Introduction to R and Computational Methods in Demography

During this session we take a quick tour of R Studio and cover the basic R syntax for loading, exploring, and cleaning data. We will also introduce R packages and discuss how to export results to other programs (e.g. MS Excel). Finally, we will situate R in the computational demographer’s tool belt and discuss connections with other useful software and services. (No previous experience or knowledge of R is needed.)

At the end of the session: participants will leave with all the following tools on their devices and develop an understanding of available tools:

Introduction to GitHub, setting up Git-hub extension for R for collaborative projects
Introduction to R, and R Markdown
Transitioning from STATA to R, uploading/ reading data into R (as csv of Stata file)
Introduction to Terminal, Python and Google Colab

Optional Reading (only skim through the section titles):

Kashyap et.al (2023). “Chapter 3: Digital and computational demography”. In Research Handbook on Digital Sociology. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing. Retrieved Sep 12, 2025, from osf.io/7bvpt/download/?format=pdf

Click to attend via Zoom.