Welcome to CSDA

The Center for Social and Demographic Analysis (CSDA) was established in 1981 with the objective of providing a strong research infrastructure for scholarship in the social sciences at the University at Albany. Over the years it has increasingly emphasized support for interdisciplinary population research, especially the analysis of spatial inequalities (paying attention to processes of urban and regional development and their impacts on residents) and concerns for vulnerable populations (defined by race and ethnicity, age, social class, and nativity). The Center offers researchers access to first-rate computing facilities and statistical software, computing and statistical consulting, assistance with grant preparation and administration, and other related services. The Center also collaborates with the Lewis Mumford Center in efforts to disseminate data and cutting edge analyses of population trends revealed in the census and continuing census-related databases such as the Current Population Survey and the American Community Survey.

CSDA currently has forty-one faculty associates drawn from fifteen departments in the College of Arts and Sciences, Rockefeller College of Public Administration and Policy, School of Criminal Justice, School of Public Health, School of Social Welfare, and School of Education. Among major research initiatives sponsored by the Center is the Urban China Research Network (funded by the Mellon Foundation), bringing together scholars and graduate students from around the world to study implications of urban change in China. New collaborative projects include initiatives on health disparities and on the environmental impacts of metropolitan growth.