Event history analysis is a term used in sociology for numerous statistical methods that use information about whether and when an individual experiences an event. Almost any social phenomenon can be thought of as an event that happens to an individual, whether that individual is (for example) a woman having a third child, a city experiencing a race riot, or a state legislature passing women's suffrage. It is not surprising, then, that as computer software has made event history techniques easier to use since the 1980s, researchers have found many imaginative applications for these techniques.