Sequence Analysis in Demographic Research

Abstract

This paper examines the salient features of sequence analysis in demographic research. The new approach allows a holistic perspective on life course analysis, and is based on a representation of lives as sequences of states. Some of the methods for analysing such data are sketched, from complex description to optimal matching to monothetic divisive algorithms. After a short illustration of a demographically relevant example, the needs in terms of data collection and the opportunities of applying the same approach to synthetic data are discussed.