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Cohort

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Cohort  (COHORT)


In non-technical language the term "generation" is often used loosely to refer to persons of similar age at the same time. In technical literature, the term generation1 has been given a precise meaning and refers to a group of persons born within a specified period of time, generally taken as a calendar year. More recently the term cohort2 has been introduced to denote a group of persons who experience a certain event in a specified period of time: thus a birth cohort is a synonym for generation in the sense of 116-1, a marriage cohort is a group of persons married within a defined period etc. The term generation2 may also be used as a synonym for cohort, e. g. a marriage generation. In demography as in genealogy the term generation3 may also be used to denote the descendants of a group of persons who are themselves a generation, in the sense of 116-1. Thus children of a group of migrants are often referred to as the second generation. Sometimes consideration is restricted to lines of descent through one sex only, thus a male generation4, or paternal generation4 are the sons of a generation of males, a female generation5 or maternal generation5 the daughters of a generation of females. These distinctions are used particularly when the length of a generation or the mean interval between successive generations (713-1) are computed.

  • 2. cohort n. — the term cohort analysis has been used to denote a method of analysing data, in which the experience of individual cohorts is studied throughout their lives, or other specified periods.
    For purposes of military service the number of men who become liable to conscription in a given year is sometimes called the class (cf. 130-8) of that year. In the United States the same term is used for a group who complete their studies at a particular school or university in a particular year.


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