Barcelona Summer School of Demography | Module 2: Demography with R

Course description

The Barcelona Summer School of Demography (BSSD) program is a comprehensive four-week course focusing exclusively on the R statistical language. It is structured into four distinct modules, with each module spanning a week (20hs), designed to provide an in-depth understanding of different aspects of the R language: statistical and demographic analysis, data visualization and spatial analysis. Applicants are invited to enrol in either the full four-week BSSD course or select individual modules that align with their specific learning needs and interests.

Module 2 of the Barcelona Demography Summer School seeks to provide a comprehensive overview of key demographic methods and their practical implementation within the R environment.

In the application form, candidates are required to specify the mode of attendance for the course, either in-person or online. Participants will be selected on a competitive basis based on motivation and research interests. Priority will be given to early-career researchers (Master and PhD students), but applicants from more advanced stages are also welcome. Applicants will be informed about the results of the selection process by 25 March 2025. Students registered in two or more other Bcn4Seasons School courses will be automatically considered for the Barcelona Summer School of Demography, without going through any selection process.

For further information, please contact bssd@ced.uab.cat

Content

Day 1: Basic demographic measures, the Lexis diagram, rates, probabilities and proportions.
Day 2: Life table, life expectancy, the Human Mortality Database (HMD).
Day 3: Standardization of demographic measures, rate decomposition (Kitagawa method), life expectancy decomposition (Arriaga method).
Day 4: population growth, population models, the Leslie matrix.
Day 5: Introduction to population forecast, the Lee-Carter model, review of the module.

Learning Highlights

Participants will learn the necessary theoretical background and the programming implementation in R of key Demographic Methods.

Target audience

Master and PhD Students, Researchers, Data Journalists and people how work with population data in general.

Required training or equipment

Participants are expected to bring their own laptop, with R and RStudio installed. Also, a general knowledge the R environment is required.

Lecturer

Tim Riffe

Tim is an Ikerbasque Research Fellow at the University of the Basque Country – UPV/EHU. His theoretical work focuses on population renewal and temporal relationships over the life course. His empirical work uses original methodological approaches to study relationships between longevity and health in ageing populations, based on both administrative and survey data.

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