Local Population Studies in the Era of 'Big Data'

Abstract

Recent years have seen a proliferation of very large data sets in historical demography, many of which have assembled individual-level data for entire populations. It might be thought that these data sets pose a challenge to local population studies, as they remove one of the rationales for work at the local level: that research using individual-level data was only logistically possible for small populations. This paper argues that, to the contrary, the advent of 'big data' sets provides new opportunities for work on local populations. Many of the old arguments in favour of local history still hold, but 'big data' can direct researchers to those places where local studies can potentially make the biggest contribution, and thus give local population studies a new lease of life.