- Formal demography is the scientific study of the size, spatial distribution, and composition of population & the changes therein.
- Social demography seeks to understand and explain the sources of population patterns. Social demography questions how social, cultural, economic, spatial, spatiotemporal, and policy factors alter demographic features of society.
- Social demography examines the consequences of demographic change for societies, population subgroups, communities, families/households, and individuals.
- Social demography considers how demographic patterns and processes interact with biological, psychological, behavioral, social, cultural, economic, policy, and/or spatial processes to affect individual, group, and population outcomes.
- Key processes driving population dynamics:
- Fertility
- Health across the life course
- Population aging
- Mortality
- International & internal migration
- Family transitions
- Social mobility
- Common population indicators
- Population size & density
- Sex ratio
- Age structure
- Urbanicity/rurality
- Racial/ethnic composition
- Various incidence rates (e.g., fertility, mortality, illness)
- Age- & group-specific incidence rates
- Distribution of & disparities in health across populations
Demography Dual-Title Graduate Program
Penn State University, University Park
