Research Themes


Demographic Methods

The canonical task of demographers is population estimation and projection, and concomitantly, using or developing methods that fundamentally account for population size, density and distribution. With improving computational capabilities and copius new data, demographers’ traditional methods are being adopted more widely by other disciplines or interdisciplinary teams and are in need of ‘upgrading’ to work well with more diverse data in a variety of new applications and to produce probabilistic results. Accomplishing these methodological innovations increasingly requires application and adaptation of statistical methods and the involvement of a range of substantive expertise. The University of Washington provides a unique environment to bring these elements together to enable the rapid development of new demographic methods. The Center for Statistics and the Social Sciences (CSSS) organizes close collaborations between statisticians and social and health scientists, and many of the researchers affiliated with CSSS are also key affiliates of CSDE. These collaborations are the basis for much of the work in the first subtheme: Statistical Innovations in Demography. The recent creation of the Northwest Census Research Data Center at UW will increase the potential for future advances under our second subtheme: Innovations in Measurement and Data.