Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science, Oxford University

New dataset on European parental leave policies from 1970-2024!

LCDS researcher @sanderwagner.bsky.social helped gather the information to document the UK's parental leave policies in this multi-national project.

Poster for the talk by Rebecca Sear, entitled "21st century eugenics, scientific racism and the role of academia in promoting political ideology". It will take place on Monday, 8 December 2025 at 4 pm (CET) via Zoom.

Next week, we welcome @rebeccasear.bsky.social in our Lecture Series. Rebecca will talk about 21st century eugenics, scientific racism and the role of academia in promoting political ideology. Just register here to participate 👉 rotorub.wordpress.com/roto-lecture...
#PhilSci #HPBio

The demographic future that we do not know about The demographic future of the planet has rarely been as questioned as it is today. For much of the 20th century, the demographic transition theory provided a clear narrative: With modernization and de...

"We are entering a post-transition world in which the tools and theories that served demography so well are under strain—especially when it comes to anticipating future fertility," writes Anne Goujon in a new #ScienceExpertVoices article. scim.ag/44uUwnT

Graphic advertising fully funded PhD studentships in Social Statistics and Demography at the University of Southampton, funded through the South Coast Doctoral Training Partnership (SCDTP). Background image shows the Highfield campus at night. The text highlights: Application deadline: 16 January 2026, 16:00 GMT Research supervision areas: family and social demography, population and global health, migration and demographic modelling, statistical methodology, official statistics and survey methods Funding routes: 1+3.5 MSc + PhD (with Research-in-Practice placement) +3.5 PhD only (with placement) +4.5 interdisciplinary route (with placement) For details and how to apply: bit.ly/48u1cEa Contact: Dr Liliana Andriano – L.Andriano@soton.ac.uk Logos: University of Southampton and South Coast Doctoral Training Partnership (SC.DTP).

The Department of Social Statistics and Demography at the University of Southampton is seeking candidates to apply for fully funded PhD positions through the South Coast Doctoral Training Partnership (SCDTP; @scdtp.bsky.social).

🗓️ Deadline for 2026/27 entry: 16 January 2026, 16:00 GMT

More info ⬇️

Investors wrestle with Europe's demographic time bomb - Top1000funds.com Sharply declining populations in Europe, as well as countries like South Korea and Japan, have dramatic implications for economic growth and investment opportunities. Investors at FIS Oxford were warn...

🧑‍🏫 CG Co-Director @melindacmills.bsky.social @oxforddemsci.bsky.social spoke at The #Fiduciary #Investors Symposium, warning that a shrinking #European #population will trigger significant changes in #economic growth and #investor opportunities. Read the full write-up ⬇️ @populationeu.bsky.social

🐍💻 Python for Health, Economic & Social Science Research

🔗 www.demography.ox.ac.uk/short-course...

👶🤰 The Demography of Fertility & Reproduction

🔗 www.demography.ox.ac.uk/short-course...

🤖🗨️ Large Language Models for Health & Social Science Research
www.demography.ox.ac.uk/short-course...

📖👨‍💻🎓 New Courses Alert 🎓👨‍💻📖

The Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science is launching three upcoming short courses designed for researchers across health, economics, and the social sciences. Led by experts in the field — including @crahal.com — these courses are now open for registration.👇

But...
You can see below the rebound is modest and not enough to undo long-term declines driven by broader social and economic change.
The study highlights the need for policy that supports both gender equality and family life.

Full Study: www.demographic-research.org/volumes/vol5...

New Study Finds Gender Equality Linked to Modest Fertility Rebound – But Not Enough to Reverse Long-Term Decline A new study from the Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science reassesses whether rising gender equality can help reverse falling birth rates, a long-standing theory in demography. The research, publi...

📉 Many countries are seeing falling birth rates—but can rising gender equality reverse the trend?
A new study from our centre revisits a major debate in demography and finds a modest fertility rebound at high levels of gender equality.

www.demography.ox.ac.uk/news/new-stu...

Estimating death rates in complex humanitarian emergencies using the network survival method Abstract. Reliable estimates of death rates in complex humanitarian emergencies are critical for assessing the severity of a crisis and for effectively all

Our new paper develops and tests a network-based method for estimating death rates in complex humanitarian emergencies.

Joint w/ @dennisfeehan.bsky.social and team from Geneva-based NGO @impact-initiatives.bsky.social

academic.oup.com/aje/advance-...

📢Job Offer‼️New Max Planck Research Group on Reproductive Ageing
Interview with D. Susie Lee 이수지 Leader of the Group:
https://www.demogr.mpg.de/go/RGRA
Job:
https://www.demogr.mpg.de/en/career_6122/jobs_fellowships_1910/postdoc_research_scientist_in_the_reproductive_ageing_research_group_14844/

MSc Demography & Health | LSHTM (also available online)

I can highly recommend this degree for anyone struggling to understand why in order to estimate migration accurately one might need data. www.lshtm.ac.uk/study/course...

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What Is "Replacement Fertility" Anyway? The fine line between population bomb and population extinction

After @philipncohen.com's talk, I had #demography on the brain today!

jenndowd.substack.com/p/what-is-re... @oxforddemsci.bsky.social @nuffieldcollege.bsky.social

A pleasure to host @philipncohen.com this week for a fantastic talk on pronatalism & many more engaging discussions about open science, public engagment, and more!
#demography @nuffieldcollege.bsky.social @drjenndowd.bsky.social @melindacmills.bsky.social @crahal.com @ridhikashyap.bsky.social

Seminar Alert 🎓🚨:

Tomorrow at 2 pm @philipncohen.com will be giving a seminar on:

"Authoritarian Pronatalism and the Pyrrhic Defeat"

In person: Butler Room at Nuffield College, University of Oxford.

Online (register in advance):
us06web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

Explore the full paper and interactive dashboard for deeper insights and country/region-level breakdowns.

Study: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Dashboard: digitalgendergaps.org

Authors on here: @ridhikashyap.bsky.social @caseybreen.bsky.social

The study is a technical marvel:

It used machine-learning 🎰📖 to analzye:
- Facebook audience counts
- geospatial indicators
- household surveys on digital use in 33 countries.

This allowed to model gendered internet use & mobile ownership for 2,075 regions in 117 countries

Mapping the global digital gender divide: new study reveals stark inequalities in internet and mobile access A research team comprised of current and alumni members of the Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science (LCDS) has published a major new study in PNAS revealing where and to what extent women remain ...

New study on global digital gender gaps 🧔‍♂️👩📱🌐:

It finds that in low- and middle-income countries

- women are 9% less likely to use the 🌐
- 8% less likely to own a 📱 than men

( ~320 million fewer women 🌐 and ~190 million fewer women with 📱)

www.demography.ox.ac.uk/news/mapping...

We conducted a systematic review of the effect of in-utero exposure to ambient air pollution on the sex ratio at birth. Evidence is scarce and we need more studies employing rigorous causal inference designs. Work led by Ursula Gazeley @oxforddemsci.bsky.social, preprint available below.

In Madrid this week? Don’t miss @ramina-sotoudeh.bsky.social presentation

"The Hidden Demographics of Prenatal Selection: Evidence from Family DNA"

at the UNED inequality/social demography seminar

When: 13th Nov, 19.00-20.30

Where: Room Jorge Cavodeassi (OEI), UNED,
Calle Bravo Murillo 38

And that was today's #miniseminar for you.

Key findings from Greve’s study:

🧠 Mental-health care use ↑ sharply around a parent’s diagnosis and death
👩‍👧 Effects strongest for daughters
💼 Earnings largely unchanged

The talk ended with a rich discussion on elderly & patient care in Denmark.

On Tuesday, we hosted Jane Greve (VIVE – Danish Centre for Social Science Research) for a fascinating seminar on “Family Spillovers of Dementia.” Using 20 years of Danish register data, she explored how parental dementia affects adult children’s lives.

Are the cardiovascular benefits of GLP-1s just a result of losing weight? Probably not--a significant portion of risk reduction seems to be independent of weight loss.

jenndowd.substack.com/p/ozempic-fo... #publichealth #episky #medsky

Upcoming LCDS Seminar: Jane Greve on "Family Spillovers of Dementia" Jane Greve, Professor MSO, Deputy head, Cand. polit., PhD. in Economics, The Danish Center for Social Science Research, will deliver our fifth seminar of Michaelmas Term on Tuesday 4th November, 2:00-...

LCDS Seminar tomorrow:

Jane Greve from the Danish Center for Social Science Research will present on

"Family Spillovers of Dementia"

For those in Oxford, the seminar is from 2:00-3:30pm, in the Chester Room at Nuffield College.

www.demography.ox.ac.uk/news/upcomin...

and that was today's mini seminar wrap-up 🙂.

happy belated Canda day!

Bill Morneau's roadmap:

✅ Manage debt and deficits prudently
✅ Invest in people, infrastructure & innovation
✅ Simplify regulation & build policy durability
✅ Be pragmatic on climate

Growth, he said, is built “not by eureka moments, but by small wins, sustained with honesty.”

Interesting from a demographic perspective was how he linked the challenge of declining trust to demographic headwinds, via immigration.

"Sustained immigration is only possible if governments win their populations trust that it is being handled well. We have to do better on this."

Morneau discussed the challenge of converging headwinds:

🌬️ Debt
🌬️ Demographics
🌬️ Geopolitical fragmentation
🌬️ declining trust.

Growth, he argued, is essential to fund scoieties social contracts as well as climate goals.

“Degrowth is a distraction; execution and consent are everything.”