Overview

The Minnesota Population Center (MPC) is a University-wide interdisciplinary cooperative for demographic research.  The MPC fosters connections among population researchers across disciplines and opens new opportunities for large-scale collaborative externally funded research projects.  We provide shared infrastructure for demographic analysis and administration, and have embarked on several major new externally sponsored research collaborations across departments and colleges.  The MPC has a special focus on large-scale demographic infrastructure projects.  One of our central missions is to provide tools for the study of economic and social change and to encourage a historical approach to social policy analysis.  To that end, we have created new historical census samples for the United States, developed innovative tools for the electronic dissemination of demographic data, and improved the comparability and documentation of census microdata across time and space.  Newer projects include the preservation, harmonization and dissemination of international census microdata, the development and dissemination of a harmonized data series of the National Health Interview Surveys, and the National Historical Geographic Information System for U.S. aggregate census data.

These projects share seven support cores.  The Administrative Core maximizes the productivity of MPC researchers by reducing administrative burdens and handling day-to-day operations of the Center.  The Information Technology Core maintains computing hardware and software for data analysis and provides programming services for data creation, management, analysis, and dissemination.  The Data Access Core provides MPC researchers direct access to one of the richest collections of demographic data in the country and will soon provide unprecedented access to data by demographers around the world.  The Data Services Core provides data processing and cleaning services for MPC-based research projects. The Spatial Analysis Core facilitates the development of new tools and methodologies for the analysis of geographic datasets. The Data Integration Core specializes in harmonization processes and metadata creation. Finally, the User Support Core provides user support for MPC-produced data products, maximizing the accessibility of MPC data not only for academic researchers but also for students, policy makers, journalists, and the public.

The MPC is enhancing post baccalaureate training in demography by coordinating our population curriculum, offering a Ph.D. minor field in population studies, and providing predoctoral and postdoctoral training opportunities.  We have also developed specialized forums, workshops and symposia on topics related to population research and we have created a seminar series that brings nationally and internationally recognized demographers from a variety of disciplines to Minnesota to share their research.  Finally, we are working with the State Demographer’s Office, the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, and the School of Public Health to address the demographic needs of policy makers.