SOST30012 Theory and Method in Demography
Coursework Assignment 2022/23
This Coursework Assignment is compulsory and contributes 30% of the overall course mark.
Completed assignments should be submitted via TurnitIn on Blackboard using your student ID as
document title. Please do not add your name anywhere on the document. The submission deadline
for Coursework is April 18th, 2pm (GMT).
There are four questions that have to be answered, each contributing 25% towards the final
coursework mark. There is a strict requirement as to formatting of the answers: each of the four
answers has a maximum word count of 400 written with Times New Roman font, size 12, 1.5 spacing
and all margins being 2.5cm. Up to 10 marks will be deducted for not following formatting
requirement.
You are also required to produce plots, tables and descriptions of your calculations, which should be
numbered, given meaningful titles, be fully labelled and included in an appendix at the end of the
document. The appendix and bibliography do not contribute to the word limit. Do not include
additional written answers in the appendix, only your graphs, tables and workings such as derived
measurements.
Step 1: Select two populations
Using the US Bureau International Population database select TWO countries for a comparative
analysis. One of your chosen countries should be a population currently with a low population growth
rate (less than 1% per year) and one should be a population experiencing a high population growth
rate (above 2%). You can check that in “Demographic Overview” on the US Census Bureau’s website
provided above.
Note: Please check if all required data for the tasks below are available for your chosen countries on
the US Census Bureau’s website, before you start working.
Step 2: Complete the following 4 sections
1. Using the method from workshop 1, produce a population pyramid for each of your chosen
countries with data from 2022. Present your two population pyramids and ONE additional graph
that helps you to compare the structure of the populations. Referring to your charts and the
underlying data used to create them, write a short comparative analysis of the differences in the
size and structure of the two populations.
2. Use the same website to source Age Specific Fertility Rates (ASFRs) for your chosen countries in
2022. Use that data to compare the fertility behaviour in the two countries. You may use the ASFRs
to generate any additional period measure of fertility (please show the working of any derived
measures in the appendix which can be excluded from the word count). Your answer should
include a maximum of TWO graphs. The task is not to explain the background reasons for the
differences but provide a clear description of the differences in period fertility as revealed in your
measures.
3. Use the same website to source Infant Mortality Rate and Life Expectancy at birth (for men and
women separately) for ONE of your chosen countries between the years 1990-2022. Use the data
to describe the mortality change between 1990 and 2022 in your chosen country. Please explain
how life expectancy is dependent on different ASMRs. Your answer should include a maximum
of TWO graphs. As with the fertility task, the aim is not to explain the historical background for
the mortality development but provide a clear description of the mortality change over time.
4. For the country you chose in section 3, please describe its future demographic development. Take
the population structure from section 1 as starting point and assume the ASFRs and Infant
Mortality Rate and Life expectancy from 2022 will remain constant over the next 20 years. Discuss
how the population structure and growth rate will develop in the next 20 years under those
conditions. Comment on how the trends of different demographic events affect the future growth
rate and structure of the population. Please note your answer should discuss this based on the
information presented in answers 1-3. Please note you are not expected and should not attempt
to carry out an actual population projection using the data, rather the task is to reason how the
population will change based on the evidence previously presented.
Support for Coursework: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and Assessment Discussion Forum
While this document provides clear guidelines on what you are required to do, please note that a key
part of the challenge of this coursework requires you to make your own decisions and judgements e.g.
on exactly which outputs to present as graphs, and how to answer the specific questions. For this
reason, members of the teaching team cannot answer direct questions of this nature.
However, we will provide a set of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on Blackboard. If you have other
questions that you feel relate to reasonable clarification of the tasks please submit them to the
Assessment Discussion Forum on Blackboard. Here you can post a question (anonymously if you
prefer) and one of the team will reply. There are a number of reasons we use this for assessment
queries rather than emails
a) in the interests of fairness, it ensures all students get to see the replies and clarifications we give
relating to the coursework.
b) it avoids the duplication of mass emails covering the same questions and minimises risk for any
inconsistency that can occur with multiple individual replies from more than one member of staff.
c) with such a large class it provides us with the most efficient way to ensure you get replies to
queries in a timely way (as we all monitor the forum).
PLAGIARISM: A reminder that the work you submit must be your own. Plagiarism is an example of
academic malpractice and can lead to very serious penalties up to exclusion from the University. The
online submission system includes TurnItIn plagiarism detection software. Be sure that you fully
understand what plagiarism is (the University’s guidelines are here:
http://documents.manchester.ac.uk/display.aspx?DocID=2870).