diff --git a/.github/workflows/docker-image.yml b/.github/workflows/docker-image.yml
index c794bee..5c44506 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/docker-image.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/docker-image.yml
@@ -23,6 +23,6 @@ jobs:
       - name: "Black: Code Formatting 👮🏽‍♀️"
         run: black --diff . && black -v --check .
       - name: install requirements
-        run: pip install -r environments/requirements.txt && pip install -r environments/requirements_genetic.txt
+        run: pip install -r environments/requirements.txt
       - name: run tests
         run: PYTHONPATH=. pytest
diff --git a/pybalance/utils/matching_data.py b/pybalance/utils/matching_data.py
index 17323fc..dfe7553 100644
--- a/pybalance/utils/matching_data.py
+++ b/pybalance/utils/matching_data.py
@@ -330,13 +330,13 @@ def describe_categoric(self, normalize=True) -> pd.DataFrame:
         for cat in self.headers["categoric"]:
             tmp = (
                 self.data.reset_index()
-                .groupby(["population", cat])
+                .groupby([self.population_col, cat])
                 .count()[["index"]]
                 .reset_index()
             )
             tmp.loc[:, "feature"] = cat
             tmp = tmp.pivot(
-                index=["feature", cat], columns=["population"], values=["index"]
+                index=["feature", cat], columns=[self.population_col], values=["index"]
             )
             tmp.columns = [c[1] for c in tmp.columns]
             tmp.index.names = ["feature", "value"]
@@ -345,8 +345,9 @@ def describe_categoric(self, normalize=True) -> pd.DataFrame:
         out = pd.concat(out).fillna(0)
 
         if normalize:
+            out = out.astype(float)
             for c in counts.columns:
-                out.loc[:, c] = out[c] / counts.iloc[0][c]
+                out.loc[:, c] = (out[c].values / counts.iloc[0][c]).astype(float)
         else:
             out = out.astype(int)
 
diff --git a/pybalance/utils/tests/test_matching_data.py b/pybalance/utils/tests/test_matching_data.py
index af49ea1..1cb59a7 100644
--- a/pybalance/utils/tests/test_matching_data.py
+++ b/pybalance/utils/tests/test_matching_data.py
@@ -222,3 +222,12 @@ def test_specified_headers():
     m = MatchingData(df, headers=headers)
     assert m.headers["categoric"] == []
     assert m.headers["numeric"] == ["cat3"]
+
+
+def test_describe_with_custom_population_col():
+    # Create a dataset with a custom population column "Z"
+    data = generate_toy_dataset().data
+    data.rename(columns={"population": "Z"}, inplace=True)
+    quantiles = [0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1]
+    m = MatchingData(data, population_col="Z")
+    m.describe(aggregations=[], quantiles=quantiles)