POPGROUP Instructional Videos

Training resources designed to help you generate local area population projections. The training is divided into three modules, outlined below.

These videos were developed by Alan Marshall from University of Edinburgh and Ludi Simpson from Manchester University, as part of a project funded by NRS. Each module is accompanied with a folder of teaching resources to support the video content and provide hands on experience of handling demographic data using the POPGROUP software.

Introduction to demographic concepts and methods

The videos in this section introduce key demographic concepts and are accompanied by practical exercises. Instructions, excel spreadsheet workbook and answers for each practical can be downloaded here.

1. Introduction (7:50)
2. Fertility (22:49)
3. Mortality (19:59)
4. Migration (33:49)
5. Population projections (33:19)

A tour of POPGROUP to produce council area projections

The videos in this section provide an introduction to the POPGROUP software. The additional material for this section can be downloaded here. This folder contains four PowerPoint presentations which cover the themes touched on in the videos in greater depth. It also includes practical exercises and answers.

1. Introduction – what is POPGROUP? (5:50)
2. POPGROUP macro settings - see page 1 of ‘Morning exercises’ (1:21)
3. POPGROUP overview (9:00)
4. Replicating NRS 2016-based projections - see page 2, exercise A of ‘Morning exercises’ (11:07)
5. Exploring projections - see pages 3-4, exercise B and C of ‘Morning exercises’ (12:07)
6. Demographic data inputs (17:12)
7. Variant projections - see page 6, exercise E of ‘Morning exercises’ (8:15)
8. Comparing projections see page 7, exercise F of ‘Morning exercises’ (6:07)

Using POPGROUP to produce sub-council area projections

The videos in this section provide step-by-step instructions on how to produce sub-council area projections using POPGROUP. The exercises for these videos can be downloaded here.

1. Introduction – how to develop SCAP projections, refer to the User Guide  (3:22)
2. Overview of NRS SCAP methodology – delivered by Ludi Simpson (10:40)
3. Running a SCAP set up file - see page 1, exercise A of ‘afternoon exercises’* (5:35)
4. Looking at SCAP input files - see page 2, exercise B of ‘afternoon exercises’ (22:09)
5. Running the continuity projection - exercise C on p4 of ‘afternoon exercises' (3:04)

*Note that this exercise involves creating a ‘set up file’ rather than using a prepared one as in the video.