Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research - Press Releases and News

Low birth rates, an aging population, and labor shortages: political debates often present a surprisingly simple answer to all three — more babies. Yet a narrow focus on birth rates risks overlooking the conditions in which children are born and raised, as well as the far-reaching effects pronatalist policies can have on women’s lives. At the same time, conservative ideas about family and gender …

The office of administration at the MPIDR welcomes Martina Matthies as its new Accounting and Bookkeeping Clerk. She will be working alongside Marcel Behse, the Head of Finance and Property. Martina is a trained office administrator and accountant. Before joining the MPIDR, she worked in financial accounting. Last year, while working at a tax office, she also gained valuable insights into tax pro…

Adarsh from the Laboratory of Population Health at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR), successfully defended his doctoral thesis, “Drugs, Deaths and Cohorts “, at the University of St Andrews. His research examines population health inequalities through substance-related mortality, birth-cohort patterns, and differences in mortality trends across populations.

Starting September 1, 2026, Alyson van Raalte and Kieron Barclay will succeed longtime editor John Ermisch in leading the journal 'Population Studies'.

Decades of German data suggest that strong environmental concerns generally did not delay or deter parenthood, while such worries tended to fade with age among parents and non-parents alike. Whether today’s youngest generations, growing up with climate change as a constant reality, will follow the same pattern remains an open question.

Athina Anastasiadou from the Laboratory of Migration and Mobility at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR), successfully defended her doctoral thesis, “The Second Migrant: The role of gender in demographic theories, methods, and data for migration research“, at University of Groningen. The thesis was awarded “cum laude”. In the Netherlands, this is a rare distinction that is a…

Heart attacks, strokes, and hip fractures are becoming less common. Meanwhile, cancer cases are increasing, and more people are surviving these severe diseases. A new study by the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR) and the Karolinska Institute examines how medical progress has impacted various diseases in Sweden.

Researchers investigated whether traditional statistical and machine learning models could achieve a similarly high level of accuracy in predicting individual-level lifespan. Overall, the results show that machine learning does not significantly improve mortality predictions compared to conventional methods.

Sanny D. Afable from the Laboratory of Population Health at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR), successfully defended his doctoral thesis, "The Spatial Dynamics of Health and Intergenerational Ties in Later Life," at the University of St. Andrews.

Pension system reforms often aim to extend working life. Such reforms have been implemented throughout Europe, albeit to varying degrees in different countries.

How do family structures result from and shape social inequality? In early June, international researchers gathered at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Rostock to tackle these very questions as part of the conference "Kinship Structures, Dynamics and Inequalities".

A recent study examined 3.4 million births in Spain between 2008 and 2021 to determine the impact of wildfires and associated air pollution on the health of newborns. The results revealed that mothers affected by wildfires were more likely to have premature births, and their children had lower birth weights, regardless of their socioeconomic status.

Angela Carollo from the Laboratory of Fertility and Well-Being at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR), successfully defended her doctoral thesis, “Statistical Analysis of Time-to-Event Data with Multiple Time Scales“, at Leiden University. In her thesis she introduces a statistical model that addresses an important gap in the literature on statistical models for time-to-even…

Aliakbar Akbaritabar and Tom Theile received the EAPS Open Science and Outreach Award for Population Studies at the EPC 2026 in Bologna for their contributions to research on internal and international migration using large digital trace datasets. Central to their work is the Scholarly Migration Database, an open data infrastructure that reconstructs the national and international mobility of res…

On June 17, MPIDR researcher Henrik-Alexander Schubert was awarded the Otto Hahn Medal in Frankfurt for his doctoral thesis on “The fertility puzzle. Trends and patterns of male and female fertility”. The Medal was presented at the Annual Meeting of the Max Planck Society, during the meeting of the Human Sciences Section in Frankfurt. In his thesis, Henrik investigated low fertility and its deter…

Carolina Coimbra Vieira from the Laboratory of Migration and Mobility at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR), successfully defended her doctoral thesis, “Migration, culture, and inequalities in algorithmically-mediated societies“, at the Saarland University. Her findings contribute to our understanding of how digital trace data can be used to measure and analyze culture, mig…

Rishabh Tyagi successfully defended his dissertation, "The Disparate Effects of Employment Uncertainty on Life Course Outcomes," at the University of Oslo. In his thesis, he demonstrates that experiencing employment uncertainty due to job loss, unemployment, or workplace closures leads to negative health and family outcomes in Germany, Norway, and India.

Mikko Myrskylä, director of the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR), received the 2026 Dirk J. Van de Kaa Award for Population Studies at the European Population Conference 2026 (EPC2026) closing ceremony in Bologna. Presented by the European Association for Population Studies (EAPS), the award honors outstanding scientific achievements in population studies.

The MPIDR is happy to share that Elena Pojman received the 2025 IPUMS Time Use Research Award in the Student Division for her research on "Racial-Ethnic Stratification in Women’s Kin Caregiving Burden Across the Life Course in the United States."

Isabella Marinetti from the Laboratory of Demographic Data at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR), successfully defended her doctoral thesis, “Effects of short-term events on mortality in Europe“, at the University of Groningen. Her findings contribute to our understanding of how short-term events such as seasonality and the COVID-19 pandemic shape mortality patterns and lif…