Between the 9th and 3rd centuries BCE, the Greeks founded more than 500 colonies throughout the Mediterranean basin. According to Norma Lonoce, Gianpiero Dalla-Zuanna, Pier Francesco Fabbri, Stefano Vassallo and … Read more
Black women in the US have higher fertility than White women, but this difference does not emerge consistently at all educational levels. Emma Zang and Aparajita Kaphle document these education-specific … Read more
Using lifetime data for baby boomers from 15 European countries, Aude Bernard shows that (i) children from higher socioeconomic backgrounds are more likely to migrate and (ii) individuals who migrated … Read more
An increasing number of people in high-income countries marry or cohabit with partners who were born abroad. Using census microdata for Spain and the United States, Albert Esteve, Annika Elwert … Read more
Recent decreases in fertility rates in European countries have fueled gloom and doom about the prospect of shrinking populations. As Nick Parr shows, the levels of fertility that would sustain … Read more
All over the world, children’s education mirrors that of their parents. This, together with differential fertility, affects the distribution of educational outcomes in the next generation. In Sweden, however, differential … Read more
Old age is frequently marred by ill health. Socioeconomic conditions, too, play their part: the poorest also suffer from worse health conditions in Chile, as Pedro Olivares-Tirado and Rosendo Zanga Pizarro show, … Read more
Is it better to intermarry? Using Swedish registry data, Anna Oksuzyan, Sven Drefahl, Jennifer Caputo, and Siddartha Aradhya investigate whether people married to someone from a different ethnic background (i.e., … Read more
As marriage declines and divorce increases, partnership trends and household composition become increasingly determined by trends in the formation and dissolution of non-marital cohabiting unions. Marika Jalovaara and Linus Andersson … Read more
Launched in 2009, the Joint Programming Initiative “More Years Better Lives” (JPI-MYBL) brought together several EU and non-EU countries to create a common research framework aiming to better coordinate, harmonize, … Read more
The future of the Italian population depends in large part on migration. Marcantonio Caltabiano and Gianpiero Dalla-Zuanna compare the most recent forecasts of net migration for Italy proposed by Eurostat, … Read more
Does health deterioration manifest at increasingly (dis)similar ages? Iñaki Permanyer, Francisco Villavicencio and Sergi Trias-Llimós explore inequalities in age-at-morbidity onset globally, and find these to be larger than lifespan inequalities. … Read more
After quantifying and comparing the intensity of competition in local marriage markets for unmarried (internal) migrants in their hometown and in their destination place, Wanru Xiong finds that in China, … Read more
Feelings of loneliness are not very widespread among European older adults (aged 50 years and over) according to SHARE data. And, surprisingly enough, according to the analysis of Omar Paccagnella, … Read more
With rising infertility and increasing demand for fertility treatments globally, understanding the role of medically assisted reproduction (MAR) in population demographics and family formation patterns has never been more important. … Read more
Moroccan and Turkish older migrants in the Netherlands frequently feel lonely, not because they lack social relationships, Tineke Fokkema & Marjolijn Das note, but because of poorer health, lower socio-economic … Read more
Longevity Blue Zones are regions of the world where the population has exceptional longevity. Until recently, four of them had been identified: the Nicoya peninsula in Costa Rica, and three … Read more
The pre-COVID literature established that lacking a partner or children was among the risk factors for loneliness among older people. Bruno Arpino, Christine A. Mair, Nekehia T. Quashie, and Radoslaw … Read more
The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of accurately counting deaths, classifying them by age, sex, place of residence and cause. Although formally mandatory since 1969, death registration … Read more
Children are not all equally influenced by parental separation. Wiebke Schulz shows that children with parents from a lower educational background have fewer chances of completing mid-secondary education. This is … Read more
In Sweden, a positive association is emerging between income and fertility, Martin Kolk observes. Men and women with higher income have more children than their less wealthy peers, and the … Read more
There is a positive association between tertiary education and internal migration across Europe. Miguel González-Leonardo, Aude Bernard, Joan García-Román and Antonio López-Gay find that this holds also for immigrants: they … Read more
Population aging is contributing to an increase in loneliness around the world. Lauren Newmyer, Ashton M. Verdery, Haowei Wang, and Rachel Margolis explore loneliness among late-middle-aged and older adults and … Read more
Racial disparities in socio-economic and health outcomes are a topic of concern in the United States. As Deepthi Kolady and Weiwei Zhang show, they have also played a major role … Read more
Rashid Javed and Mazhar Mughal investigate how son preference affects birth spacing in Pakistan. The impact they find is strong, with several negative consequences on the demographic transition of the … Read more
Premature drops in estrogen from early menopausal age may increase the risk of disease and death in later life. To understand what influences early menopausal onset, we looked at the … Read more
How does adolescent fertility affect high school completion for boys and girls in Chile? Controlling for socioeconomic and academic selectivity, Viviana Salinas and Valentina Jorquera-Samter find that a teenage mother … Read more
America leads advanced developed countries in terms of guns per capita and homicide rates, although with substantial variation by state, gender, and major racial/ethnic groups. Given its policies on police, … Read more
Low and declining female labour force participation in India has been a puzzle and a key policy question in the recent past. Chhavi Tiwari and Srinivas Goli argue that it … Read more
In addition to their childcare responsibilities, women with young children often have to do more housework, thus making an already unequal balance even more skewed. Zsuzsanna Veroszta shows that, in … Read more
Norwegian register data indicate that parents’ mental health deteriorates prior to union dissolution but improves afterwards. In contrast, Øystein Kravdal and Jonathan Wörn note, children seem to experience a continued … Read more
India’s economic sector faces a reckoning with its ageing population. Aparajita Chattopadhyay and David E. Bloom‘s analysis, based on the Longitudinal Aging Study in India (LASI), indicates that health is … Read more
Benedetta Scotti1 examines the relationship between late-career trajectories and post-retirement mortality in Italy. She finds that exposure to employment instability in later working life, an increasingly prevalent phenomenon in many … Read more
The benefits of the Olympic Games may be numerous and long lasting. Chao Guo highlights the positive role of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games in reducing the risks of both … Read more
Gender inequality in the division of housework persists. Elisa Brini, Anna Zamberlan and Paolo Barbieri investigate if cultural heritage is resistant to changes in socioeconomic and institutional environment by studying … Read more
Until recently, child survival in India was lower among Muslims than among Hindus, despite the lower average socio-economic status of the former. Dibyasree Ganguly and Srinivas Goli note that this … Read more
Endogamy (partners of the same geographical origin) is said to lower the risk of marriage dissolution. However, once cohabitation is included in the analysis of Belgian (register) data, Layla Van … Read more
The centrality of women’s economic empowerment in achieving the sustainable development goals has attracted high level policy interest. Data limitations impede knowledge of its extent in Africa. Demographic and health … Read more
An interview with Vladimir Gimpelson, director of the Centre for Labour Market Studies at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, the Russian Federation. Introduction The Bell is a Moscow … Read more
Status exchange is a leading factor behind the rising share of educational hypogamy marriages in India (women marrying less educated men), says Koyel Sarkar. Lower caste women aspire to upward … Read more
Besides its morbidity and mortality effects, COVID-19 gave rise to several non-pharmaceutical policy interventions affecting citizens’ social and economic conditions. Veronica Toffolutti et al. find that these measures negatively affected … Read more
As female labour force participation continues to rise in Taiwan, more women are faced with the dual burden of employment and household responsibilities. Jolene Tan highlights the impact of a … Read more
The demographic transition seems to have come to a halt in many poorer countries. The reasons are often poorly understood. Michael Grimm, Isabel Günther, and Kenneth Harttgen show that in … Read more
Taking a broader and more long-term perspective on the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on life expectancy may help scholars and policy makers to assess its true impact, and the … Read more
Religion has historically been a pronatalist force, but because it fosters traditional gender role attitudes, it could impede a fertility recovery stimulated by gender equity. Instead, Laurie DeRose explains how … Read more
Adult children with siblings can share caring for ageing parents but only children face this responsibility alone. Jenny Chanfreau and Alice Goisis find that adult only children are more likely … Read more
With a total fertility rate of 0.81 in 2021, South Korea has the lowest fertility rate in the world. Within a generally declining trend, and very low levels globally, Jolene … Read more
Short birth intervals are often believed to be detrimental for children. While this may be true in some (poor) settings, and for some birth outcomes (preterm birth and low birth … Read more
In India, the percentage of male births has increased since the mid-1980s. Claus Pörtner ties the continuously growing use of prenatal sex selection to India’s falling fertility among highly-educated women. … Read more
Through a detailed analysis of the dynamics of regional sex ratios at birth and, separately, at prime marriageable ages in China, Wanru Xiong finds that regional sex ratios tend to … Read more
A Norwegian register analysis with control for time-constant individual characteristics shows an association between cohabitation and declining use of primary health care for mental diseases. However, the decline largely occurs … Read more
The Covid-19 pandemic has induced the first decline in global life expectancy since World War II. Substantial uncertainty remains about the exact pace of the decline, Patrick Heuveline notes, but … Read more
Little is known about the fertility of migrants from low-fertility settings when they move to countries where fertility is higher. The hypothesis that these migrants adapt to local customs, like … Read more
In low- and middle-income countries, children survive better in urban than in rural areas. However, Ashira Menashe-Orenand and Bruno Masquelier find that this is not necessarily the case amongst adults, … Read more
Children and youngsters who experience parental divorce or parental death often attain lower levels of education than their peers, but the impact of these adverse events is far from uniform, … Read more
Despite widespread prevalence of HIV/AIDS, South Africa has succeeded in drastically reducing mortality and increasing life expectancy, from 54 to more than 65 years in little over a decade (2006-17). … Read more
The concept of demographic transition is a century old, but there is still no consensus about its drivers. Wolfgang Lutz highlights a recent reassessment of the theory, which adds cognition … Read more
Completed family size has declined in many high-income countries among the post baby boom cohorts. Ester Lazzari, Ryohei Mogi and Vladimir Canudas-Romo find that educational expansion is not the main … Read more
While still low, childlessness in India is on the rise. Trends in childlessness are linked to the opposing factors of poverty and opportunity-driven causes of childlessness, which Koyel Sarkar and … Read more
Ageing occupies the forefront of the social and economic policy debate in the European Union (EU). However, ageing patterns differ considerably across EU territories because of distinctive demographic and spatial … Read more
In low- and middle-income countries, mobile phones can be viewed as empowering devices for women, says Luca Maria Pesando. Among other advantages, they frequently, although not always, protect women from … Read more
Assessments of intergenerational transmission focus primarily on children reproducing parental status. Sergi Vidal, Philipp Lersch, Marita Jacob, and Karsten Hank offer a new perspective to understand the intergenerational transmission of … Read more
Current explanations on the link between mortality and fertility imply that mortality exposure increases fertility desires. Conversely, Emily Smith-Greenaway, Sara Yeatman, and Abdallah Chilungo find that, in Malawi, increased mortality … Read more
What drives demographic change in Europe? Christos Bagavos shows that between 2014 and 2019 this change was due more to foreign-born than native-born populations, through both a direct effect (net … Read more
The food shortages during the Second World War in Japan had adverse consequences for child growth. However, Eric Schneider argues that the age and cohort pattern of the war shock … Read more
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine inevitably caused a massive flow of refugees towards neighbouring and other EU countries. This movement, as Corrado Bonifazi and Salvatore Strozza show, is closely connected to … Read more
An original multi-sited analysis of migration (from selected sub-Saharan African countries to France) and contraceptive use reveals that migrant women align more closely with native French women than women in … Read more
The US birth rate has fallen since the 2007 Great Recession, with no signs of reversing. This decline has occurred among women of different age subgroups, education levels, races and … Read more
The politicization of COVID-19 has changed America’s coronavirus pandemic from a serious public health concern into a major political issue and has contributed to vaccine avoidance. With many Americans declining … Read more
Spatial proximity among family members may profoundly affect people’s lives. What are the salient features of family dynamics over geographic distance? HwaJung Choi, Robert Schoeni, Hongwei Xu, Adriana Reyes, and … Read more
The impact of COVID-19 on period life expectancy (LE) in Mexico in 2020 was strong, much stronger, for instance, than that of the 10-year war on drugs. Víctor M. García-Guerrero … Read more
Two recent global phenomena appear to be working against each other: longevity and obesity. The rapid increase of the latter, in both developed and developing countries, may jeopardize the progress … Read more
Family-friendly policies can raise fertility and explain at least part of fertility differences across countries, say Janna Bergsvik, Agnes Fauske, and Rannveig Kaldager Hart. Countries that have thus far provided … Read more
Analysing consecutive birth cohorts in 21 sub-Saharan African countries over the 20th century, Joerg Baten, Michiel De Haas, Elisabeth Kempter and Felix Meier zu Selhausen find that gender gaps first … Read more
The relationship between educational mismatch in the labour market and emigration decisions is a complex one. In Switzerland, undereducation increases emigration by UE27/EFTA migrants. In contrast, Philippe Wanner, Marco Pecoraro … Read more
Most accounts of women in the workforce focus on gender inequality. Ariel Binder1 provides a related, but often-ignored, discussion of inequality between more- and less-educated mothers. Policies that retrigger progress … Read more
Growing numbers of couples are having children later in life. Australia is no exception and, as Ester Lazzari, Edith Gray and Georgina Chambers show, a key contributor to this rising … Read more
Generational overlap has mainly been studied for populations in the global North, but it affects care time demands on parents worldwide. Indeed, demographic ‘sandwiching’ is more prevalent in the global … Read more
In the years between 1975 and 2005, migrants from China to the US were more likely to have a second and third birth than non-migrant Chinese. Wanli Nie and Pau … Read more
Better maternal education has been credited with making a major contribution to infant mortality decline. However, previous studies have overestimated the contribution of better maternal education. Using individual-level data from … Read more
Bruno Arpino edits the first N-IUSSP e-book, reporting the main results of an international research project that has just come to an end: “Care, retirement & wellbeing of older people … Read more
Immigrants’ health tends to deteriorate over successive generations, a phenomenon known as “negative health assimilation”. Less is known about what happens to adolescents with one immigrant and one native parent. … Read more
Understanding the determinants of child health and mortality is an important step towards reducing child mortality in sub-Saharan Africa. Philippe Bocquier, Carren Ginsburg, Ashira Menashe-Oren, Yacouba Compaoré, and Mark Collinson … Read more
Caroline Krafft, Elizabeth Kula and Maia Sieverding show that a long period of stall in the total fertility rate in Jordan has recently ended. Yet data sources disagree on the … Read more
Ester Rizzi and Younga Kim examine retirement intentions of 50-64 year-old mothers in Europe by family and employment trajectories. They find that experiencing work interruptions, having a higher number of … Read more
Examining two waves of a panel survey, Zuzanna Brzozowska, Isabella Buber-Ennser and Bernhard Riederer find evidence that women and men in post-socialist countries more often have a child they planned … Read more
NDC (notional defined contribution) schemes are commonly believed to be the best kind of pay-as-you-go (PAYG) pension systems: actuarial equity and individual flexibility in accessing retirement are their main strengths. … Read more
Child loss continues to be a common life event for women in the Global South. Diego Alburez-Gutierrez documents a historic opportunity to close the gap between the South and the … Read more
A strong positive association exists between children’s education and parental health in India. Berenike Thoma and Jan-Walter De Neve explain that this positive relationship persists when controlling for a wide … Read more
Young people’s ability to marry increasingly depends on obtaining housing and forming independent households. Ragui Assaad, Caroline Krafft, and Dominique J. Rolando show how Egypt’s 1996 rent liberalization law reversed … Read more
Individual characteristics of late parents have been extensively studied in demographic literature, but less is known about the parental couple. As Marie-Caroline Compans shows, looking at fathers and mothers separately, … Read more
What happens to caregivers’ health when they stop caregiving? Damiano Uccheddu, Tom Emery, Nardi Steverink, and Anne H. Gauthier investigate the matter across 17 European countries with an innovative method … Read more
In contrast to the prevalent notion that rural-to-urban migration drives urbanization, Ashira Menashe-Oren and Philippe Bocquier find that the role of migration (and reclassification) in urbanization was small between 1985 … Read more
Gender equality in child care can be promoted through individual entitlements to a non-transferable and well-paid leave of equal duration for women and men. While this design is still rare … Read more
The early results of the 2020 Census of the People’s Republic of China shed light on the highly politicised issue of Han Chinese population shares in the Tibetan areas of … Read more
Around the world, more and more people age without close kin. Contrary to expectations, however, according to Małgorzata Mikucka, this does not reduce their life satisfaction, or at least not … Read more
Does the impact of socioeconomic factors on health after midlife vary among women and men depending on the welfare context? Apparently it does: Damiano Uccheddu, Anne H. Gauthier, Nardi Steverink, … Read more
Depression is one of the most common mental disorders in later life. Omar Paccagnella suggests a new approach to classify older individuals into distinct subgroups, based on different combinations of … Read more
More married couples today consist of two high-income or two low-income partners (i.e., income homogamy), which leads to greater income inequality in married-couple families. Yifan Shen shows that, all else … Read more
Results from 2020 population censuses for the United States and China made headlines about population collapse, baby busts and demographic decline. Lopsided lamentations have given little attention to the social, … Read more