In addition to the core faculty in the Demography Department and the Graduate Group in Sociology and Demography, a larger group of affiliated faculty members from other department and schools participates in instruction and dissertation supervision. The affiliated faculty has a permanent representative in the department’s governance. In addition, distinguished visitors teach in the department.
The graduate student population is well balanced, with almost equal numbers of women and men (fluctuations occur with each incoming class). About half of our students are international scholars from Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East. The Department's completion rate is above 90%.
Graduates of the Demography programs at UC Berkeley have found positions in academic institutions such as Beijing University (P.R. China), University of California (Irvine and Berkeley), Cornell University, Harvard University, Hebrew University (Israel), Indiana University, Madrid University (Spain), University of Navarre (Spain), University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, University of Texas (Austin), and University of Wisconsin (Madison). They have also found positions at research institutes such as Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (Germany), Mountain View Research, National Institute of Demographic Studies (INED, France), National Institute of Population and Social Research (Japan), and Public Policy Institute of California. They also work in public and private foundations, such as Kaiser Permanente, and federal and state bodies that include the National Research Council, Office of California Statewide Health Planning, US Agency for International Development, and US Census Bureau.
The academic program in demography begins with regularly scheduled courses and seminars. They are augmented by individually designed reading courses, departmental colloquia and lecture series, personal advising and supervision by the graduate adviser and faculty members, as well as informal study groups with peers. Research assistantships, financed through faculty research grants, complement academic courses in developing professional skills. Teaching assistantships help to develop teaching abilities and credentials.