Aims

To give traning in demographic analysis, and to enable students to understand, and correctly apply, the classic methods of analysing population structures and various demographic phenomena.

Main themes

- Basic concepts.
- The temporal identification of events and complements (periods and moments of observation, age-bands, generations, cohorts, graphical representations, and particularly, reliance on the lexis diagram).
- An analysis of birth rates and fertility (e.g. transversal analysis, longitudinal analysis, fertility rates, average age for child-bearing fertility at all levels and by level, the likelihood of enlargement, and retrospective analysis).
- An analysis of nuptiality (e.g. unions, marriages, divorces, and widow(er)hood.
- An analysis of mortality (e.g. child, youth and adult; all causes of death and death by cause; a table of mortality; and standardisation).
- The identification of space, and an analysis of internal migrations (measuring the intensity and the timetable).
- A simultaneous analysis of several (concurrent and disruptive) events.
- Structures of populations including by age and gender (pyramid), by matrimonial status, age and gender (matrimonial market), and the ratio of men.

Content and teaching methods

Methodology
Illustration through examples, but limiting developments to what is necessary for an understanding of the approach (a discrete approach, rather than a continuous one).

Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)

Pre-requirement (or equivalent): Courses SPED 3245 ("Elementary statistics applied to demography and social sciences") and DEMO 3415 ("Elementary mathematics applied to demography and social sciences").
Assessment: Written examinations, possibly accompanied by continuous assessment.

Other credits in programs