Syllabus
Teacher: doc. RNDr. Luděk Šídlo. Luděk Šídlár, Ph.D.Department of Demography and Geodemography, Faculty of Science, Albertov 6, 128 43 Prague 2 E-mail: ludek.sidlo@natur.cuni.cz
1. Demography and its position among other scientific disciplines, object and subject of demography, internal division. History of demography. Overview of demographic organisations and institutions.2. Sources of demographic data (censuses, records of natural change and migration, registers, sample surveys,...), the most important sources of demographic data.3. System and construction of demographic indicators4. Display of demographic indicators (demographic network/Lexis diagram).5. Structure of the population by age and sex. Age pyramid, types of age structures and their characteristics. Other selected population structures (nationality, education, marital status,...)6. Mortality process and its wider determinants; mortality by age and sex, infant and child mortality. Comparative mortality indicators - methods of standardisation.7. The "life expectancy" indicator as an output of the mortality table; the meaning of modelling the mortality process - the principle of constructing the mortality table, its use for analysing and forecasting the size and composition of the population. Mortality in international comparison.8. Classification of diseases and causes of death. Disease and health status of the population, possibilities of assessment.
9. Fertility process - data collection and recording, indicators, broader conditions and linkages. Development of fertility levels in Czechia and international comparison.10. Abortion process - categories of abortion, development of legislation, basic indicators.11. Processes of marriage and divorce - demographic, social, cultural, legislative. Basic indicators. Changes in the level of marriage and divorce rates in Czechia and international comparison. Structure of families and households, unmarried cohabitation and other non-traditional ways of cohabitation.12. General characteristics of demographic reproduction. Importance of migration - possibilities of evaluation, indicators. Population distribution, urbanisation and population concentration - trends, indicators13. Population forecasts and projections: types of demographic forecasts in terms of time and population covered; methodology, determination of parameters, results. Population forecasts in Czechia, in the world; derived forecasts.14. World population development - demographic revolution, second demographic transition.
Annotation
A basic course in demography for non-demography majors. The course is thematically focused on understanding basic demographic processes with emphasis on methodological specifics and interdisciplinary nature. Lectures focus on such topics as: sources of demographic data, demography as a scientific discipline, the system of demographic indicators, the main areas of demographic analysis (fertility, birth, marriage, divorce, mortality), families and households and population policy, demographic forecasts and projections, etc. The course includes information on population development and the demographic situation in Czechia. Special attention is paid to understanding the causes and contexts of population development in relation to other social, economic and cultural processes in society.
The course is organized in the form of theoretical lectures and practical exercises, which aim to teach the students to be able to calculate basic demographic indicators. The course includes a presentation of elementary techniques of calculating basic demographic indicators with practical demonstration at computers, so for this reason, user knowledge of MS Excel is a NECESSITY.