The training of PhD in Demography aims at providing to doctoral students a broad and solid knowledge of the conceptual tools and methodologies for the study of population, its dynamics and interrelationships that link demographic behaviours with the economical and social ones. More specifically, it seeks to ensure a highly qualification to graduate students in the field of demographic research and analysis of complex problems of the population, seen under different points of view and in their interrelations with different disciplines. Consider, for example, the study of phenomena such as foreign immigration, the process of population aging, changing family and cohabitation forms, health conditions, survival and longevity, the relationship between population and environment. These issues are all assuming an increasing importance in the contemporary world and their implications will have a decisive impact on social and economic balances in our country. The above specified phenomena need, in order to be properly understood, a multidisciplinary perspective which is able to combine different approaches and different tools of analysis. Similarly, the preparation and evaluation of policies that act on the population and its needs require specific skills and competencies.
In this context and with the growing pressure imposed by the deep demographic changes which are taking place (primarily the population aging), it becomes even more important to train experts in demographic issues that can meet the demand for specific skills on the problems of population both nationally (particularly by ISTAT, the CNR, the University, but also a growing number of centers and private research institutes) and internationally (by research organizations and non), with particular reference to the Mediterranean and Eastern Europe countries. Indeed, the profound changes in population dynamics (nuptiality, fertility, migration, morbidity, mortality and longevity) and phenomena related to them require a proper skill of the researcher, both during the data collection and assessment of their quality, and also in the analysis and interpretation, when the ability to identify causes and consequences of behaviours and structures, integrating themes, knowledge and information of an economic, social, health and environmental is required. In particular, we aim at acquiring technical and methodological skills needed for the study areas characterized by serious shortcomings in terms of statistical information, an area which has developed a scientific theoretical approach for defining indirect measures of the phenomena.
Both at the micro level, the individual and the family one, and at the macro level of population, demographics faces up issues that need a multidisciplinary approach in order to be adequately developed and understood: economics, sociology, epidemiology, medicine, biology and anthropology, just to talk about the subjects related to demography, enter entirely into the cultural and scientific background necessary to understand the demographic reasons and consequences of demographic behaviour and make it able to organize and / or participate in research teams in which several disciplines converge. The demographics of doctoral training activity is organized so as to enhance this multidisciplinary vision, without giving up on a solid methodological basis: at the end of the course the graduate students will have acquired a thorough knowledge of methodological tools of the discipline, but also of mathematical tools and statistics to develop and manage models for analysis, simulation and forecasting which are useful in population analysis.