What is this course about?
Photo: Habib Hasan, Public Health Foundation of India
This course has been set up in response to the growing shortage of skilled population analysts in low and middle income countries, as identified by IUSSP and UNFPA, and the lack of post-graduate training in technical population analysis available to counteract this trend.
As such, the primary focus of this course is introducing the user to the methods used by demographers to analyse population data, and the sources of this data and the methods used to collect this data. Throughout the course, students are introduced to the types of issues of interest to demographers through real examples. There are also a number of sessions which explicitly aim to introduce broad areas of research through discussion of both global and national trends.
A further module is planned to address how demographic methods may be used in researching a range of areas, such as reproductive health, morbidity and health profiles, and the effects of ageing on a population.