Demography (Graduate Minor Field)

Graduate School

Program Website

Program Description

The field of demography is multidisciplinary in focus and practice, drawing on a wide range of social science perspectives. Graduate training at the Cornell Population Center (CPC) is similarly multidisciplinary and provides students with opportunities to develop fundamental demographic insights and methodological tools, as well as to engage with arguments from a range of perspectives.

Why Minor in Demography?

  • New insights: Population dynamics are fundamental to social, economic, political, and environmental change, and an understanding of demographic processes is critical to answering some of our most pressing questions.
  • Cutting-edge research: Demographers rely on a broad set of tools for analyzing demographic data, and weekly seminars provide exposure to new developments in data and methods from prominent scholars across the U.S. and abroad.
  • Broader community: CPC offers many opportunities to connect students with researchers (students and faculty) in other disciplines using high-quality empirical techniques to answer population-related research questions.
  • Additional funding: CPC regularly provides funding for student travel to professional population conferences (e.g., PAA) and offers seed funding to CPC students in need of research support. CPC research is also supported by major grants, and faculty are often looking for GRAs with demographic skills during the academic year and summer months.

Graduate Minor Field Requirements

Please note that, apart from meeting the course requirements, graduate minors must also have at least one Demography field member on their special committee. 

The campus-wide graduate minor in Demography is available to Ph.D. students in all social science fields. To fulfill the requirements for the minor, students must successfully complete the following courses:

  • GDEV 6070 Social Demography/PUBPOL 6050 Social Demography (3 credits)
    • Provides a conceptual overview for studying population issues and introduces major subfields of study within demography.
  • GDEV 6080 Demographic Techniques/PUBPOL 6060 Demographic Techniques (3 credits)
    • Develops basic methodological tools in demography, including rate construction, single- and multiple-decrement life tables, and survival analysis.
  • PUBPOL 6810 Demography Training Series Proseminar (1 credit per section, 3 credits total needed)
    • Participation in the CPC seminar series and monthly training workshops. Consistent enrollment is encouraged; at least 3 training credits (i.e., 3 semesters) are required.
  • One elective course from the following list of courses:1
AEM 7620
Microeconomics of International Development
CRP 5080
Introduction to GIS for Planners
CRP 5250
Methods for Spatial Economic and Demographic Analysis
CRP 5680
Introduction to Urban Data Science: Theory, Applications, and Practice
GDEV 5045
Data, AI, and Development
GDEV 5295
Data Science Workshop with R
GDEV 6770
Seminar on Issues in African Development
HD 6610
Text and Networks in Social Science Research
INFO 6751
Causal Inference in Observational Settings
INFO 5371
Studying Social Inequality Using Data Science
PUBPOL 5250
Neighborhoods, Housing, and Urban Policy
PUBPOL 5280
Population Health for Health Managers
PUBPOL 5281
The Economics and Regulation of Risky Health Behaviors
PUBPOL 5290
The Economics and Regulation of Risky Health Behaviors
PUBPOL 5380
Markets, Policy and Sustainability
PUBPOL 5670
Health Policy
PUBPOL 5750
Causal Analysis and Impact Evaluation in Public Policy
PUBPOL 5970
Economics and Environmental Policy
PUBPOL 6040
Qualitative, Survey, and Mixed Method Approaches to Policy Research
PUBPOL 6090
Empirical Strategies for Policy Analysis
PUBPOL 6091
Empirical Strategies for Policy Research II
PUBPOL 6280
Family Demography
PUBPOL 6410
Health Economics I
PUBPOL 6420
Health Economics II
PUBPOL 6950
Spatial Demography
SOC 5180
Social Inequality: Contemporary Theories, Debates, and Models
SOC 6110
Social Network: Theory and Applications
SOC 6340
Sociology of Education
SOC 6440
Urban Structure and Process
1

Substantive courses that incorporate training in demographic techniques or population processes. Students may petition for an elective course to be added to the list of approved elective courses.