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Graduate Minor in Population Studies
What is Population Studies?
Population Studies is a multidisciplinary research area at the intersection of the mathematical sciences, the health and social sciences, and public policy. Traditionally, the field has been associated with demography, which is concerned with changes in population size, distribution, and structure due to births, deaths, and migration. In recent decades, the scope of population research has greatly expanded to include such topics as fertility and family planning; morbidity and access to health care; demographic transitions; mortality; mobility, migration, and immigration; household and family composition; the life course; schooling; poverty and economic welfare; the aged; minorities; economic development; labor markets and labor force composition; social stratification; urbanization; and population growth, density, and distribution.
What can I do with a minor in Population Studies?
Training and certification in Population Studies is applicable in many areas. A wide variety of organizations need researchers and professionals with Population Studies skills: governmental agencies that oversee health issues, welfare and human resources, urban planning, population planning, and the census; non-governmental organizations concerned with public policy in planning, population, and health issues; private companies seeking skilled researchers who understand demographics for marketing purposes; and universities and colleges eager to hire new faculty who can use demography and population studies in their teaching and research.
The Population Studies minor
Established in the Fall of 2003, the University of Minnesota’s graduate minor in Population Studies provides solid grounding in the theories and methods of demography, with additional specialized training in five interdisciplinary subject areas that are particularly well developed at Minnesota: historical demography, population geography, economic demography, public health demography, and family and life course demography. The minor is available at the masters and doctoral level.
The graduate minor in Population Studies includes:
- a core course in demographic methods and population issues
- elective courses in one of the following five areas
- historical demography
- population geography
- economic demography
- public health population studies
- family and life course demography
- the opportunity for hands-on experience in using demographic data
For full information, see the Graduate Student Handbook.
Click here for list of courses offered Fall 2008 and Spring 2009.
The Population Studies minor was approved by the Regents of the University of Minnesota in July 2003. It is administered by the Department of Sociology, in consultation with the Minnesota Population Center.
Population Studies Faculty
Reflecting the interdisciplinary nature of Population Studies, the members of the graduate faculty in Population Studies are drawn from twelve departments, divisions, and research centers in six colleges and professional schools at the University of Minnesota. Their teaching and research expertise includes such diverse fields as applied economics, demography, epidemiology, geography, health services research and policy, history, housing design, public affairs, and sociology.
Population Studies Research at the University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota has established itself as an important center for the study of population and demography, particularly in the areas of population geography and historical, economic, public health, and family and life course demography. The Minnesota Population Center serves as a University-wide interdisciplinary cooperative for demographic research. Other research centers at the University that engage in population studies research include the State Health Access Data Assistance Center and the Life Course Center.
For further information, please contact popminor@pop.umn.edu or Ross Macmillan.
If you would like to be added to the Population Studies graduate student email list for periodic updates about the minor, please email popminor@pop.umn.edu.
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