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September 12, 2024 | Latest Publications
Find out what new publications have been released in July, August and September 2024. more
September 11, 2024 | SPOTLIGHT
A recent study found that behavioral changes, such as a decline in smoking, and social progress, including an expansion of education, have contributed to recent improvements in U.S. mortality. Together, these two factors accounted for 65% of the improvements in mortality. The researchers also identified an increase in psychological distress as a contributing factor to the slowing of mortality improvement in the U.S. during the study period, but most of the slowing remains unexplained. more
September 10, 2024 | New Faces at MPIDR
The Research Group Kinship Inequalities, led by Diego Alburez-Gutierrez, and the Laboratory of Population Dynamics and Sustainable Well-being, led by Emilio Zagheni, have the great pleasure of welcoming Sha Jiang as a new team member. more
September 06, 2024 | SPOTLIGHT
Cognitive impairment is a major concern for the aging population, with more than 55 million people worldwide suffering from dementia, a number expected to triple by 2050. A recent study found that compared to the United States, most European countries have shown significant improvements in average memory function among adults aged 50 and older over the past two decades. The study's findings highlight the need for further research and public health efforts to understand the reasons for cross-national differences in cognitive health trends, particularly the relatively stagnant trend in the United States. more
September 04, 2024 | Special Issue
In the midst of the pandemic, a team from the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR) organized a conference on "Pandemic Babies? The Covid-19 pandemic and its impact on fertility and family dynamics". The conference brought together more than 100 international researchers to discuss their research on the impact and consequences of the pandemic on families and fertility. The special issue of Population and Development Review, "Pandemic Babies: The Covid-19 Pandemic and Its Impact on Fertility and Family Dynamics" has now been published. more
September 03, 2024
Just this week a new cohort of 15 EDSD students is starting their classes at MPIDR. The European Doctoral School of Demography (EDSD) is an eleven-month, sponsored program that is offered every year aiming to provide students with an appropriate high-level education in demography to pursue their doctoral studies. more
August 30, 2024
On August 28, 2024 Xinyi Zhao successfully defended her dissertation on "Gender inequality in academia: Opportunities and Challenges in the Era of Globalization and Digitalization" at the University of Oxford, passing the viva without any corrections. more
August 29, 2024 | SPOTLIGHT
A recent study shows that reducing childhood obesity could reduce inequalities in emotional problems. Socioeconomic inequalities in adolescent mental health are also explained by the unequal distribution of childhood obesity. Children from low socioeconomic status (SES) families have more emotional problems because obesity rates are higher in this group. However, there is no evidence that obesity is more detrimental to mental health in some socioeconomic groups than in others. more
August 14, 2024
Our well-being partly depends on the family constellations we are embedded in. The intergenerational position is particularly decisive, a new study says. more
July 17, 2024 | Video
Open Science addresses concerns about the reliability of scientific research and is gaining traction in various fields. Ugofilippo Basellini's paper reviews the state of openness in demographic research and finds significant progress in open access, but less so in the availability of open software code. The study emphasizes the importance of sharing software code to advance the field and proposes recommendations to encourage this practice. Basellini advocates for a culture of openness, emphasizing the need for supportive feedback, incentives, and training to encourage code sharing. more