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From Cradle to Grave: How Demographic Processes Shape the Social World - Sociology 151/ 251

SOC 151 / 251 - Spring 2013 - Instructor: Saperstein, A.
Last Updated: 16-May-2013

From Cradle to Grave: How Demographic Processes Shape the Social World - Soc 151/251

This guide is a resource for students in the course on "Social Consequences of Demographic Processes", a course taught by Professor Saperstein.  According to Saperstien, the focus of this course emphasizes "social demography" by working to understand the broader causes and consequences of demographic patterns. 

Links to international statistical sources, national statistical bureaus, country studies, newspaper indexes, demographic indicators, Population survey, as well as journal literature databases are listed here as starting points for your research.

 

If you need assistance with these or other library resources, please contact the librarians listerd here. 

Subject Librarians

Kris Kasianovitz
Government Information Librarian, State, Local and International Documents
Cecil H. Green Library
(650) 683-5235
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Regina Lee Roberts
Bibliographer for Anthropology & Archaeology, Communication & Journalism, Feminist Studies, Lusophone Africa Collections, and Sociology
Cecil H. Green Library
(831) 251-5700
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Subjects

International government organizations
Population studies
Sociology

Around Stanford

Sociology Department
Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity
Morrison Institute for Population and Resource Studies

Demographic Indicators

This is a list of the major intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) who collect demographic data from countries across the globe. In some cases, IGOs only collect data from their member countries.

ProQuest Statistical Insight
*Licensed Resource, requires Stanford WebAuth to access. This database indexes statistical tables that are published in articles and reports. In addition to locating tables and sources of data, the entire publication is also available.  This database provides access to three major international statistical indexes: Index to International Statistics (IIS) 1983 - present, Statistical Reference Index (SRI) 1980 - present, and American Statistics Index (AIS) 1973 - present (full text for each index is generally from 2007 - present).  When full text of reports or publications are not available, check Searchworks for the title or contact Kris.
UN Data
Portal to the demographic, social, economic and trade datasets produced by major IGOs with one standard interface. An excellent place to start.  UN Data provides access to statistical tables as well as definitions of variables and links the dataset from which the statistics came from. 
UN Demographic and Social Statistics
This site provides access to statistical tables, reports, data collection methodology and codebooks on demographic and social statistics collected by the UN.  This is also a good place to locate articles on various demographic topics.
UN Demographic Yearbook
The United Nations Demographic Yearbook collects, compiles and disseminates official statistics on population size and composition, births, deaths, marriage and divorce on an annual basis. Data have been collected from national statistical authorities since 1948 through a set of questionnaires dispatched annually by the United Nations Statistics Division to over 230 national statistical offices. NOTE: This annual publication is also available at Green Library in print. 
UN Population and Vital Statistics Report
The Population and Vital Statistics Report presents most recent data on population size (total, male and female) from the latest available census of the population, national official population estimates and the number and rate (births, deaths and infant deaths) for the latest available year within the past 15 years. It also presents United Nations estimates of the mid-year population of the world, and its major areas and regions.
World Bank Data
The World Bank collects and publishes data and statistics on trade, national accounts, finance and the economy of countries around the globe. Due to their mission, "working for a world free of poverty", the Bank also collects many demographic and social statistics in order to analyze and measure development in countries.  The following five databases will be the most useful for this assignment.
  1. World Development Indicators
  2. Gender Statistics
  3. Health Nutrition and Population Statistics
  4. Poverty and Inequality Database
  5. Millenium Development Goals
*NOTE: in many cases, the World Bank uses statistics from other sources like the United Nations, UNESCO, WHO, etc.
OECD International Migration Database via OECD iLibrary
*Licensed Resource, requires Stanford WebAuth to access. This database shows international migration flows from and to countries and includes asylum seekers by nationality.
World Health Organization - WHO Data and Statistics
As the name implies, WHO collects a wealth of data on health, disease, and vital statistics from countries, including extensive cause of death variables. Statistics can be viewed, downloaded, and mapped.
Human Mortality Database
*Requires free registration to access data.  The Human Mortality Database (HMD) contains original calculations of death rates and life tables for national populations (countries or areas), as well as the input data used in constructing those tables. The input data consist of death counts from vital statistics, plus census counts, birth counts, and population estimates from various sources. 

National Statistical Bureaus

Lists of countries' national statistical agencies, bureaus.  These are the primary government body responsible for collection and dissemination of a country's demographic, economic and social statistics.  Please be aware that typically only fairly current statistics are available online.  You may have to use print publications to collect earlier, e.g. pre-2000 data.  For more information on national statistical agencies and systems, see the UN Development of National Statistical Systems website.

UN Data
Links to country Statistical Agencies are on the main page, under the heading Country Data Services. 
UN Information on National Statistical Systems
UN Statistics Programmes
OECD Worldwide Statistical Sources
US Census Bureau International Statistical Agencies

Journal Literature Databases

Family studies database (Family & Society Studies Worldwide) - Covers research, policy, and practice literature in the fields of Family Science, Human Ecology, Human Development, and Social Welfare.  Coverage spans from 1970 to the present.

GenderWatch - Full text collection of journals, magazines, newsletters, regional publications, books, booklets and pamphlets, conference proceedings and special reports devoted to women's and gender issues. Contains materials dating back to the 1970's.

JSTOR - Provides back issues of the core scholarly journals in the humanities, social sciences, and basic sciences from the earliest issues to within a few years of current publication.

Sociology [electronic resource] : a SAGE full-text collection - Database of full-text journal articles in Sociology p published by SAGE.

Scopus - Database containing both peer-reviewed research literature and quality web sources. Covers Health Sciences and Social Sciences.

Sociological abstracts - Abstracts and indexes the international literature in sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences.

Social Science Citation Index - An international, multidisciplinary index to the literature of the social, behavioral, and related sciences.

News sources

Access world news [electronic resource] : the ultimate news archive.
Chester, Vt. : NewsBank, inc.
Stanford University Libraries » Online resource » eResource
Access World News from NewsBank provides full-text information and perspectives from over 600 U.S. and over 700 international sources, each with its own distinctive focus offering diverse viewpoints on local, regional and world issues. Date coverage varies with individual newspaper. Also includes thousands of broadcast transcripts, newswires, video clips, and news blog
LexisNexis [electronic resource] : academic.
[Miamisburg, OH] : LexisNexis, division of Reed Elsevier
Stanford University Libraries » Online resource » eResource
Provides access to various databases, including current news, business information, company directories, federal and state laws, regulations, legal cases, medical and references.

Additional Data Sources

Data Finder - Population Reference Bureau 

The international data in PRB's DataFinder are from several Population Reference Bureau data sheets: World Population Data Sheet 2007-2012; Family Planning Worldwide: 2008 Data Sheet; The World's Youth 2006; and 2005 Women of Our World. Additional international indicators in DataFinder were compiled by PRB staff, primarily using national surveys including Demographic and Health Surveys; UNICEF Multiple Cluster Indicator Surveys; CDC Reproductive Health Surveys; UN, World Population Prospects: The 2007 Revision (2008); UN, Urban Population, Development and the Environment 2007 (2008); and UNICEF. Sources for each indicator appear as footnotes for that indicator. More detailed sources are available from PRB.

Demographic and Health Surveys 

Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) are nationally-representative household surveys that provide data for a wide range of monitoring and impact evaluation indicators in the areas of population, health, and nutrition.

For getting started with data, see: http://www.measuredhs.com/data/index.cfm#CP_JUMP_13446

In DHS - Country Quickstats .  Quickstats list the most popular indicators and provide an overview of a country's demographic and health issues.

Gapminder World 

Gapminder is a non-profit foundation based in Stockholm. Gapminder provides data visualizations for time series of development statistics for all countries.

US Census' International Data Base 

The International Data Base (IDB) offers a variety of demographic indicators for countries and areas of the world with a population of 5,000 or more. The IDB has provided access to demographic data for over 25 years to governments, academics, other organizations, and the public. This resource is useful for finding ready-made population pyramids. (To find them, choose "Population Pyramid Graph" from the pull down menu under "Select Report".)