We have a new paper (led by @rishabhtyagi10.bsky.social with @vegardskirbekk.bsky.social) in Genus! We estimate the impact of job loss on divorce in Germany with an event study design.👇1/5

🧠 New in Journal of Psychiatric Research (2026): People with no children or only one child had higher risk of dementia and MCI compared to those with two children. The association was particularly strong for dementia in men with no children. Full paper: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Berkay Ozcan - immigration is not a silver bullet blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2...

New paper by @rishabhtyagi10.bsky.social, @peibich.bsky.social, @vegardskirbekk.bsky.social Using German longitudinal data, they find that involuntary job loss substantially increases the risk of marital dissolution. Little evidence of variation by gender norms. 🔗 link.springer.com/article/10.1...

New study with @jessicanisen.bsky.social and Henrik Schubert Finland's fertility fell from 1.87 TFR (2010) to under 1.4—now the record low. Secularization is related to lower fertility; and couples' changing religious beliefs shape childbearing decisions. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

New study in @PNASNexus While most countries became more gender egalitarian 1995-2022, global support for gender equality stagnated Why? Higher fertility in less egalitarian populations compounded this. This reveals a critical paradox in cultural change. doi.org/10.1093/pnas...

Are enough births occurring to replace expected deaths? We introduce the “births observed / births needed” ratio as a simple indicator of demographic sustainability — showing why similar fertility rates can imply very different population futures. www.demographic-research.org/articles/vol...

Understand male health! Leading researchers gather to highlight men’s health using population level data on May 27 in Oslo. Free & open to all • Live stream available 🔗 www.uio.no/english/abou... Welcome! 💙 #MaleHealthDay #MennsHelse

Sril Lanka's fertility likely to remain low (TFR at 1.3 children) - need to adapt thediplomat.com/2026/04/sri-...

Protanatalism still fairly common in high fertility nations www.monitor.co.ug/uganda/news/...

Japanese older people are not willing to live long - seven out of ten Japanese unwilling to live to 100 ijal.se/article/view...

"Census are not just about counting people, it's counting every life, ensuring their welfare and improving upon the development and future of our countries." - Dr Samuel Kissi, UNFPA

In 2024, female fertility globally exceeded male fertility for the first time. Population masculinization has flipped the sign of the fertility gender gap. No return to parity projected by 2100. With Henrik Schubert, Thomas Spoorenberg & Christian Dudel www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

You can follow the event via streaming!

"Armed forces size [..] across 15 post-Soviet countries from 1992 to 2022 [...] exerts a significant negative impact on fertility." onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Male Health Day full day seminar - 27th of May 2026 www.uio.no/english/abou...

Faroe Islands defy Europe's low-fertility trend: TFR rose from 1.91 (2024) to 2.11 (2025). This in a small population of just ~55,000. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demogra...

From March 22nd to March 30th, @vegardskirbekk.bsky.social will be visiting Cedeplar and @ufmgbr.bsky.social www.ufmg.br/ieat/noticia...

Another 3-year PhD position in Oslo! ERC-Adv Grant HOMME project: Health, Cognition, Family, and Employment among Men, led by Professor Vegard Skirbekk. NOK 550,800–615,000 per year Deadline: March 31, 2026. www.jobbnorge.no/en/available... #PhDOpportunity #MensHealth #Demography #Fertility

PhD opening @UniOslo: Join a dynamic team exploring men's health & family dynamics in the ERC HOMME project! 3-4 yrs, interdisciplinary (psych, soc, econ, health), Norwegian register data + cohorts. Salary ~NOK 551k-615k. Deadline 31 March 2026. Apply: www.finn.no/job/ad/45388...

Interested in using polygenic scores (PGS) in social science or health research? We are running a 2-day intensive short course @stats_UCL with @timtmorris.bsky.social (20–21 April 2026): tinyurl.com/5n6hwyxy. Ideal for all quantitative researcher across Social and Health Sciences! Get started!

Very important op-ed from Inga Strümke (Associate Professor, Norwegian Open AI Lab) on European technology Addiction. The US doesn't need to threaten us with military force if they have the ability to shut down our digital systems. @aftenposten.no #Norge #Norway #US #Europe

Another 3-year PhD position in Oslo! ERC-Adv Grant HOMME project: Health, Cognition, Family, and Employment among Men, led by Professor Vegard Skirbekk. NOK 550,800–615,000 per year Deadline: March 31, 2026. www.jobbnorge.no/en/available... #PhDOpportunity #MensHealth #Demography #Fertility

PhD opening @UniOslo: Join a dynamic team exploring men's health & family dynamics in the ERC HOMME project! 3-4 yrs, interdisciplinary (psych, soc, econ, health), Norwegian register data + cohorts. Salary ~NOK 551k-615k. Deadline 31 March 2026. Apply: www.finn.no/job/ad/45388...

Fertility postponement is not a universal correlate of fertility decline www.niussp.org/fertility-an...

Ageing does not necessarily mean dependency burdens will be higher than in the past - even in the countries in the world with the highest life expectancy and the lowest fertility. Policymakers must factor in health to understand population aging. www.adb.org/publications...

PhD position in Norway Focus: Using artificial intelligence (AI) to study intrinsic capacity - the combined physical and mental abilities that allow people to function and thrive as they age. 2411.webcruiter.no/Main2/Recrui... Dr Zotcheva leads the project and I am a co-supervisor.

Nigerian women and contraceptives: Study finds big gaps between the haves and the have-nots theconversation.com/nigerian-wom... www.msn.com/en-xl/news/o...

New PostDoc opportunity at HOMME🎓 www.sv.uio.no/psi/english/... We offer a 3 or 4 year Postdoctoral opportunity in the HOMME project in Oslo - www.jobbnorge.no/en/available...

New PostDoc opportunity at HOMME🎓 www.sv.uio.no/psi/english/... We offer a 3 or 4 year Postdoctoral opportunity in the HOMME project in Oslo - www.jobbnorge.no/en/available...

Some hope that preferences for human interactions will save jobs from automation, but I think we often prefer being served by robots. From my latest issue, where I also cover progress on crime, AI forecasting progress, belief in Anthropic, and much else. www.update.news/p/the-prefer...

I’m very happy to share our new paper with Mariana Calderón-Jaramillo and colleagues Jeroen Spijker and Elisenda Renteria.. The study measures the Years of Life Expectancy with Care Needs combining (multi)morbidity and social care needs states. Link: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Our new Lancet study from the Norwegian HUNT cohort shows that modifying risk factors across adulthood relat to dementia, including family and work-related factors. www.thelancet.com/action/showP...

In 1966, Japan's Fire Horse year superstition led to a ~25% drop in births due to fears about girls' futures. A study confirmed women born then faced no disadvantages in education, marriage rates, or household resources Will fertility of 2026 be affected? 🤔 link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Thanks for raising this. @vegardskirbekk.bsky.social is a v. important thinker on this subject. It's mind-numbing to many of us in this realm that the clear link between #pronatalism and #planetaryhealth has been muddied in the last few years, under the influence of vested interests and ideologues.

Globally, more than one out of three births now occur to women aged 30 and above, compared to only one in four in 1990. New paper by Thomas Spoorenberg & @vegardskirbekk.bsky.social

Our paper "Potentially modifiable risk factors for dementia in Norway (HUNT4 70+)" is out & open access in Lancet Healthy Longevity! Direct link: authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S... Grateful to the team % participants.

Korea-Japan Turn Aging-Low Birthrate Crisis into Opportunity www.chosun.com/english/opin...

Great answers! One thing I keep forgetting to mention, which @vegardskirbekk.bsky.social draws out in his book, is the importance of healthy aging as one solution to lower birth rates (which also comes from family-friendly and human capital investment)

Good! An early insight of human centered design is that it was possible to reduce airplane crashes by introducing tactile switches and toggle that did not create confusion or require people to take their eyes away from their core tasks donmoynihan.substack.com/p/the-origin...

New study on rapidly decreasing mortality among those with Down syndrome

Is Religiosity Related to the Risk of Technology-Induced Job Loss? New study with Morten Blekesaune using large scale population data on the relationship between job loss risk and religiosity www.scup.com/doi/abs/10.1...

We study late fertility (ages 30+) and very late fertility (ages 35+) trends at the global, subregional, and national levels. Globally, more than one out of three births in 2023 occurs to women aged 30 and above, compared to only one in four in 1990. doi.org/10.1111/padr...

Interview on global population change with Chris Bystroff, a Professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in New York, where he heads a lab funded by NSF: Bystroff concludes: "I believe we will Decline and Prosper (book by Vegard Skirbekk)." www.resilience.org/stories/2024...

Population growth at 2.55 per cent is shaping Pakistan’s future - Pakistan - DAWN.COM www.dawn.com/news/1957907

Glad and honoured to have been invited to give a keynote in Taiwan November 2025 titled 'Embracing the inevitable - Effectively adapting to the demographic transition'. The conference theme was ‘Foreseeing the Future: Educational Reforms in Response to Declining Birth Rates’ Vis oversettelse

The Interdisciplinary Centre on Population Dynamics (CPop) will host an ERC Workshop on "A Unified Perspective on Formation and Dissolution Processes in Demography," 9-11 March 2026, at the University of Southern Denmark, Odense. Abstract deadline: 19 December 2025. www.sdu.dk/en/forskning...