Data, GIS, and Applied Demography

Catalog description

This course provides an overview of key demographic data sets, and promotes familiarity with, and appropriate use of, these data. This course offers a comprehensive introduction to the wide variety of different government (and commercial) data sets that are among the most frequently utilized by practicing applied demographers. While US data sets are emphasized throughout the course international data products also will be discussed. Raw population data needed for demographic research comes from a variety of sources. The course will introduce students to the fundamental principles and design considerations of the different types of data collection systems that are used: censuses, 'rolling' censuses, surveys, vital statistics and administrative records. While contemporary issues are often studied using the latest available data many demographic questions necessitate the inclusion of a historical perspective (e.g., studies of population change) and as such linking and analyzing data across time also will be discussed. The analytical sections of the course will focus on the strengths and limitations of data products (e.g., including issues of data reliability and appropriate data use). A review and discussion of future directions in data collection and data sources wraps up the course. Enormous amounts of demographic data are now made available in aggregate form for geographical units (neighborhoods, cities, counties, states). These aggregate data are of interest in their own right but also are increasingly relevant to questions related to the role of geographic context on individual-level demographic outcomes. In this course students will learn about nested and non-nested geographical hierarchies of different data products and fundamental principles for handling and analyzing geospatial demographic data (e.g., how and when data sets can be linked together, how to visualize demographic data, spatial coverage, the influence of scale, and how to detect, and the consequences of, spatial dependence). This is a hands-on applied course in which students will be expected to access, understand, manage, and analyze different kinds of demographic data sets. The emphasis on data interpretation and analysis will be on descriptive statistical analysis, data visualization, and exploratory spatial data analysis using open source and/or available software.