Lexis Diagram
The Lexis diagram is a geometric bookkeeping device that places every demographic event in a two-dimensional grid of age against calendar time, so that each person's life traces a diagonal line and each cohort fans out as a band of parallel lifelines. Named after the German statistician Wilhelm Lexis, it is the foundational drawing of formal demography: it makes the otherwise confusing relationship between age, period, and birth cohort visible, and it tells the analyst exactly which deaths, births, and person-years belong together when a rate is computed.
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Sources
- Preston, S. H., Heuveline, P., & Guillot, M. (2001). Demography: Measuring and Modeling Population Processes. Blackwell. ISBN: 9781557864512
How to cite this page
ScholarGate. (2026, June 22). The Lexis Diagram for Age-Period-Cohort Bookkeeping. ScholarGate. https://scholargate.app/en/demography/lexis-diagram
Which method?
Set this method beside its closest kin and read them side by side — the library lays the books on the table; the choice is yours.
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- Life TableDemography↔ compare
- Preston-Coale MethodDemography↔ compare
- Stable Population TheoryDemography↔ compare