In Demography and the Making of the Modern World, John Rennie Short critically explores the implications of population changes from a social and economic perspective and considers what this means for public policy. He shows how events as varied and important as the Arab Spring, migrant flights from Africa to Europe, budget negotiations in the USA, immigration debates in Japan and economic growth in India and Brazil - all seemingly diverse issues from around the world - are shaped by forces of demography. In particular, he focuses on the range of public policies that have been developed, rejected and adopted to meet these population challenges.

Short uses the Demographic Transition Model as a framework to examine the demographic forces that underlie major social and economic issues. He begins by introducing the varied impacts of these demographic changes on society at different times before examining the stages in more detail and exploring their wider social and economic consequences. The book features a wide range of contemporary case studies from the global North and South. It is written for students of demography, population geography and the social sciences as well as those with a general interest in the subject.