Demography

University of California, Berkeley

This is an archived copy of the 2017-18 guide. To access the most recent version of the guide, please visit http://guide.berkeley.edu.

About the Program

Minor

The undergraduate minor in Demography provides an opportunity to combine a traditional major, typically in one of the social sciences, with specialized training in population studies.

Although there is no undergraduate major in Demography, seniors may take graduate courses with consent of the instructor.

Declaring the Minor

For information on how to declare the minor, please contact the department.

Visit Department Website

Minor Requirements

Students who have a strong interest in an area of study outside their major often decide to complete a minor program. These programs have set requirements and are noted officially on the transcript in the memoranda section, but are not noted on diplomas.

General Guidelines

  1. All courses taken to fulfill the minor requirements below must be taken for graded credit.
  2. A minimum of three of the upper division courses taken to fulfill the minor requirements must be completed at UC Berkeley.
  3. A minimum grade point average (GPA) of 2.0 is required for courses used to fulfill the minor requirements.
  4. Courses used to fulfill the minor requirements may be applied toward the Seven-Course Breadth requirement, for Letters & Science students.
  5. No more than one upper division course may be used to simultaneously fulfill requirements for a student's major and minor programs.
  6. All minor requirements must be completed prior to the last day of finals during the semester in which you plan to graduate. If you cannot finish all courses required for the minor by that time, please see a College of Letters & Science adviser.
  7. All minor requirements must be completed within the unit ceiling. (For further information regarding the unit ceiling, please see the College Requirements tab.)

Requirements

Core Courses
DEMOG 110Introduction to Population Analysis 13
DEMOG/SOCIOL C126Sex, Death, and Data 14
DEMOG/ECON C175Economic Demography 14
Statistical Methods or Vital Statistics
Select one of the following: 2
ECON 140
Economic Statistics and Econometrics
ECON 141
Econometric Analysis
PSYCH 101
Research and Data Analysis in Psychology
PB HLTH 140
Course Not Available
PB HLTH 142
Introduction to Probability and Statistics in Biology and Public Health
SOCIOL 106
Quantitative Sociological Methods
STAT 131A
Introduction to Probability and Statistics for Life Scientists
STAT 135
Concepts of Statistics
Social Science Dealing with Demographic Factors
Select one of the following: 3
DEMOG 145AC/HISTORY C139B
The American Immigrant Experience
DEMOG/PUB POL C164
Impact of Government Policies on Poor Children and Families
DEMOG C165/SOCIOL C184
Family and Household in Comparative Perspective
ECON 155
Urban Economics
ECON 157
Health Economics
ECON C171/ENVECON C151
Economic Development
HISTORY 137AC
The Repeopling of America
PB HLTH 181
Poverty and Population
SOCIOL 111
Sociology of the Family
1

No substitutions for this course are allowed, unless the course is not being offered in the current academic year. In that case, written approval of a valid substitute course must be obtained and submitted along with the L&S Minor Completion Form. 

2

Similar upper division courses of at least three units may be substituted with consent of the department.

3

Similar upper division courses of at least three units may be substituted with consent of the department.

Courses

Demography

DEMOG 5 Fundamentals of Population Science 3 Units

Terms offered: Summer 2018 Second 6 Week Session, Fall 2011
This course provides an accessible introduction to the social science of demography. The course is organized around cases in which population issues raise policy or ethical dilemmas (example: China's one child policy). Through these cases, students will learn how demographers use models and data to acquire knowledge about population. Throughout the course, students will also learn to read, interpret, evaluate, and produce tabular and graphical representations of population data.
Fundamentals of Population Science: Read More [+]

DEMOG 88 Immigration: What do the data tell us? 2 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2018, Fall 2017
This course will cover the small but important part of the rich history human migration that deals with the population of the United
States--focusing on the 20th and 21st Centuries. We will use the tools of DS8 to answer specific questions that relate to the themes
of this course:

(1) Why do people migrate?

(2) Is immigration good or bad for receiving (and sending) countries?

(3) How do immigrants adapt and how do societies change in response?

In addition to scientific questions, this course will also address the demographic and political history of immigration in the US --
an understanding  of which is crucial for understanding  both the broad contours of US history and the particular situation in which
we find ourselves today.



Immigration: What do the data tell us?: Read More [+]

DEMOG 98 Directed Group Study 1 - 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Spring 2017, Fall 2016
Undergraduate research by small groups.
Directed Group Study: Read More [+]

DEMOG 110 Introduction to Population Analysis 3 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2018, Summer 2018 Second 6 Week Session, Fall 2017
Measures and methods of Demography. Life tables, fertility and nuptiality measures, age pyramids, population projection, measures of fertility control.
Introduction to Population Analysis: Read More [+]

DEMOG C126 Sex, Death, and Data 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2018, Fall 2017, Fall 2016
Introduction to population issues and the field of demography, with emphasis on historical patterns of population growth and change during the industrial era. Topics covered include the demographic transition, resource issues, economic development, the environment, population control, family planning, birth control, family and gender, aging, intergenerational transfers, and international migration.
Sex, Death, and Data: Read More [+]

DEMOG 145AC The American Immigrant Experience 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2015, Spring 2014, Spring 2013
The history of the United States is the history of migration. The course covers the evolution of the American population from about 20,000 BC with the goal of understanding the interdependent roles of history and demography. As an American cultures class, special attention is given to the experiences of 18th- and 19th-century African and European immigrants and 20th- and 21st-century Asian and Latin American immigrants. Two substantial laboratory assignments; facility with a spreadsheet program is assumed.
The American Immigrant Experience: Read More [+]

DEMOG 160 Special Topics in Demography 3 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2018, Fall 2017, Fall 2009
Special topics in demography. Topics may include the demography of specific world regions, race and ethnicity, population and policy, and population and environment and similiar specialized or new topics in the field of demography will be covered.
Special Topics in Demography: Read More [+]

DEMOG 161 Population Apocalypse in Film and Science 3 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2015, Spring 2015
Despite our astonishing demographic success as a species, humans are haunted by the idea of apocalyptic demise. This course explores scientific and cultural narratives of population catastrophe particularly as presented in film. Noah's flood; nuclear annihilation; overpopulation; and climate change all raise the question: Does human nature carry within it the seeds of our inevitable destruction? In this course, we will grapple with both the science and the art in which this question is embedded.
Population Apocalypse in Film and Science: Read More [+]

DEMOG C164 Impact of Government Policies on Poor Children and Families 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2007
Examination of the impact of policies of state intervention and public benefit programs on poor children and families. Introduction to child and family policy, and study of specific issue areas, such as income transfer programs, housing, health care, and child abuse.
Impact of Government Policies on Poor Children and Families: Read More [+]

DEMOG C165 Family and Household in Comparative Perspective 3 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2012, Fall 2008, Spring 2005
How are families and households organized around the world? Which aspects of household and family vary, and which are constant? What are the relationships between household and family on the one hand and the political, economic, or broad social patterns on the other? This course examines all of these questions, taking historical and contemporary examples from Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas.
Family and Household in Comparative Perspective: Read More [+]

DEMOG C175 Economic Demography 4 Units

Terms offered: Spring 2018, Spring 2017, Spring 2016
A general introduction to economic demography, addressing the following kinds of questions: What are the economic consequences of immigration to the U.S.? Will industrial nations be able to afford the health and pension costs of the aging populations? How has the size of the baby boom affected its economic well being? Why has fertility been high in Third World countries? In industrial countries, why is marriage postponed, divorce high, fertility so low, and extramarital fertility rising? What are the economic and environmental consequences of rapid population growth?
Economic Demography: Read More [+]

DEMOG 180 Social Networks 3 Units

Terms offered: Summer 2018 Second 6 Week Session, Spring 2018, Spring 2000
The science of social networks focuses on measuring, modeling, and understanding the different ways that people are connected to one another. We will use a broad toolkit of theories and methods drawn from the social, natural, and mathematical sciences to learn what a social network is, to understand how to work with social network data, and to illustrate some of the ways that social networks can be useful in theory and in practice. We will see that network ideas are powerful enough to be used everywhere from UNAIDS, where network models help epidemiologists prevent the spread of HIV, to Silicon Valley, where data scientists use network ideas to build products that enable people all across the globe to connect with one another.

Social Networks: Read More [+]

DEMOG 198 Directed Group Study 1 - 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2018, Spring 2018, Fall 2017
Undergraduate research by small groups. Enrollment is restricted by regulations governing 198 courses.
Directed Group Study: Read More [+]

DEMOG 199 Supervised Independent Study 1 - 4 Units

Terms offered: Fall 2018, Spring 2018, Fall 2017
Supervised independent study and research.
Supervised Independent Study: Read More [+]

Faculty and Instructors

Faculty

Dennis Feehan, Assistant Professor. Demography, social networks, sociology, statistics, sampling, mortality, computational social science, migration, Facebook.

Joshua R. Goldstein, Professor. Fertility, marriage, social demography, historical demography, population aging, formal demography.
Research Profile

Jennifer Johnson-Hanks, Associate Professor. Culture, population, social action, intentions, Africa, gender, fertility, marriage.
Research Profile

Lecturers

Leora Lawton, Lecturer.

Visiting Faculty

Magali Barbieri, Visiting Associate Professor.

Robert Chung, Visiting Associate Professor.

Emeritus Faculty

Eugene A. Hammel, Professor Emeritus. Kinship, social anthropology, stratification, statistical and formal analysis, computer applications, peasant society and culture, demography, Balkans.
Research Profile

Ronald D. Lee, Professor Emeritus. Economics, evolutionary theory, mathematical demography, population aging, intergenerational transfers, economic demography, life history theory, population forecasting, national transfer accounts.
Research Profile

Kenneth Wachter, Professor Emeritus. Mathematical demography stochastic models, simulation, biodemography, federal statistical system.
Research Profile

John R. Wilmoth, Professor Emeritus. Demography, sociology, methodological research, longevity, life expectancy, mortality differentials, familial resemblance, mortality and life expectancy forcasting, historical population trends, world population growth, international migration forecasting.
Research Profile

Contact Information

Department of Demography

2232 Piedmont Avenue

Phone: 510-642-9800

Fax: 510-643-8558

Visit Department Website

Department Chair

Beth Berry

Phone: 510-642-9800

meberry@berkeley.edu

Undergraduate Assistant

Monique Verrier

Phone: 510-642-9800

monique@demog.berkeley.edu

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