Department of Sociology
College of Liberal Arts
Texas A&M University

(2020 Spring) SOCI 622 – Social Demography

Syllabus


– Online course

Between March 24 and April 21, all lectures will only be provided through video conference (Zoom).

Link to online lectures (Zoom video conference)


– Course information

Meeting location: Academic Building 307, campus map

Meeting times: Tuesday, 9:00am–12:00pm


– Instructor information

Ernesto F. L. Amaral
Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology

Office location: Academic Building 415, campus map

Office hours: Wednesday, 1:30–3:30pm (link to office hours); and by appointment. Appointment requests must be made at least 72 hours in advance.

Phone: (979)845–9706

Email: amaral@tamu.edu


– Lectures and other materials

Week 01 – January 14, 2020
Lecture (Introduction to demography)
Lecture (Age and sex)
Lecture (World population change over time)
Lecture (Population change in the United States)

Examples of age-sex structure and other indicators (in Excel)

Joel Cohen: An Introduction to Demography (Malthus Miffed: Are People the Problem?)

Don't Panic: Hans Rosling Showing The Facts About Population

The Population Bomb? – by Retro Report – The New York Times

Break It Down – The Pop Song – Population Reference Bureau (PRB)

Population Age Structure – Population Reference Bureau (PRB)


Week 02 – January 21, 2020
Lecture (Theories of demography)
Lecture (The sources of demographic information)

Population and vital statistics report (United Nations, 2006) with information on countries with censuses conducted on a de facto or de jure basis.

7 Billion and Counting – Population Reference Bureau (PRB)

Human Population Through Time – American Museum of Natural History

Demographic Transition Model Song – D Sims


Week 03 – January 28, 2020
Lecture (Exponential growth)
Lecture (Periods and cohorts)

Population growth rate (in Excel)

Person-years, rates, probabilities (in Excel and PDF)

Lexis diagram and other packages in R


Week 04 – February 04, 2020
Lecture (Family demography)
Lecture (Demography of gender)

Extra readings


Week 05 – February 11, 2020
Lecture (Demography of sexuality)
Lecture (Contraception and birth control)


Week 06 – February 18, 2020
Lecture (Demography of aging)
Lecture (Demography of race and ethnicity)

Study about race and economic opportunity in the U.S.

The New York Times article about race and economic opportunity in the U.S.

Extra readings

Readings for student presentation


Week 07 – February 25, 2020
Lecture (Demography of childhood)
Lecture (Demography of adoption)

Readings for student presentation


Week 08 – March 03, 2020
Lecture (Fertility)

Example of fertility rates (in Excel)

Extra readings

Readings for student presentation


March 10, 2020
Spring Break


Week 09 – March 17, 2020
Texas A&M University classes cancelled


Week 10 – March 24, 2020
Lecture (Mortality)

The New York Times article about child mortality.

U.S. life expectancy decreased after 2014.

Netflix documentary about Bill Gates (see part 1 about developing technology to provide better sanitation to developing countries).

Example of standardization (in Excel)

Example of life table (in Excel)

Extra readings

Readings for student presentation

MortPak – The United Nations Software Package for Mortality Measurement
Site


Week 11 – March 31, 2020
Lecture (Internal migration)

Extra readings

Readings for student presentation

GeoDa: An introduction to spatial data analysis
Site

TableCurve 2D: Automated curve fitting analysis
Site

Examples of modeling migration rates
TableCurve2D by Prof. James Raymer
In SPSS
In Excel

Demographer William Frey Unpacks Why Fewer Americans Are Moving

Article at the Brookings Institution
For the first time on record, fewer than 10% of Americans moved in a year

Interview to NPR

Week 12 – April 07, 2020
Lecture (International migration)
Lecture (International migration – Extra)

Extra readings about economic effects of immigration

Extra readings about U.S. Census citizenship question & Southern border wall

Nobel Prize-Winning Economist Esther Duflo: 'You have no reason to fear low-skilled migration'


Week 13 – April 14, 2020
Lecture (Labor force and demography of inequality)

Readings for student presentation


Week 14 – April 21, 2020
Lecture (Demography of population health)

News article about studies that show "Medicare for All" would be cheaper than "Medicare for all who want it"

Extra readings


– U.S. Census Bureau

Census Bureau
Official website
Site

American Community Survey (ACS)
Official website
Site

American Community Survey (ACS)
Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS)
Site

American FactFinder
Site

Current Population Survey (CPS)
Site

Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP)
Site

Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates (SAIPE) Program
Site

Migration/Geographic Mobility
Site

County-to-County Migration Flows
Site

Census Flows Mapper
Site

TIGER/Line Shapefiles
Site

Demographic Analysis and Population Projection System (DAPPS)
Site

Quick Facts about the United States
Site


– Demographic resources

Family Inequality
Demographic facts your students should know cold in 2018
Site

Population: A lively introduction
Joseph A. McFalls – Population Reference Bureau (PRB)
Site

Population Pyramids
Site

Population
Science special issue
Site
Material

Population Connection
America's Voice for Population Stabilization
Site

Rob J. Hyndman – Monash University, Australia
Demography: Forecasting mortality, fertility, migration and population data
R package
Site

Coherent population forecasting using R
Site

Applied Demography Toolbox
Department of Demography
University of California Berkeley
Site

Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS)
Minnesota Population Center (MPC)
University of Minnesota
Site

United Nations Manuals
Techniques for Demographic Estimation
Material

Population Division
Department of Economic and Social Affairs
United Nations
Site

Population.io
The World Population Project
Site

The Pudding - Human Terrain
World's Population in 3D
Data from the Global Human Settlement Layer
Site

Population Reference Bureau (PRB)
Site

Population Reference Bureau (PRB)
Data
Site

Population and Poverty Research Network (PopPov)
William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
Population Reference Bureau (PRB)
Site

European Social Survey (ESS)
Site

Eurostat - Your Key to European Statistics
Site


– Mortality data sources

The Human Mortality Database
Site

Latin American Human Mortality Database
Site


– Fertility data sources

The Human Fertility Database
Site

Human Fertility Collection
Site

European Fertility Project
Office of Population Research (OPR)
Princeton University
Site


– Migration data sources

World Migration Map
Site

Foreign-Born Population: A Nation of Overlapping Diasporas
Digital Scholarship Lab
University of Richmond
Site

Migration Policy Institute (MPI)
Site

Migration Policy Institute (MPI)
Tool to generate graphs of countries of birth for U.S. immigrants, 1960-Present
Site

Mexican Migration Project (MPP)
Princeton University & University of Guadalajara
Site

Mexican Family Life Survey (MxFLS)
Iberoamerican University (UIA)
Center for Economic Research and Teaching (CIDE)
Duke University
Site

The New Immigrant Survey
Princeton University
Site

Migrant Integration Policy Index (MIPEX)
Site


– Resources about refugees

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
Site

Syria Regional Refugee Response
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
Site

Syrian Refugees - A Snapshot of the Crisis
Site

Asylum Quarterly Report
Eurostat Statistics Explained
Site

REACH - Informing more Effective Humanitarian Action
Site


– Other microdata and surveys

Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID)
Institute for Social Research
University of Michigan
Site

Health and Retirement Study (HRS)
Institute for Social Research
University of Michigan
Site

American Life Panel
RAND Corporation
Site

World Values Survey
Site

Latinobarómetro: Opinion Pública Lationamericana
Site

Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP)
Site

Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES)
Site


– Aggregated-level data

Gapminder: Unveiling the beauty of statistics for a fact-based worldview
Site
Videos

World Bank Data
Site

Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Data
Site

World Wealth & Income Database
Site

Opportunity Insights
Site

National Vital Statistics System
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Site

Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME)
Data Visualizations
Site

Pew Research Center Data
Site

Global Attitudes & Trends
Pew Research Center
Site

OXFAM - The Power of People Against Poverty
Site

Doctors without Borders
Site

Brookings Institute
Site


– Academic associations

American Sociological Association (ASA)
Site

Population Association of America (PAA)
Site

American Political Science Association (APSA)
Site

American Marketing Association
Site

American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR)
Site


– Sources for literature review

Web of Science
Scientific citation indexing service
Site

JSTOR (Journal Storage)
Digital library of academic journals, books, and primary sources
Site

American Journal of Sociology
Site

American Sociological Review
Site

Annual Review of Sociology
Site

Science Direct
Source for scientific, technical, and medical research
Site

PubMed
Citations for biomedical literature, life science journals, and online books
Site


– Resources to write about numbers

Purdue Online Writing Lab
Manuscript formatting (American Sociological Association – ASA style)

Site

Purdue Online Writing Lab
Writing with statistics

Site

Examples of tables and figures
PDF file


– Stata Resources

Instructions for Accessing Stata Through the Virtual Open Access Lab (VOAL) at Texas A&M University
VOAL Instructions

Stata: Data Analysis and Statistical Software
Resource links

Institute for Digital Research and Education (IDRE)
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
Stata material

Carolina Population Center (CPC)
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC)
Introduction to Stata

Generalized Linear Latent And Mixed Models (GLLAMM)
Stata Programs for estimating, predicting, simulating

Stata extra modules
Material


– Public-opinion polls

RealClearPolitics
Political news and polling data aggregator
Site

FiveThirtyEight
Statistical analysis about elections, politics, sports, science, economics and culture
Site


– Resources for migration syllabus

Migration and Citizenship Syllabus Bank
American Political Science Association
Site

Immigration Syllabus
Created by immigration historians affiliated with the Immigration History Research Center at the University of Minnesota and the Immigration and Ethnic History Society
Site
Syllabus in pdf