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Across the developing world, labour-saving technologies have been designed to introduce savings in the time and energy that women allocate to work. In rural Arsi, Southern Ethiopia, a water supply pipeline installed in 1996 has reduced long arduous trips spent carrying water, and is associated with a permanent improvement in women's energy budgets. Assuming that nutritional levels remain constant, evolutionary life history theory predicts the energy saved may be diverted into reproductive effort and may increase fertility. Previous clinical studies have revealed that fecundity is responsive to changes in maternal energetic status. This thesis examines whether a reduction in workload translates into a measure of reproductive outcome (live births). The main aims are to detect effects of the installation of village-level taps on birth spacing, and to identify the major correlates of maternal condition, health and child survivorship. Demographic, health and nutritional status data were collected in 1999-2000, during ten months of field research in Arsi. The survey included a single-round demographic survey with full birth histories and a maternal-child health survey of 1574 households, and an anthropometric survey of 464 reproductive-aged women. These were conducted in villages both with and without access to water points, which were matched for comparability in all other aspects (e.g. altitude, religion, size). Multivariate event history regression analyses indicate that the introduction of the new water supply scheme is associated with a reduction in first and subsequent birth intervals, following a shorter period of post-partum amenorrhoea. This effect is likely to be mediated by the reduction in women's energetic workload, as there is no evidence of reduced child mortality or any improvement to women's health and nutrition. In addition, reproductive scheduling is strongly correlated with maternal condition in this population; evidence for maternal parity-specific depletion in body condition is presented. Furthermore, the Trivers-Willard model of adaptive variation in sex ratio at birth relating to maternal condition is supported. Overall, the findings indicate that in the absence of adequate health care, food availability and education, the new water supply has not obviously improved maternal well-being or child survivorship. Closer birth-spacing patterns associated with the labour-saving technology may impose severe constraints on maternal (and consequently child) health. These results have potential policy implications for a range of water and other development projects designed to save energy expended by women.

The thesis is a comparative study of, Egypt, Sudan and Yemen, three countries with similar social and economic profiles, yet with a variable dynamic in achieving reductions in child mortality levels. The study begins with a consideration of the individual country backgrounds and then presents comparative findings on population health and child survival. Empirical results on the correlates of child survival are presented, together with a selective review of the related techniques of analysis. The analyses of survival to age five was based on data from the PAPCHILD surveys carried-out in Egypt (1991), Sudan (1992/93) and Yemen (1991/92). The aim was to investigate the determinants of child survival with the innovation of adjusting for the effect of a family's "child mortality background". Methods of analysis included life-table analysis, logistic (marginal and multilevel) and Cox regression models. The transition to better child survival could further benefit from the spacing of births, the avoidance of higher-order births, and the concentration of childbearing in the central reproductive ages. Unequivocally, deaths of older siblings prior to the birth of every index child were strong predictors of poor survival settings. Deaths of older siblings after the birth of the index child were rare, yet captured "immediate" risk spells. Events of conception, birth and death of a subsequent sibling entailed time-varying excess risks. Evidently, adjusting for measures of familial child losses explains much of the "between-households" variation in mortality risks and spell-out "within-households" inter-dependencies of survival. Households further correlate in risks to child survival when they belonged to the same geographical cluster. The novelty in representing the latter correlation with a "regional" component of unmeasured effects was in aid of pertinent policy recommendations. Further, the study makes recommendations on reducing reporting errors of demographic data collected from mothers. Critical findings and policy implications are: for Egypt, better child survival rates are achievable by narrowing "regional" socio-economic gaps and sustaining lower fertility rates; in Sudan, the slowing pace of declines in child mortality were not best explained by relations with observed correlates, and appears further underpinned by the country's economic crisis; in Yemen, child mortality levels can be reduced by a third if the timing between successive births could be extended to two years, net of key promotive socio-economic interventions.

Traditionally, demographers have studied the determinants of nuptiality, sexual behaviour and fertility patterns from the perspective of women. The 1994 Cairo UN International Conference on Population and Development was an important turning point in demography. Since then, there have been efforts to understand the role of men in shaping nuptiality, sexual behaviour and fertility patterns and how men can be involved in population policies. This analysis of male nuptiality, sexual behaviour and fertility is based on data from the 1992 and 1996 Tanzania Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) and the 1994 Zimbabwe DHS. The aim was to investigate issues of male demography for these two countries. Methods of analysis included descriptive statistics, life table analysis, logistic and hazard regression models. Results show that most of the socio-economic characteristics are not very important determinants of male demography in these two countries. Age at marriage is higher than that of women but there is little evidence that age at marriage for men is rising. Polygamy remains popular in Tanzania, where the proportion of men in polygamous unions is more than twice that in Zimbabwe. However, intensity of polygamy is low, as the majority of polygamous men have only two wives. Age at first sex is earlier in Tanzania than in Zimbabwe and is falling in both countries, more so in Zimbabwe than in Tanzania. Fertility, measured in terms of the number of children ever born per man, is higher in Tanzania than in Zimbabwe. Then again, the differentials in the rate of childbearing did not widely vary once controls for marriage duration and type of union are made. The study makes recommendation for the improvement of the quality of demographic data collected from men. Questionnaires need to be more detailed by, for example, including questions on the timing of various unions that men might have. In the study of male fertility, there is also need for information from more than one partner that a man has had. Given the early initiation into sexual relations, the study recommends intervention policies such as early sex education and a wider campaign for safe sex given the large number of single men who have more than one sexual partner.

The European Union has become a region of intense immigration and the movements of third country nationals from outside or within the territory of the Member States has jumped to the top of ECIEU political agenda. Important ECIEU measures have been adopted concernmg the most important aspects in the area of immigration since the late eighties. The movements of third country nationals have nonetheless been regulated by EC law, although incidentally, since the origin of the Communities. The analysis covers fifty years of Community immigration history and it studies the changes in the immigration movements themselves and, in particular, of their regulation under ECIEU law. The research focuses on the factors that have contributed and that are shaping the emerging European immigration policy in order to evaluate the real impact of old and, especially, new rules on racial and ethnic minority groups and women. An EU integrated policy covenng all aspects related to third country nationals does not exist but very important steps, consolidated in the Amsterdam Treaty, have been taken over the last decade (1989/1999). The strategy to adopt at EU level is not very clear or coherent due to the complexity of the area itself and because of the different approaches of the EU Institutions on the answer to give to immigration issues. It has been demonstrated that although some gaps remain in the labyrinth of ECIEU immigration rules, the main trend, imposed principally by the Member States, is towards the creation of a White Fortress Europe.

The thesis aims to draw on the existing studies and conduct further investigations in mortality, fertility and migration patterns in order to provide a systematic analysis of population processes in the Seychelles between 1770 and 1994. Several demographic methods are applied to census, vital registration and migration data and other associated qualitative materials. In achieving these objectives, the study examines four core issues. These are: (1) the factors that led to the long-term growth of the Seychellois population, (2) the divergence between male and female mortality since the 1980s, (3) the type of fertility transition pattern the Seychelles exhibits, and (4) the role of the family planning programme in the decline in fertility in the Seychelles since 1966. Firm conclusions are arrived at with respect to the predominant growth factors between 1770 and 1994 and fertility transition patterns in the Seychelles. In the first hundred years of the existence of the Seychelles population, migration was the main determinant of growth, but it contributed to low population growth throughout the twentieth century. The Seychelles seems to be a half-way house between an African and Asian pattern of fertility transition. It was not possible to detect the cause for the divergence between male and female mortality. The timing of the decline in fertility and the increase in the number of contraceptive users from 1977 to 1996 strongly suggest that the family planning programme has had the greatest impact on fertility than the socioeconomic factors and other proximate determinants of fertility. As well as estimating net intercensal internal migration between the administrative regions of the Seychelles, the type of international migrants pertaining to age and sex distribution, purpose and destination of migrants are also examined. On the basis of the derived trends in the components of population change, both national and sub national projections are performed.

This study arose from the observation that many discussions about refugee issues in Africa, both in the literature and the field, operate within a discourse of refugee movement as a problem for which solutions are needed. Voluntary repatriation is generally proposed as the current ideal solution. The thesis starts by highlighting the artificial distinction made between refugee repatriation and 'normal' migration and shows how it can give rise to very different understandings of the needs and interests of the people who are moving. Using a case study of Angolans in Zambia, the thesis examines how the movement of rural people across a border into a country on the edge of peace (Angola) is perceived by villagers, the government and the international community and why any differences in perceptions have arisen and been maintained. It finds that in the border areas those who arrived as refugees followed patterns of movement from Angola established over centuries and maintained by a mobile society. They have fully integrated into the Zambia villages and are indistinguishable from longer term residents. While the government and UN bodies identify the movement of people into Angola as refugee repatriation, in the villages it is seen as people (both Zambian and Angolan) moving in search of better livelihoods in resource rich Angola. The very wide gap in understanding is a result of very different interests in the processes of integrating newcomers and controlling nationality and refugees. Governments and the international community often struggle to maintain the separation of repatriating refugees from economic migrants in order to preserve their control of populations and humanitarian resources. This has the effect of maintaining an official refugee problem long after there has been an unofficial local solution and results in inappropriate aid interventions.

Through examination of changes in Education management during the 1980s and 1990s, the study focuses on analysis of the factors altering the nature of the tripartite relationship between central government, local government and civil society. From the Education perspective, it assesses aspects of the power differential between each of these "parties", concluding that there has been a direct and indirect reduction in the autonomy and accountability of local government as a result of changes in its traditional roles, mandate and responsibilities. The fieldwork focuses on Education management within the Glasgow Division of the former Strathclyde Region. The views of senior Scottish Office and Regional Council officials are considered in light of an extensive review of the relevant literature and secondary statistics to set the context for the research. The fieldwork explores the implications of such changes on non-denominational secondary provision within the city, focusing on the particular experiences of five study schools drawn from a notional hierarchy of public provision. The views of the head teachers, parent school board members and parents are surveyed and analysed to relate actual experience to the broader theoretical considerations discussed in the opening contextual chapters. Consideration is given to the implications of the findings on particular locales and the overall socio-political geography of the city. The relevance of the findings is abstracted and applied at a more general level. The study acknowledges the important context of the broader social and ideological dynamism which frames the activity of government and influences the behaviour of civil society. Against this backdrop, it concludes that these broader factors (predominantly the New Right ideology of central government in the 1980s and 1990s and a purported move from Fordism to post-Fordism) have interacted with local circumstances to produce complex spatially-manifested patterns of access, expectation and opportunity effecting the life chances of individuals within and between different locales. As a result, "Professional" groups in each locale are more able and likely to access information, influence and service goods than those "residual" households at the bottom of the occupational hierarchy. The concentrations of these "residual" groups in more deprived locales gives these trends a spatial manifestation, affirming and altering aspects of the socio-political geography of the city. The research concludes that proposed central and local government initiatives in governance and public service provision would further impinge on the socio-political geography of the city if the traditional links between locale and expectation are challenged and additional powers are transferred from local government. It suggests that whilst changes may be seen to be radical, the status quo limits the expectations and opportunities of excluded groups and prevents broader community empowerment. The study closes by arguing that aspects of the various theories of local government continue to remain relevant and that exponents of each will have to "compromise" in the face of the competing demands of each party in the complex tri-partite relationship.

The objective of this study is to analyse the relationship between migration and fertility in Kenya. The data for the analyses comes from the nation-wide surveys, the 'Kenya Demographic and Health Surveys' (KDHS) conducted in 1988/89 and 1993. The process of migration is perceived as a 'contributory mechanism' to the characteristics which determine levels and the changes observed in fertility behaviour. The principal hypothesis of the study is that women who migrate comprise a group of women who act rationally to maximise their other lifetime aspirations at the expense of their reproductive roles: migrants are involved in behaviours and practices that negatively influence their fertility compared to the never-migrants. The study contends that through the influence of migration characteristics on fertility, the process of migration is important in influencing the reproductive behaviour and performance of women through time and space. The estimation of the association between migration and fertility in the study is carried out through a number of measurements. The association between migration and marital behaviour is estimated using the singulate mean age at marriage (SMAM), estimating the patterns of marriage by migration status and other background variables; the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression identifying the impact of migration on marriage relative to other factors; and using logistic regression to determine the probability that a woman will marry early or late between the migrants and nevermigrants. The association between migration and contraceptive behaviour is carried through by using the logistic regression. The influence of migration on children ever born is estimated using procedures of comparison of the mean and multivariate analysis. In general the findings of the analyses confirm that migration characteristics affect fertility behaviour and performance. Migration negatively affects age at first marriage. Migrants were found to marry relatively late compared to the nevermigrants. In terms of contraceptive behaviour, migration factors positively influence contraceptive use. The probability of using contraception was found to be higher among the migrants than the nevermigrants. Overall, the results of this thesis support an inverse relationship between migration and fertility: migrants tend to associate with behaviour that has negative influence on fertility.

This research aims at determining the demographic characteristics of the population of Cyprus over 1881-1982, using all available data from censuses, registration and surveys. The thesis consists of two main parts. The first part focuses on the period from 1881 to 1960 and refers to the entire population. The second part deals with the period after 1960 and mainly focuses on the majority Greek Cypriot population, virtually no information being available for the Turkish minority after this time; the island was partitioned between Greeks and Turks in 1974. Chapter 1 describes the objectives of the thesis and the data available. Chapters 2-7 refer only to the period up to 1960. Chapter 2 deals with the growth of the population and changes in the distribution by age and sex. In Chapter 3 it is established that mortality transition was under way by the 1880s while it is argued that female mortality was slightly higher than male mortality before 1911. Chapter 4 traces changes in marriage patterns after 1911 and their relationship to changing ratios of males to females. In Chapter 5 it is argued that although fertility had decreased slightly by the 1940s, an uninterrupted declining trend was only established in the 1950s. In Chapter 6 migration is considered; emigration from Cyprus was substantial in the period 1955-1960. In Chapter 7 differences between Greeks and Turks in mortality, fertility and nuptiality are examined. In Chapter 8 it is established that fertility for Greek Cypriots had reached low levels though above replacement by 1976 while mortality had reached low levels by 1982. There was substantial emigration between 1974 and 1978. In Chapter 9 the validity of the mortality and fertility estimates is assessed by using them to project the population of Cyprus from 1921 onwards. Chapter 10 presents a summary of the major findings.

The purpose of this thesis is to present a different approach to the formulation of differential equation mathematical models for interacting populations. It does this through considering a geometric method. The solution to the differential equations are forced, through theuformulation, to lie on the surface of well known three-dimensional shapes. It is this that allows detailed analysis of how, and why, the solution of the equations behave as they do. The thesis firstly reviews some of the skills and techniques used in the formulation and alysis of differential equation models to give a background for some of the analysis used the geometric approach to modelling. The geometrical approach is then presented using two three-dimensional surfaces, the ellipsoid and the torus. Also examined is an extension of the basic shape to higher dimensions. Using the three-dimensional shape as a reference, a four-dimensional representation is formulated. This increase in the number of variables in the model allows more situations to be modelled. The thesis concludes by discussing the use of the type of model produced by the geometric approach by addressing some of the advantages and disadvantages of this approach. It ends with some extensions to this study of geometric models for future work.

Application of the Brass child survival method to data from sub-Saharan Africa gives an upwardly biased estimate of ₁q₀ and ₂q₀. Comparison between directly and indirectly estimated rates derived from the reports of the same women for comparable time periods for these indices also show wide discrepancy. Misspecification of the model age patterns of mortality used in the derivation of the multiplying factors, homogeneous mortality assumption by age of mother and birth order, selectivity by age at first marriage and for the ₂q₀, the high proportion of the children being borne when the 20-24 years old women were teenagers is assumed to account for the observed discrepancy. This thesis attempts to examine the various sources of discrepancy using the 1988 DHS for Zimbabwe and Ghana as a case study. Given the limitations of the data, it is evident that the existing empirical model life tables and the parametric models don't adequately describe the age pattern of mortality in the region. Moreover, the evidence for the generally accepted assumption of regional homogeneity of age pattern of mortality is weak, although the assumption that the mortality of a country tends to decrease according to a constant pattern appears, to some extent, to hold. However, the age pattern of childhood mortality is better modelled by the proportional hazards model. A hazards model analysis also does not support the frequently accepted assumption that the upward bias in the indirectly estimated ₂q₀ is because a high proportion of the children ever born to women 20-24 were borne when they were 15-19 years of age and because they are selected by age at first marriage. However, a short birth interval among younger mothers appears to explain the discrepancy. The analysis also shows that the effect of those variables that cannot be parameterised are more important than the commonly stated causes, which implies the urgent need for an alternative data collection system.

The thesis comprises three main parts: breastfeeding behaviour, the association between breastfeeding and the health of children and the association between breastfeeding and infant mortality. To investigate the subject different statistical methods are used. Breastfeeding behaviour is investigated through a discrete-time competing risk event history model. Logistic models are used to examine the association between breastfeeding and morbidity, specifically diarrhoea and respiratory infection. The relationship between breastfeeding and infant morality is examined using a piecewise constant proportional hazards model. Graphical models are also used to investigate the indirect association between breastfeeding and infant mortality. The findings indicate that although the spectacular multifaceted programme to promote breastfeeding launched in the beginning of the 1980s, breastfeeding behaviour did not change considerably in the last decade. The proportion of babies initiating breastfeeding increased only slightly and duration remained fairly constant. The study did not reveal any association between breastfeeding and infectious diseases, but it should be borne in mind that problems such as poor data quality may have affected the results, as discussed in the thesis. The pattern of results supports the suggestion of a strong association between breastfeeding and postneonatal mortality, even when the effect of other confounding and the bias introduced by reverse causality are controlled to some extent. Breastfeeding was found to affect directly postneonatal mortality and also to be a path through which other socio-economic determinants influence mortality. Finally, the Brazilian National Breastfeeding Promotion Programme and some policy implications are discussed in the light of the results brought about by the study.

"By ethnoscape, I mean the landscape of persons who make up the shifting world in which we live: tourists, immigrants, refugees, exiles, guest-workers, and other moving groups constitute an essential feature of the world and appear to affect the politics of and between nations to a hitherto unprecedented degree" (Appadurai, 1991: 192). Aijun Appadurai's efforts to shift the focus of anthropological attention firmly onto the totality of social life serves as an integral organising strategy for this thesis. The shifting world under consideration is the Mediterranean. More central is the British Colony of Gibraltar, but in introducing such a focus I have at the same time been obliged to look further afield, both in time and space. Underlying the thesis is the basic proposal that there are a number of ways of writing anthropologically influenced accounts of the Mediterranean. The majority of these tend to privilege the northern shores and construct a victor's history. My objective here is to destabilise such visions, to attempt, in the words of the Russian formalist critics, to make such histories strange. In this sense my objective is not simply to point out how it is a question of excluding the 'Other' of the southern littoral. For, in fact, they are there, even in the histories which the North has bothered to record. They appear in various guises, not flattering often, but then not invisible either. Here we must look hard, and be broad in our view of histories. Travel accounts, literature; all such work provides a hunting ground for clues. By focusing on Gibraltar we further complicate the picture for, in the eyes of the British Empire, the northern banks of the Mediterranean have little to distinguish them from the southern fringes. Here different histories intersect, generating different constellations of the real. These too, need investigation; they need to be confronted with these other histories in order to highlight their partiality. In outline then, this is a study of migrant workers in Gibraltar, but these workers are themselves part of an 'ethnoscape' of great complexity and the thesis attempts to delve into the areas which in their turn impinge on the lives of migrant Moroccans on the Rock. In doing this the narrative thread of migration holds the thesis together.

The study investigates and interprets the factors that contributed to the recent decline in fertility in Sri Lanka, despite its low economic standing. It seeks to elucidate the social transformation that has taken place and looks at the socio-cultural determinants that have brought about the process of fertility transition. In this regard, the significant effects of the welfare measures in force in the country in respect of health, education, nutrition and housing have been brought to light. Hence the study tends to fall outside the scope of the conventional wisdom laid down in the demographic transition theory outlined by Notestein, which emphasised the contribution that economic development plays in lowering fertility. The approach to the study hinges on selected variables like education, age at marriage, gender roles per se and female employment. The cardinal role played by free education in contributing to the transition is given particular coverage. Education is treated more as a cultural asset which determines and shapes values, preferences and aspirations in respect of marriage, fertility, family formation and other aspects such as career development which enables women to play roles away from home. Unfortunately, inferences about women's position do not always gain statistical support, as they are intricately woven into the fabric of societal gender settings and traditions. In respect of age at marriage, the socio-cultural factors of society like the caste system, a dowry and horoscope matching with details of Karmic determinants have been examined in some detail. The study also uncovers the social deprivation aspects which for long led women in the plantation sector to experience fertility performance lower than the national level. Going by normal demographic rationale, their high degree of labour force participation should account for it. But it was social deprivation and the resultant low nutritional levels that reduced their reproductive ability to low levels. With a better life ushered in by a programme of social uplift during the early 'eighties, this ethnic group showed signs of first a rise in fertility, and on having reached the threshold it has now begun showing signs of a decline attributable to healthier lives. Similarly, a relatively invisible agent, the prevalent “urban outlook," is shown to contribute to the transition process, and has recently become even more significant due to the intensive rural amelioration efforts of the government. This outlook is all pervasive and permeates the society in general in effecting the transition under review.

In 1983 the Jamaican Parliament officially endorsed a National Population Policy which made the island the first in the Caribbean region to formulate such a policy. The Population Policy defined Jamaica's accelerating population as a negative constraint on the country's national development. One of the aims therefore, of the Policy was the introduction of replacement fertility i.e. a two child family. This was stipulated as a prerequisite to limit Jamaica's population growth. In an effort to disseminate the message of the two child family three mass media campaigns were conducted in the nineteen eighties. This thesis examines the efficacy of this replacement fertility campaign strategy in Jamaica's national development. The campaign's efficacy will be examined on the basis of its conceptualisation and implementation. This thesis constructs the argument that firstly, the conceptualisation of the media campaign was based on academically discredited views and assumptions on the role of the media in development. This position is substantiated in two ways. Firstly, through a semiotic analysis of the advertising campaign which revealed the implicit level of expectations concerning the campaign as well as the media's role in development. Secondly, through interviews with campaign planners and policy makers which disclosed the explicit expectations regarding the media and the campaign's function in development. It is argued that the ideological nature of the campaign's mythic structure, deciphered through the semiotic analysis, implies a role for the media in development which is consistent with the views of communication scholars who were advocates of the currently discredited Modernisation based model of communication in national development. An analysis of interviews with the campaign planners and policymakers demonstrates that their expressed views on the role of the media in development are identifiable with assumptions on this role inherent in the Modernisation paradigm. The thesis argues secondly, that the misinformed criteria and expectations directing the campaign are further reinforced by several features of the campaign design and implementation. It is shown that certain principles and practices of campaign design such as audience research, pretesting and interpersonal communication, which are academically proven ingredients of successful campaigns, were neglected in the campaign's construction. This calls into question the integrity of the campaign as a mechanism of social intervention. Further challenges to the campaign's efficacy are raised by findings from a social survey among the target group. This survey sought to assess the audience's view on the two child family; patterns of mass media use; sources of information on family planning; the credibility of these sources compared with the credibility of the media; contraceptive use and information needs on contraception.

The outstanding characteristics of the population geography of the Sudan are seen in its vastness of the area, its low population density, its high population fertility, decreasing mortality rates and uneven distribution of developmental projects among its regions. All these have important effects upon the economic and de mographic characteristics of its population. They also underline the uneven distribution of the country's population, as a result of which large-scale migration movements occur. Three types of population movements in the Sudan are discussed; inter-provincial movements, rural-urban migration and seasonal migration for cotton picking in the Gezira scheme. In the discussion of the first type, the analysis covers issues related to the general levels of movements amongst the 18 provinces of the country, rates of in- and out-migration in each province and their net migration balances. Also, it discusses the spatial structure of the movement, and some gaining and losing provinces are singled out. The impacts of the movements and their selective nature are also revealed. Rural-urban migration to the capital city of Khartoum is studied using the 1983 census data, other published data and the author's 1988/89 survey of migrant households in the city. The scale of the migration and the characteristics of the migrants are analyzed. Additionally, the structure of the migrant households, literacy, occupation contrasts and links with the village are investigated. The reasons behind the migration decision and the reward of the rural-urban migration are also shown. Seasonal migration is discussed to disclose the nature of the movement and its patterns which are associated with the cotton picking operation in the Gezira scheme. The types of labour involved and labour market conditions are also investigated. The findings verified the seasonality of the movement to the scheme and the consistent relationship between migrants and tenants in the scheme.

This dissertation documents the districting requirements for collection units for taking the Canadian Census and provides a spatial decision support system for their automatic creation. In the context of the literature on autodistricting, this problem falls under the general category of creating districts for monitoring, surveillance and inventory applications since the Census is essentially an spatial inventory exercise. The basic requirement is to create an area-based categorical coverage such that the workload is equitably distributed amongst Census Representatives within the limits of a large number of constraints and conditions. A new omnibus automated districting process that combines a 3-stage cascading selection procedure for identifying sub-blockface, blockface and block level collection units with a 4- stage heuristic solution procedure for grouping blocks (termed 'assigns', 'annexes', 're-assigns' and 'adjusts') is contributed by this research to provide a systematic response to varying districting situations. The resulting spatial decision support system for autodistricting has been tested on test data sets and on one of the larger urban population centres of Canada. The set of test pattern sites mimicking typical settlement patterns was generated to ensure that the various alternative assignment or block grouping methods (i.e., unidirectional and bidirectional tessellations based on circular and rectangular grids and regular, random and 'extrema-based' seeds) performed as designed and specified. The Census Subdivision of Laval (in the Census Metropolitan Area of Montreal) was selected as the test site for comparing the performance of the autodistricting capacity to the actual, manually created, results from the 1986 Census. To permit the comparison of results from classical manual and automated processes, a set of satisficing evaluation functions that vary in accordance with data availability was implemented in the context of a competing set of districting objectives. The most sophisticated of these evaluation functions incorporates a composite index that combines the distribution and a measure of the 'density' of the dwellings with the length of the route that must be followed to complete the collection activity (including travel time to the start of the route and between route parts). To assess the continued acceptability of the districting from the previous Census, and/or to select between alternative results generated by computer-assisted approaches, a set of objective functions is provided that vary depending upon the available amount of geographic, cartographic or statistical data.