We study the structure and dynamics of populations and explore issues of political relevance, such as aging, fertility, and the redistribution of work over the life course, as well as digitization and the use of new data sources for the estimation of migration flows.
Climate Change | June 24, 2026
Premature Births and Low Birth Weight: Risks Posed by Wildfires
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. More
July
07
Scientific Presentations
LabTalks@SocialDemography
Maxi Kniffka from the Laboratory of Population Health and Katherine Del Salto Calderon from the Laboratory of Fertility and Well-Being give a talk. More
All Events
New Issue 2/2026 available | June 30, 2026
The Quarterly German Newsletter
Research Visit
Population and Social Data Science Summer Incubator Program 2026
Introduction to our research groups
Reproductive Ageing
PHD | June 19, 2026
Congratulations, Angela Carollo!
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-event data. More
Selected Publications
Carollo, A.; Putter, H.; Eilers, P. H. C.; Gampe, J.:
Analysis of time-to-event data with two time scales: an application to transitions out of cohabitation Sociological Methods and Research, 1–31. (2025)
Loi, S.; Li, P.; Myrskylä, M.:
At the intersection of adverse life course pathways: the effects on health by migration status Demography 61:3, 665–686. (2024)
More Publications
Recommended Readings | April 02, 2026
Family Complexity Influences Health in Mid-Adulthood
Jobs & Fellowships
Questions and Answers
Being a Researcher at the MPIDR
Working at MPIDR
Life & Research in Rostock
MPIDR
Online Databases
A peer-reviewed, open-access journal of population sciences
Press Release | April 23, 2026
Men Have Fewer Children Than Women
Doctoral Program
International Max Planck Research School for Population, Health and Data Science
Award | June 18, 2026
EAPS Open Science and Outreach Award for Population Studies to Aliakbar Akbaritabar and Tom Theile
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 researchers based on global bibliometric data. More