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.
Berkeley Population Classics
Berkeley has a fifty-year tradition of diverse and path-breaking analysis in the field of population.
Here is a sampling of Berkeley "classics"
Social Structure and Fertility: An Analytic Framework(link is external)
Kingsley Davis; Judith Blake
Economic Development and Cultural Change > Vol. 4, No. 3 (Apr., 1956), pp. 211-235
The Theory of Change and Response in Modern Demographic History(link is external)
Kingsley Davis
Population Index > Vol. 29, No. 4 (Oct., 1963), pp. 345-366
On the Momentum of Population Growth(link is external)
Nathan Keyfitz
Demography > Vol. 8, No. 1 (Feb., 1971), pp. 71-80
Causes of Death: Life Tables for National Populations.
Samuel H. Preston, Nathan Keyfitz, and Robert Schoen.
New York: Seminar Press, 1972.
Comparing Household Structure over Time and between Cultures(link is external)
E. A. Hammel; Peter Laslett
Comparative Studies in Society and History > Vol. 16, No. 1 (Jan., 1974), pp. 73-109
Structure and Change in Causes of Death: An International Summary(link is external)
Samuel H. Preston; Verne E. Nelson
Population Studies > Vol. 28, No. 1 (Mar., 1974), pp. 19-51
Toward a Subcultural Theory of Urbanism(link is external)*
Claude S. Fischer
The American Journal of Sociology > Vol. 80, No. 6 (May, 1975), pp. 1319-1341
*see also: The Subcultural Theory of Urbanism: A Twentieth-Year Assessment(link is external)
Claude S. Fischer
The American Journal of Sociology > Vol. 101, No. 3 (Nov., 1995), pp. 543-577
From the Study of Social Mobility to the Study of Society(link is external)
Allan Sharlin
The American Journal of Sociology > Vol. 85, No. 2 (Sep., 1979), pp. 338-360
Aiming at a Moving Target: Period Fertility and Changing Reproductive Goals(link is external)
R. D. Lee
Population Studies > Vol. 34, No. 2 (Jul., 1980), pp. 205-226
Estimating Historical Heights(link is external)
Kenneth W. Wachter; James Trussell
Journal of the American Statistical Association > Vol. 77, No. 378 (Jun., 1982), pp. 279-293
Abortion and the Politics of Motherhood(link is external)
Kristin Luker (1985)
Making It Count: The Improvement of Social Research and Theory(link is external)
Stanley Lieberson (1987)
Basic Patterns in Annual Variations in Fertility, Nuptiality, Mortality, and Prices in Pre-industrial Europe(link is external)
Patrick R. Galloway
Population Studies > Vol. 42, No. 2 (Jul., 1988), pp. 275-302
Ethnic Options: Choosing Identities in America(link is external)
Mary C. Waters (1990)
A Theory of Culture for Demography(link is external)
E. A. Hammel
Population and Development Review > Vol. 16, No. 3 (Sep., 1990), pp. 455-485
Elusive Cycles: Are there Dynamically Possible Lee-Easterlin Models for U.S Births?(link is external)
Kenneth W. Wachter
Population Studies > Vol. 45, No. 1 (Mar., 1991), pp. 109-135
Measures, Models, and Graphical Displays in the Analysis of Cross-Classified Data(link is external)
Leo A. Goodman
Journal of the American Statistical Association > Vol. 86, No. 416 (Dec., 1991), pp. 1085-1111
Modeling and Forecasting U. S. Mortality(link is external)
Ronald D. Lee; Lawrence R. Carter
Journal of the American Statistical Association > Vol. 87, No. 419 (Sep., 1992), pp. 659-671
How 4.5 Million Irish Immigrants Became 40 Million Irish Americans: Demographic and Subjective Aspects of the Ethnic Composition of White Americans(link is external)
Michael Hout; Joshua R. Goldstein
American Sociological Review > Vol. 59, No. 1 (Feb., 1994), pp. 64-82