Demography, a sub-field of sociology, is the science of population size, distribution, and composition. During most of the quarter we will cover these core demographic concepts focusing on U.S. population size, distribution, and composition as well as international conditions. We will also illustrate demographic changes on cross-national, comparative population changes especially as they influence economic development. Later we will look at population policy and growth issues. The combination of population growth and economic development has taken its toll on the global environment.
Additional people require increasing amounts of the earth's limited natural resources.
However, the ultimate impact of population growth and economic development depends on social and cultural forces. Encourage new and innovative thinking in others on the myriad social and cultural forces affecting population composition and change. This course requires participation in class discussion, weekly assignments and a population project written up in a professional manner and presented to the entire class. Grading for this aspect of the class is based on your comprehension of basic demographic concepts and skills as well as your ability to apply information covered in the assigned readings and class activities to real world population problems and solutions. The population project is due the last week of the quarter, but presentations are likely to begin the second to last week of class.