Demography - American Sociological Association

You will complete an eight-part research project in this course, designed to provide you with
practical experience working with demographic data. The project is a “Demographic Profile” of
one state in the United States, and is worth 40% of your final grade (each component is worth 5%
of your final grade). Throughout the semester, each student will prepare a profile of a state of
their choosing. I will conduct a parallel analysis of the U.S. as a whole for the purposes of
comparison. This project will be completed, and graded, in stages. Refer to “Stewart Grading
Criteria for SOC 315 Demographic Profile” for information on grading standards. Your
demographic profile will include the following components (detailed instructions and grading
standards will follow):
Introduction and background
Basic measures of mortality
Basic measures of fertility
Basic measures of migration
Population pyramid
GIS exercise
Your state’s environment
Population policy
You will need data from two primary demographic resources to complete your project: (1) The
U.S. Census Bureau (www.census.gov), and (2) The National Center for Health Statistics
(www.cdc.gov/nchs) and knowledge of Excel will be required. Most of what you will need to
complete your project is now available on-line. However, because we are in somewhat of a
technological transition period, you may need to consult the printed materials or CD-ROMs in the
Government Documents section of Boatwright library. Although we will aim to use the most upto-date
population figures for our calculations, doing so depends on the release of Census 2000
and NCHS data. Be prepared for some degree of frustration—you may not always find the exact
piece of information you are looking for. Above all else, demography is a creative endeavor—
demographers are famous for their assumptions. Your work should reflect this. However, don’t
struggle so long that you give up. See me, or Keith Weimer (Government Information Librarian),
for assistance when you run out of ideas of where to look.
A note on due dates: Projects will be collected at the beginning of the class period the date they
are due. Projects are penalized one full letter grade per day late, and projects will not be accepted
more than 3 days late.
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