Undergraduate Minor in Population Studies

College of Social Sciences and Public Policy

Website: https://popcenter.fsu.edu/

Director: Sociology: John Taylor; Professors: Sociology: Brewster, Burdette, Davis, Sanyal, M. Taylor, J. Taylor, Tillman; Economics: Schmertmann; Associate Professors: Sociology: Hauer, Homan, McFarland; Assistant Professors: Sociology: Brooks; Urban and Regional Planning: McSorley; Assistant Teaching Professors: Urban and Regional Planning: Felkner; Professors Emeriti: Sociology: Carlson, Eberstein, Nam

This multidisciplinary minor provides an overview of population studies, a field that is concerned with the size, composition, and distribution of human populations—globally, nationally, and locally—and with how and why these characteristics change. Populations change in response to fertility, mortality, and migration, but contemporary population research stretches the field beyond these three variables to encompass a broad range of related topics, including family structure, health, the environment, and socioeconomic development. Through the coursework for this minor, students will realize the impact of population variables and processes on nearly every issue of public concern, including population aging, rising health care costs, national security, the economy, and climate change. A minor in population studies will complement majors in the College of Social Sciences and Public Policy, but students in other majors, including Environmental Sciences and Policy, will find it useful as well.

Requirements

The minor in Population Studies consists of fifteen semester hours of coursework comprising nine hours of required coursework and six hours of electives.

Required core (three courses):

All students must take:

ECP 3113 Economics of Population

GEO 1400 Human Geography*

SYD 3020 Population and Society

Electives (two courses):

The remaining six credit hours may be selected from the following courses:

GEO 3502 Economic Geography

OR

ECP 3302 Economics of Natural Resources, Energy, and the Environment

SYD 3600 Cities in Society

OR

URS 1006 World Cities: Quality of Life*

OR

GEO 4602 Urban Geography

OR

ECP 4613 Urban Economics

SYP 3730 Aging and the Life Course

GEO 1330 Environmental Science*

*Course also may be counted toward student's CoreFSU Curriculum requirement.

All courses must be completed with a grade of “C–” or better. For more information, contact Dr. John Taylor, Director, Center for Demography and Population Health.