Demography Through Problems

The book that follows is an experiment in the teaching of population theory and analysis. A sequence of problems where each is a self-contained puzzle, and the successful solution of each which puts the student in a position to tackle the next, is a means of securing the active participation of the learner and so the mastery of a technical subject. How far our questions are the exciting puzzles at which we aimed, and how far the sequence constitutes a rounded course in demography, must be left to the user to judge.

Written by the 2018 Mindel C. Sheps Award winner, this textbook offers a unique method for teaching how to model spatial (multiregional) population dynamics through models of increasing complexity. Each chapter in this programmed workbook starts with a descriptive text, followed by a sequence of exercises focused on particular multiregional models, of increasing complexity, and then ends with the solutions.

This book provides an introduction to age-structured population modeling which emphasizes the connection between mathematical theory and underlying biological assumptions.
Through the rigorous development of the linear theory and the nonlinear theory alongside numerics, the authors explore classical equations that describe the dynamics of certain ecological systems.