ST3244 Demographic Methods

Module Description
This course will provide an introduction to the fundamental principles and methods of demography. The role of demographic data in describing the health status of a population, spotting trend and making projection will be highlighted. Topics include sources and interpretation of demographic data, rates, proportions and ratios, standardization, complete and abridged life tables, estimation and projection of fertility, mortality and migration, interrelations among demographic variables, population dynamics and demographic models. This module is targeted at students who are interested in Statistics and are able to meet the prerequisites.

Topics
- Basic Concepts and Measures: Population dynamics, demographic rates, person-years (PY) and population growth
- Age-specific Rates
- Life Table
- Multiple Decrement Life Tables, Associated Single-Decrement Life Table
- Fertility and Reproduction
- Population Projections
- Stable Populations
- Global Burden of Disease

This is a great module to take if you are truly interested in demography. It gives you insights into how population projections are done, how TFR is calculated, etc. However, if you are not truly interested, there are better modules out there for you to expand your knowledge.

Workload
Two lectures (2nd lecture is only 45 minutes)
I was taught by Dr Leontine Alkema. Her delivery may not be all that clear because she tends to beat around the bush and sometimes she appears to be unsure of what she is saying. There were a few slides containing a few life tables and she wasn't able to clarify the doubts in the life tables, causing a huge crowd in front after that lecture. She told us she will clarify the doubts during the next lecture, but that is something that I would say to my H2 Mathematics tutee when I am not sure what is going on.

She is very cheerful and interactive, often asking for answers from the lecture group.

It is notable that she also does not reply to emails on the day before the exams. I was not one of those students who sent her emails but some of my peers did and they weren't too happy about that.

On the last week, she introduced us to a new topic but she said that she was not sure if she wanted to add that topic to the final paper. However, to my knowledge, the final paper has to be submitted to the office many weeks before the actual exam date. So how could she be unsure of that?

Weekly one-hour tutorials
Tutorials require the use of R and excel. You will be guided by the lecturer so no worries about the computational part (lecturer's comments and partial codes). Tutorials are not that easy. It is very important to understand the concepts.

No webcasts.

Textbook is recommended.
It is helpful to read the textbook if the lecturer went on too fast or if you have additional doubts.

Assessment
25% Midterm
50% Final
20% Project
5% Attendance and Participation
Cheat sheets will be provided.

For project, you will work in pairs or alone. The project will ask you to use R to do some population projection and calculate some values like total number of females in 2100. It is not too difficult, just a tad too time-consuming. Project should be around the same for every year.

Personal
I am pretty satisfied with this result because I did badly for midterms (Below average). I did okay for the project so I guess it must be the final exam that pulled me up.

In general, the two papers are not very difficult as long as you understand the concept and read the question properly. It is very important to read the question properly because it is usually lengthy for some reason.

It is very important to know the concepts. Just keep in mind that the midterm and final paper will test you on everything. On top of that, each main topic is not really related. Thus you can save time on figuring out which part of the cheat sheet to use.

Extra notes to readers: I have my project R codes and script. If you are interested, please leave a comment and check back often. I will get back to you as soon as possible. :D
If you want to know more about the modules I have taken, you may refer to this list or the labels to the right! :D