The Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, in collaboration with the IUSSP Panel Kinship Structures, Dynamics and Inequalities and the IUSSP Panel Digital and Computational Demography, will be hosting an interactive pre-conference workshop on June 3 (13:00-16:30) at the European Population Conference 2026 in Bologna, Italy on the topic of SOCSIM demographic microsimulation in R. SOCSIM is a powerful open-source tool for modelling individual demographic events and producing synthetic populations with plausible age and kinship structures, using population-level demographic rates as input.

 

In this workshop, we will cover the basics of demographic microsimulation with SOCSIM, including the process of setting up, running, and verifying a microsimulation in R using the “rsocsim” package (https://mpidr.github.io/rsocsim/) and publicly available data from the World Population Prospects (WPP) 2024. From there, you will explore how to interpret and analyse the simulation output through practical examples of estimating kin loss and kin availability. Whether you are a seasoned microsimulator or just beginning to consider how microsimulation might be used in your research, this workshop will provide valuable training and insight for researchers studying individual-level population and kinship dynamics.

 

Please complete this form to register your interest in this workshop, which will be held in person. Registrations will be processed and reviewed on a first-come-first-served basis until all available places are filled. There is no cost for participation, but no financial support is available to attend the workshop.