MSc Demography & Health
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
About this program
MSc Demography & Health
This MSc provides rigorous training in demography and population studies. The curriculum comprises demographic methods and theory, epidemiology, statistics and data analysis.
Many of our societies continue to face a diverse set of demographic challenges and opportunities, including rapid population ageing, extremely low as well as very high fertility, and sizable population migration. These and other demographic trends have important repercussions in all possible domains of life; from voting behavior to living arrangements, labour markets and economic growth, tax revenues and pension systems, carbon emissions, and the demand for education, health and social services. Demography, in other words, may well be the single most defining factor of the world that we live in.
The MSc Demography & Health equips students with the theories and skills to understand and quantify macro-level population dynamics and their downstream implications for health and health policies. Students are further trained in the analysis of micro-level processes that govern population change, including fertility and reproductive behaviour, the exposure to health risks, and population mobility. Analysis tools and techniques are applied to high-income settings where high-quality data are usually abundant to resource constrained settings that are covered by partial or deficient information systems.
The teaching programme gives students ample opportunity to select from a wide range of modules in statistics, epidemiology public health, and the social sciences, and thus tailor their curriculum to either focus on the technical aspects of data analytics and demographic estimation, or, take a more interdisciplinary approach to the study of population and health.
Objectives
By the end of this program students should be able to:
- demonstrate advanced knowledge and understanding of scientific, evidence-based approaches to the study of population issues
- assess and apply these approaches to inform development, health and population programmes
- formulate research questions and use demographic and health data, and appropriate methods of analysis, to address them
- identify causes and consequences of population change and relate these to underlying population dynamics
- demonstrate advanced knowledge and understanding of demographic behaviour in social, economic and policy contexts
- assess and apply findings of population studies to health and social policy
- demonstrate advanced knowledge and understanding of major population trends, including historical trends, in developed and developing countries
Admission requirements
The normal minimum entrance qualification for registration at the School on a Master's program is at least one of the following:
- a second-class honours degree of a UK university, or an overseas qualification of an equivalent standard, in a subject appropriate to that of the course of study to be followed
- a registrable qualification appropriate to the course of study to be followed, in medicine, dentistry or veterinary studies
Applications with an appropriate technical qualification, or equivalent qualification and experience from overseas, are also welcomed.
For more information about admission requirements, please visit the institute website.
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Structure
Term 1
Students take the following compulsory modules:
- Basic Epidemiology or Extended Epidemiology
- Demographic Methods
- Population Studies
- Principles of Social Research
- Statistics for Epidemiology & Population Health
Terms 2 and 3
Students take a total of five study modules, one module from each timetable slot (Slot 1, Slot 2 etc.). Students are expected to take modules related to demography for at least two of their other four choices.
Slot 1
- Research Design & Analysis
Slot 2
- Family Planning Programmes
- Population, Poverty and Environment
Slot 3
- Evaluation of Public Health Interventions
- Social Epidemiology
Slot 4
- Population Dynamics & Projections (compulsory)
Slot 5
- Analysing Survey & Population Data
- HIV
Scholarships & funding
Several scholarship options are available. Please check the institute website for more information.
Tuition
Up to date information on tuition fees can be found on the LSHTM website.
Qualification
Demography plays an important role in understanding population dynamics - how populations change in response to the interplay between fertility, mortality and migration - and its impact on the health and healthcare needs of a population.
This programme will help students acquire technical expertise in demography and an understanding of the interlinkages between population studies and health, including fertility, sexual behaviour, ageing, health inequalities and life expectancy.
Why study the MSc Demography & Health at LSHTM?
- Learn demography within the wider context of public health in a world-leading specialised institution
- Tailor your degree to meet your needs thanks to the modular structure of the programme
- Gain practical skills through student-led seminars, data analysis tasks or mini-research projects
- Specialise and apply your learning with the MSc research project
- Learn to formulate research questions and use bio statistical data and analysis to address them
- Assess population studies and apply your research findings to policy, backed by sound knowledge
- Learn to present results of bio statistical analyses through written and oral presentations
- Understand population trends in low-, middle- and high-income countries
- Choose to focus on the technical aspects of data analytics and estimation, or, take a more interdisciplinary approach to the study of population and health
Career paths
Graduates from this programme enter a diverse range of positions in public health, academic research of a very wide nature, NGOs, reproductive health programmes, health services, government statistical offices, policy and planning.
Below you will find just a few of the positions and organisations that our graduates from this course have entered:
Example job titles:
- Academic Researcher
- Lecturer
- Government Research or Policy Analyst
- Research Scientist
- Project Officer
- International Technical Advisor
- Market Research Consultant
- Editor
- Data Analyst
- Epidemiologist
- Evaluation Officer
- Health Policy Adviser
- Scientific Officer
- Programme Officer
- Senior Data Manager
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About this institute
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Established in 1899, The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) is dedicated to improving health worldwide through training the next generation of health leaders to address major public and global health challenges. LSHTM has a unique range and...
Why study at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
LSHTM is highly ranked in various university league tables, winning the Queen’s Anniversary Prize in 2021 in recognition of its response to COVID-19 and pandemic preparedness, as well as being #1 in the UK and #3 in the world for Public Health in the ShanghaiRankings (2021).
Teaching staff are all experts in their respective fields and continue as active researchers, bringing their wealth of experience and up-to-date knowledge directly into the lecture halls and seminar rooms. Many of the staff are well renowned, so students may find themselves being taught by figures they have read about in previous studies.
Contact info
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
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