Counter-Demography: Situated Caring for the Aged in Andean Peru

I argue that non-demographers engage in "counter-demography" - repurposing demographic tools as they interpret and manage local, individual expressions of complex population-level issues. I explore this through a focus on population aging in Peru. Like many developing countries, Peru is in a delicate demographic position where sometimes violent efforts to reduce fertility, and broader processes of modernization and education, have resulted in population aging. In the urban Andes, professional aging-workers (those who labor to support aging individuals) informally reference statistics and data visualizations to highlight their own complex and holistic efforts to support aging people on the ground.