cohort

Definitions of Cohort

1. (noun) A group of people that share a demographic characteristic.
2. (noun) A group of people who are approximately the same age.

Examples of Cohort

• Definition 1:
  • All the students in the class of 2014.
• Definition 2:
  • Everyone born in 1979.

Cohort Pronunciation

Pronunciation Usage Guide

Syllabification: co·hort

Audio Pronunciation

International Phonetic Alphabet

• American English – /ˈkoʊˌhɔ(ə)rt/
• British English – /ˈkəʊhɔːt/

Usage Notes

• Plural: cohorts
• While the term “cohort” is typically used to describe age (age cohort) it can mean any demographic characteristic such as people with children, people who are married, or people who have a degree in sociology.
• Cohorts often exhibit a cohort effect.
• In cohort studies, an inception cohort describes a group of people followed from an early and consistent point. For example, the onset of a disease or the first day of university. Another example, is the long running documentary project, The UP Series. The project has followed 14 British children since 1964, starting when they were seven-years-old, with another installment every seven years. The last installment was in 2019, when the participants were 63-years-old.

Related Quotation

• “The Baby Boomers are a defining feature of American society and a touchstone for research on aging and the life course. Boomers have embodied many trends, from the sexual revolution to rising women’s workforce participation to changes in intergenerational relationships. While unique for its sheer size, the cohort is also unique for its trajectory. The Baby Boomers came of age during a period of great technological and social innovation. With important implications for family life, their aging is a testing ground for theories of cohort and generation, and it underscores the importance of research on the older population and later life. To review facts well known to sociologists, the Baby Boomers were born between 1946 and 1964. Their defining feature is the cohort’s size. Much to the surprise of demographers accustomed to the low fertility of the 1930s, the U.S. birth rate remained high for nearly 20 years before it fell to the low levels we know today” (Treas and Marcum 2011:132).

Additional Information

• Qualitative Research Resources – Books, Journals, and Helpful Links
• Quantitative Research Resources – Books, Journals, and Helpful Links
• Word origin of “cohort” – Online Etymology Dictionary: etymonline.com

Related Terms

• cohort effect
• cohort study
• data
• demography
• hypothesis
• reliability
• statistics

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Reference

Treas, Judith, and Chistopher Steven Marcum. 2011. “Diversity and Family Relations in an Aging Society.” Pp. 131 in Handbook of Sociology of Aging, edited by R. A. Settersten, Jr., and J. L. Angel. New York: Springer.

Works Consulted

Ferrante, Joan. 2011. Sociology: A Global Perspective. 7th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Griffiths, Heather, Nathan Keirns, Eric Strayer, Susan Cody-Rydzewski, Gail Scaramuzzo, Tommy Sadler, Sally Vyain, Jeff Bry, Faye Jones. 2016. Introduction to Sociology 2e. Houston, TX: OpenStax.

Kendall, Diana. 2011. Sociology in Our Times. 8th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Macionis, John. 2012. Sociology. 14th ed. Boston: Pearson.

Macionis, John, and Kenneth Plummer. 2012. Sociology: A Global Introduction. 4th ed. Harlow, England: Pearson Education.

Merriam-Webster. (N.d.) Merriam-Webster Dictionary. (http://www.merriam-webster.com/).

Oxford University Press. (N.d.) Oxford Dictionaries. (https://www.oxforddictionaries.com/).

Stewart, Paul, and Johan Zaaiman, eds. 2015. Sociology: A Concise South African Introduction. Cape Town: Juta.

Wikipedia contributors. (N.d.) Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation. (https://en.wikipedia.org/).

Wikipedia contributors. (N.d.) Wiktionary, The Free Dictionary. Wikimedia Foundation. (http://en.wiktionary.org).

Cite the Definition of Cohort

ASA – American Sociological Association (5th edition)

Bell, Kenton, ed. 2013. “cohort.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Retrieved January 16, 2025 (https://sociologydictionary.org/cohort/).

APA – American Psychological Association (6th edition)

cohort. (2013). In K. Bell (Ed.), Open education sociology dictionary. Retrieved from https://sociologydictionary.org/cohort/

Chicago/Turabian: Author-Date – Chicago Manual of Style (16th edition)

Bell, Kenton, ed. 2013. “cohort.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Accessed January 16, 2025. https://sociologydictionary.org/cohort/.

MLA – Modern Language Association (7th edition)

“cohort.” Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Ed. Kenton Bell. 2013. Web. 16 Jan. 2025. <https://sociologydictionary.org/cohort/>.