Book excerpt: The population processes in which we all participate are compared, contrasted, and synthesized into understandable trends in the latest edition of this widely acclaimed text. The authors’ cogent analysis encompasses demographic milestones like surpassing the seven billion population mark and becoming a majority urban population for the first time in human history, as well as the repercussions of a global financial crisis and the implications of two important ongoing trends: aging and fertility decline. New data, examples, and discussions of emerging demographic issues are incorporated throughout the value-priced Fourth Edition, along with graphics that highlight trends and facilitate comparisons among world regions. This pedagogically rich volume also includes propositions for debate and end-of-chapter exercises that allow readers to become comfortable with the quantitative tools that demographers use to measure and describe populations. Moreover, users will learn about some of the people behind the research that informs this text in a new feature called Careers in Demography.