A java version of Demography has recently been released. For those without java capabilities, try the following animated demonstration of Demography . These are a small sample of the kinds of questions that can be addressed by Demography , a computer simulation program developed in the Biology Software Lab at the University of Oregon.
Demography simulates exponential growth in age-strutured populations.
By manipulating values for age-specific mortality rates, fertility rates, and initial population characteristics, and then using the simulation to see how population characteristics change through time, users of Demography can investigate important questions in population biology, develop a deeper understanding of fundamental population concepts, and explore issues related to population policy. Population issues, ranging from the human population to populations of pests or diseases to populations of endangered species, illustrate the critical links between biology, personal decision-making, and public policy. How people and nations choose to confront these problems has had and will continue to have a huge impact on our planet and on the quality of our lives. Demography allows students to investigate the possible consequences of different population or conservation policies, illustrating the important role that scientific modelling can play in decision-making. Demography is designed to make it easy to creatively explore and experiment.