

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BOOK REVIEWS 329

other than total figures, been revised. Other sources, however, indicate that the re- vision was made because the Federal Statistical Office became convinced that the 1956 census was more reliable than either the 1950 census or the migration data for the period 1947 through 1951. Vital statistics have not been questioned. Double- counting apparently explains the 600,000 error in the 1950 census.

Demographic Yearbook, 1957 (in English and French). Statistical Office of the United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs. New York: Columbia University Press, 1958. Pp. viii, 656. Cloth $8.00, Paper $6.50.

WARREN S. THOMPSON, Miami University

EXCEPT for 1949-50 this Yearbook has been published annually beginning with an issue for 1948. As the title denotes its content is confined chiefly to the presenta-

tion of data relating total population and its composition, to natality and mortality and to other data closely related to movements of population in all parts of the world from which such data can be secured. Many estimates are included where precise data are lacking. A chapter devoted to "Technical Notes on the Statistical Tables" evaluates the data quite objectively.

With the establishment of the Yearbook it was decided to give special emphasis each year to some aspect of demography. Pursuant to this policy the volume being considered here contains an unusual amount and variety of material relating to mor- tality. Comparisons are made with earlier periods as regards changes in mortality as a whole, to mortality by age and sex and some information is given on the changes in the relative importance of several of the more significant causes of death. A very in- teresting and useful series of Life Tables is also included, the data for the entire period 1900-1950 being given where available.

This particular volume also contains some new tables (5) on Migration not given hitherto. This Yearbook is indispensable to the student of population, but it should also be of interest to the layman who merely wants to know in a general way what demographic changes are taking place, and the significance of those changes. He will find here the data for the world as a whole as well as for the different countries.

It is a highly competent piece of work merely as a Yearbook, and the special treat- ment given to different aspects of demography from year to year provide an insight into the dynamics of population change based on the latest available data which cannot so easily be obtained elsewhere.

Year Book of Labour Statistics, 1957. Geneva: International Labour Office, 1957. Pp. xvi, 535. $5.00 paper. $6.00 cloth.

DAVID L. KAPLAN, Bureau of the Census T HIS compendium needs no introduction to most statisticians and economists. It is a prime reference source and serves its users well. It has, of course, limitations

in content-additional subjects and cross-classifications, additional detail within the covered subjects, additional information on national definitions and concepts would all be helpful. But a halt has to be called somewhere and 500-plus pages of clearly-presented information constitutes a major contribution. (Anyone who has ever tried to set up a table of reasonably comparable statistics for a number of countries appreciates the difficulty of the ILO's task.) However, a reviewer can won- der whether the ILO's publication system makes the most effective use of the avail- able resources. At present, each issue becomes virtually obsolete as its successor is published. The system used for the UN's Demographic Yearbook makes each issue a supplement to, rather than a replacement for, its immediate predecessor by having successive issues speeialize in different subjects.

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330 AMERICAN STATISTICAL ASSOCIATION JOURNAL, MARCH 1969

Compared with the 1956 edition, the current issue does not contain the special appendix on certain newly-available U.S.S.R. data, nor the table on social security receipts and expenditures; but the other 38 tables remain virtually identical in format and subject content. There has, however, been a significant increase in the number of countries represented in most of the tables. A measure of this growth in coverage is the gain of more than 10 percent in pages for these 38 tables between the 1956 and 1957 issues.

The reviewer has two other comments. First, he looks forward to the day (perhaps after the 1960 censuses) when the ILO will feel that enough use is being made of its International Standard Classification of Occupations to warrant a separate table on the occupational structure of the economically active population, similar to the pres- ent Table 4, which focuses on industry. Second, he is still somewhat unnerved by the abandonment of the familiar chocolate-brown paper cover in favor of a modernistic orange and gray decor; such a massive changeover should probably have been ac- complished gradually over several years.

The Older Population of the United States. Henry D. Sheldon, with introductory and summary chapters by Clark Tibbitts. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1958. Pp. ix, 223. $6.00.

IRVING L. WEBBER, University of Florida

T His is another volume in the Census Monograph Series, prepared for the Social Science Research Council in cooperation with the U. S. Bureau of the Census.

The work is a welcome addition to the rapidly expanding shelf of books dealing with social and economic aspects of aging.

In the short introductory chapter Clark Tibbitts traces the brief history of the growth of interest in aging and the aged in this country and presents an essentially sociological interpretation of the present position of older people in American society. His ostensible purpose is to bring into focus the significance of study of the older population rather than to make a substantive contribution. Chaps. 2 through 8 deal in turn with the changing age structure; geographic distribution of the older popula- tion; age and employment; age and occupation; marital status, the family cycle, liv- ing arrangements and age; housing; and age and income. The final chapter, also writ- ten by Tibbitts, is a summary with comments. More than a third of the volume con- sists of seven appendixes corresponding in subject matter to the principal substan- tive chapters.

Sheldon's treatment of his material gives ample evidence of thorough familiarity with the nature of the data, awareness of crucial questions to be answered, and com- petence in using techniques of demographic analysis. He takes pains to set out in some detail the methodological problems which confront the student. What emerges is a carefully developed picture of the numbers, proportions, distribution, and selected characteristics of the older population (variously considered as persons 60 or 65 years of age and over) of the United States in 1950, with some trend data, mainly for the periods 1890-1950 and,1900-1950. Tibbitts' summary and comment serves a useful function, particularly insofar as it points up the broader implications of Sheldon's results and relates the findings to the role and status of the elderly in modern indus- trial society. The appendixes consist of comments on the relevant concepts and the nature and limitations of the data followed by detailed tables presenting the basic statistics.

Special interest attaches to Chap. 4, in which the relationship of age and employ- ment is examined. Departing from the pattern followed elsewhere in the monograph of depending almost exclusively on data from the census and the Current Population

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