Six articles appearing in this issue of the Bulletin of the Association of French Geographers, devoted to current demographic conditions, are introduced and placed in context. Although total world population growth is apparently beginning to slow, considerable differences remain between developed and developing countries. Different durations and intensities of mortality and fertility declines and different timing of the onset of transition have produced historically unprecedented diversity. The first article compares world population to national populations, while the second contrasts countries with high levels of growth and proportions of young people with countries having low fertility and aging populations. Population inertia and the determinants of population change are then examined. The third article analyzes the evolution of the economically active population in different countries, showing how they summarize the degree of modernization and development of a society as well as the place of women. The next article cites Quebec as an example of an individualist modern Western society with little likelihood of a sustained rise in fertility in the near future. The growing density of world population and the tendency for concentration in large urban areas are then discussed. The final article examines the effect of migration patterns in Western Europe, including influxes of refugees from all over the world and of Eastern Europeans before and after the breakup of the USSR.