Kingsley Davis; Sociologist and Demographer

Kingsley Davis, 88, internationally known sociologist and demographer who developed the theory of demographic transition. Davis, who taught at USC and later was a research fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution, coined the term in 1945. Under that theory, modernization produces a four-stage demographic transition. In the first stage, both death and birth rates are high, so population grows minimally. In the second stage, the birth rate remains high while the death rate declines, and population increases. In the third stage, the birth rate begins to decline as the death rate falls, and population begins to stabilize. In the fourth stage, the birth and death rates are equally low, and population stops growing. Born in Tuxedo, Texas, Davis earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in philosophy at the University of Texas and his doctorate in sociology at Harvard. In addition to his 13 years of teaching at USC, Davis taught at UC Berkeley, Smith College and Clark, Pennsylvania State, Princeton and Columbia universities. He was president of the American Sociological Assn. and the Population Assn. of America and represented the United States on the United Nations Population Commission. On Thursday in Stanford, Calif., of complications of Parkinson’s Disease.