Forecasting population for engineering purposes

ENGINEERS and persons responsible for the management of engineering projects have a common interest in problems of forecasting population growth and market demands. The soundness of engineering projects depends upon their capacity to fulfil a real demand. Unsoundness or even failure may result from planning and designing engineering projects without regard to industrial and population trends. Similarly city planning, housing and home building projects, educational and social programs of various kinds, ordinarily should be based upon the number of people to be served at some future date and their economic and social characteristics.