Honored to be part of the team of writers behind the @unfpa.org State of the World Population 2025 report. The real fertility crisis: The most consequential reproductive decision a person can make –when, whether and with whom to have a child– is being undermined by a set of barriers and obstacles

Tuberculosis still kills around 1.3 million people every year. It was once a massive killer in Europe and the US, but not anymore. How did these countries manage to tackle it? Our first article on TB in a three-part series: ourworldindata.org/tuberculosis...

Every few years these pronatalist policies re-emerge (sort of like Godzilla) & every few years I say the same thing… #demography

🚨 Another article on health and migration out in Social Science and Medicine! With Pekka Martikainen and Irma Elo, we look at the mortality of internal migrants in Finland www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

I’ve been working with BBC Panorama on a documentary about the pressures on the UK’s public finances - and why the state is struggling to provide public services that meet our expectations. This is the first minute. The whole film is here: www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...

subscriptions >>> shop.viz.co.uk/viz345bs

Italy’s exodus of young talent worsens population squeeze—The Bank of Italy has estimated that the projected drop in Italy’s working age population could lead to an 11 per cent drop in GDP, although… www.ft.com/content/7544... @amykazmin.bsky.social @financialtimes.com

Wonderful to receive this utterly beautiful 3D printed diorama of "Snow's map of cholera" by @alexselbyb.bsky.social. Exceptional attention to detail. Simply stunning. Dare I say better than the original! Thanks Alex.

Population pyramid style graphic of the day showing transition to widowhood.

A lad called Ryan told me he would vote Reform. In 5 minutes I learned he wanted to end homelessness, help poor families, and help vulnerable people get off drugs. Not a word about immigration. He just couldn't vote Labour after so may lies. My latest article in The Canary.

We had a little protest of UMN faculty and researchers to raise awareness of what this administration is doing to science and universities. Apparently lots of students have no clue. We’ve gotta break through our information bubbles and get the word out to the youngins’.

Stopping international students from coming to UK universities will hit exports, growth & tax revenues. The quote below should be a statement of the obvious... observer.co.uk/news/politic...

NEW PAPER heroically led by @drelenamiu.bsky.social on how changing demography, friendship networks and personal values around low fertility interact. See Elena’s thread below!👇

How old are you compared to the rest of the world?

@heidicolleran.bsky.social starts her #ehbea2025 plenary with a manifesto to get behind: bring more demography into cultural evolution, and more ethnography into demography

“These Are My Principles. If You Don’t Like Them I Have Others.” Groucho would make a successful US University President or head of a major law firm.

Great theoretical work showing how cultural mechanisms related to birth spacing and cultural menopause influence demographic outcomes in a human population 💻👶 #EHBEA2025 @ehbea.bsky.social @ehbea2025.bsky.social @heidicolleran.bsky.social

Birth rates are falling in the U.S. and CPC Director Karen Benjamin Guzzo says most people wants kids but lack societal support to meet their ideal parenting vision. www.npr.org/2025/04/07/1...

We asked adults in 18 mostly middle-income countries what they think is the best age to get married. People across the countries surveyed think it’s best to get married in one’s mid-20s. Average ideal ages range from 21.2 in Bangladesh to 28.9 in Argentina. www.pewresearch.org/...

Any Labour SpAd arguing for restricting student imm should be sat down in front of a map and asked three Qs: 1. Where do you think the unis in most financial trouble are? 2. How many people rely on them for jobs and income? 3. Which party represents these seats?

REPOST #jobs @oxforddemsci.bsky.social 👨‍💻Senior Research Fellow Associate/Professor 👩‍💻Senior Researcher Geospatial Health 📲Postdoc Digital Pandemic Preparedness 👶Postdoc Reproductive Demography 🤖 Programmer AI See: www.demography.ox.ac.uk/jobs #Demography #Epidemiology #Health #Population

I don’t think Matt has got a BlueSky account yet…

Lund University (Sweden) has opened 3 doctoral student positions in historical demography-economic history - Inequalities in health and survival /jobID:810603 - Demographic Inequality /jobID:809395 - Colonial maternal health legacies /jobID:808817 Applications are invited! 📉📈🗃🛟 #history #demography

Officially, there are around 8.2 billion people on the planet, but researchers who have come up with a new way of estimating rural populations say we may have vastly undercounted.

Want to join the FT's skunkworks? Here's your chance. on.ft.com/41Nc11W

Tucson, Arizona today. Original projected attendance was 3,000 people. 23,000 showed up.

Women tend to live longer than men in every country in the world. But the size of this life expectancy gap varies a lot. From @scientificdiscovery.dev's data insight today: ourworldindata.org/data-insight...

#Demographers! Run don't walk at the chance to work w/ the amazing José Manuel Aburto @lshtm.bsky.social. 3 year post working on mortality estimation & trends in life expectancy & lifespan inequality in low-& middle-income countries. Not to mention..LONDON! jobs.lshtm.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx...

If you love Student’s t-test or Guinness you should read this.

Thousands of people are ditching Tesla. Here’s one of them with a message you can see from space. Location: Black Rock Sands, Wales, UK Led By Donkeys is 100% funded by small donations.

NEW: The actions of Trump and Vance in recent weeks highlight something under-appreciated. The American right is now ideologically closer to countries like Russia, Turkey and in some senses China, than to the rest of the west (even the conservative west). My column: www.ft.com/content/3046...

In case you missed it Key Words 19, and Key Words 20, guest edited by @danieljhartley.bsky.social, are now both freely available online. All past issues are available here: raymondwilliams.co.uk/view-issues/

Our study estimates excess deaths in children and parental loss due to the war in Gaza in 2023. From Oct 8 to Dec 31, 2023, 8120 children <18 were killed due to the conflict, 15127 children lost a father, and 9886 children lost a mother -in 3 months pophealthmetrics.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....

🚨I'm advertising for a PhD position (4 yrs) in quant. Sociology/Social Demography (life course, social ineq.) @tcdsociology.bsky.social! 📅 Deadline: April 21, 2025 📄 More info: www.tcd.ie/sociology/va... 🔄 Please share! #Sociology #Demography #AcademicChatter #PhDOpportunity #TrinityCollegeDublin

📣Call for Papers‼️ Climate Conference "Climate Change, Environmental Hazards and Population Dynamics" 📅Nov 11–12, 2025 🗺️@mpidr.bsky.social 📰Submission Deadline: May 15, 2025 www.demogr.mpg.de/en/news_even... @iussp.bsky.social @conteristo.bsky.social @ezagheni.bsky.social @ebrusanliturk.bsky.social

Why “students from disadvantaged backgrounds [are] more likely to attend… less selective university courses than their entry grades would permit” ucl.zoom.us/webinar/regi... #WideningParticipation #HigherEd #SocialMobility @cepeo-ucl.bsky.social

| CALL FOR APPLICATIONS FOR FUNDED PHD POSITIONS | Ined is recruiting three PhD students for the start of the 2025 academic year. The deadline for applications is 5 May 2025 at 12:00 PM (noon), Paris time. More information: www.ined.fr/en/research/...

In good news: UK death rate 'reaches record low' www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

BREAKING: Foreign-born leader comes to Oval Office, dressed down in a disrespectful manner, having already received billions from America, asking for American taxpayers to keep paying him more billions, subsidizing him for years to come:

Incase you thought what’s happening in the US can’t affect you….The DHS is being cancelled. The biggest demographic data collection effort in the world, with over 400 waves of data collected since the early 1980s. It was funded by USAID.

Chart of the day…

The notion that Trump's "I'm king" tweet is "just trolling" or "a joke" presents an opportunity to recreate my just-joking thread (porting it over from the Bad Place): 1. I wrote my PhD dissertation on the social function of humor (in literature & film) and here's the thing about "just joking."

This chart basically explains all politics:

✨ We’re delighted the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) have given the go ahead to a new UK-wide birth cohort study! We're looking forward to submitting our proposal. The news follows on from the #EarlyLifeCohortFeasibilityStudy - find out more here: https://buff.ly/4i4f9fa

Americans used to move all of the time to better their life. Then they stopped. Why? @hannarosin.bsky.social talks with @yappelbaum.bsky.social about the end of upward mobility in the U.S. and who's actually to blame.

When even the right wing red-top scandal sheets are mocking trump!

NEW on Wonkhe: Why does it take the British Academy to plot subject geographies? https://bit.ly/413qRQd

Us: Increasing maternal age, late abortions, or definition changes don't explain recent German trends in stillbirths. Some perinatologists: It's probably explained by maternal age, late abortions and definition changes though. Always good to see both sides of an argument represented in the media.

For some reason Molotov and Ribbentrop spring to mind today.

Graph of the day…