Family policies, defined as measures designed to support families with children, are part of modern welfare states. They range from punctual measures provided at the birth of a child to measures aimed at making it easier for parents to combine work and family responsibilities. The actual goal of these measures varies largely, being explicitly pronatalist in some cases while embracing a more equalitarian

The neglect of population in national and international discourses on environment and development has led to a misleading picture of policy options. This article reconstructs the language in which extreme poverty and economic development are discussed by deploying recent advances in our understanding of the population–consumption–biosphere nexus. The new perspective is applied to examine both the global

I review a study by Senderowicz and Maloney (2022), which proposes an approach to classifying women's reasons for not using contraception as either being driven by supply‐side factors or by a lack of demand. Using Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data from seven countries, the authors conclude that most unmet need can be attributed to demand‐side reasons for non‐use. I replicate the analysis and

Censuses and surveys predominantly report men as heads of households or reference persons despite women carrying out most domestic and care work. Recent evidence, however, suggests that an increasing number of households are headed by women. Using data from the newly released CORESIDENCE database, which includes over 770 data points from 156 countries worldwide spanning from 1960 to 2021, this study

In this paper, I provide a narrative review of the literature addressing the contribution of public family planning programs and policies to the contraceptive transition in low‐ and middle‐income countries. I address the long‐running debate between economists and demographers who examine the relative contribution of preferences compared to programs to fertility decline, but I steer the paper towards

Pakistan has the highest rates of consanguinity in the world, with nearly two‐thirds marrying cousins. To understand this pattern, we adopt the theoretical framework of intensive and extensive kinship that allows us to predict correlates of consanguineous marriages and logically connect patterns in Pakistan with those in other regions. Using data from the Punjab Consanguinity Survey, we examine indicators

Theories of contraception and fertility are currently dominated by economic and cultural arguments. A demographic perspective can usefully expand these theories through “addition,” “explication,” and “reconciliation.” The addition is about drawing attention to salient demographic forces that have previously been underconsidered whether these forces operate at the macro, meso, or microlevels. Explication

We review the foundations of the economic development–contraception nexus, focusing on the pathways through which economic factors drive contraceptive adoption and change. We investigate the channels through which the relationship between economic development and contraceptive dynamics is mediated. Using global data, we document the correlations between economic development and contraception transitions

Precocious exits from adolescence via early union formation are often argued to represent a strong risk factor for intimate partner violence (IPV) victimization. However, causal evidence for this claim is scant. This study examines the impact of teen union formation (before age 18) on experiences of IPV in Brazil and Colombia, where early family transitions are common and levels of interpersonal violence

Despite declines in child mortality rates, experiencing a child death remains a common feature of motherhood in many contemporary African populations. Yet, we lack population insights into the consequences of child death for mothers’ well‐being in the high‐mortality regions where it concentrates. Contrasting an extensive psychology literature on the severe and long‐lasting consequences of child death

This essay explores and reviews the literature from low‐ and middle‐income countries on the pathways of influence between women's empowerment and reproductive outcomes, specially focusing on contraception, and points to some outstanding gaps. We adopt a framework that assesses the influence of contextual factors, notably kinship structures, and marriage systems, on women's empowerment and agency and

Although the globalization of international migration is commonly accepted as a general tendency in contemporary migration patterns (de Haas, Castles, and Miller 2020, 9), the corresponding body of empirical evidence is mixed and fragmented. Our review of global migration patterns over the past half‐century highlights how the theories, expectations, and ultimately findings may vary depending on the

Over the past half‐century, most countries have made progress through their demographic transitions with continuing declines in mortality and fertility. The major driver of fertility decline has been the adoption of contraception by women of reproductive age who increasingly desire smaller families. This paper documents the massive changes in contraceptive behavior that have occurred since 1970 at

The UN projects that world population will peak at 10.3 billion in 2084, a 2.1 billion increase from 2024. Can the world provide food, water, and other resources to 10.3 billion people? How will additional population exacerbate resource challenges and worsen climate change? This paper analyzes these questions by looking at the last 60 years and by simulating the future impact of population growth and

Steady and significant improvements in life expectancy have been a bright spot for human progress for the last century or more. Recently, this success has shown signs of faltering in some high‐income countries, where mortality improvements have slowed or even reversed since the early 2010s. Combined with the large mortality shock of the COVID‐19 pandemic, guaranteed forward progress feels less certain

Subnational divergence in the age and sex structures of populations can have far‐stretching consequences for development: from marriage markets to the potential for violence to economic growth. With urbanization and the demographic transition still underway, rural and urban populations continue to differ across low‐ and middle‐income countries. We examine the extent by which internal migration contributes

Stock estimates of the US unauthorized foreign‐born population are routinely published, but less is known about this population's dynamics. Using a series of residual estimates based on 2000 Census and 2001–2022 American Community Survey (ACS), I estimate the components of change for the unauthorized immigrant population from 2000 to 2022 by region and country of origin. Further, I develop and present

Family networks are key to understanding the well‐being of older adults because kin provide instrumental and financial support, help manage health and disability, and encourage social integration. Two momentous societal changes have shaped the families of contemporary older adults: the first and second demographic transitions and global educational expansion. The intersection of these two processes

Migration scholars agree that migration is a highly gendered process. While the literature on this topic is increasing, the knowledge produced remains fragmentary and has not been synthesized systematically yet. This literature review aims at summarizing the current findings of quantitative migration research comparing migration patterns between genders and highlighting gaps and patterns in the literature

Past research suggests that the expansion of women's education reduces their exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV) due to attitudinal changes and women's greater access to resources. The IPV literature also suggests that educational hypogamy (women marrying men with less education) increases IPV as women face backlash associated with gender‐status inconsistencies. However, existing research has

A rich literature has documented the relationship between age at marriage and girls’ health and educational outcomes. The upheaval caused by the pandemic on household decision‐making has been hypothesized to have influenced the age of marriage, but the direction of impact is unclear. On the one hand, the pandemic may have increased the age at marriage if lockdown policies and negative income shocks

Fertility desires are fundamental to understanding contraceptive use, yet the relationship between the two remains unclear and is the subject of much debate in demography. To understand the macrolevel relationship between fertility desires and contraceptive transition in low‐ and middle‐income countries, we introduce a conceptual model that articulates the microlevel processes through which a desire

In this commentary—written to celebrate, but also evaluate, the relationship between anthropology and demography at the 50th anniversary of the journal—I focus on the insights gained and the challenges posed by applying anthropological theory and utilizing ethnographic methods in population studies. Population and Development Review has been the venue of choice for many anthropologists because it has

Human development and family planning programs since the 1970s have led to a fast‐rising prevalence of modern contraceptive means at the global level. However, countries with rising but still low levels of contraceptive use experienced an increasing number of societal upheavals, including armed conflicts, sudden and high‐intensity natural disasters, as well as dramatic effects of health epidemics.

Since the mid‐twentieth century, the Global South has experienced unprecedently rapid and pervasive changes in reproductive behavior with fertility declining from high pre‐transitional levels to below 3 births per woman in most low‐ and middle‐income countries (LMICs). Over time a rough consensus has been reached on major theories about the causes of these declines. However, a controversy remains about

The long human lifespan enables long run forecasts of population size and age distribution. New methods include biodemographic research on upper limits to life expectancy and incorporation of early experiences affecting later life mortality such as smoking, obesity, and childhood health shocks. Some fertility forecasts incorporate education and quantum‐tempo insights. Statistical time series and Bayesian

This paper focuses on age restrictions on access to infertility treatments and eligibility for their public reimbursement, exploring their relevancy in contexts of rising late birth rates (40+). I explore how age‐based reimbursement policies for in vitro fertilization treatments have responded to these fertility trends in 27 high‐income countries and in which regulatory frameworks for medically assisted

We are in the early stages of a new era of demographic research that offers exciting opportunities to quantify demographic phenomena at a scale and resolution once unimaginable. These scientific possibilities are opened up by new sources of data, such as the digital traces that arise from ubiquitous social computing, massive longitudinal datasets produced by the digitization of historical records,

Improvements in health and mortality, known as the health transition, played important roles in the rise of modern contraceptive prevalence across countries. We describe key mechanisms and selected research evidence that show how health transitions helped shape contraceptive transitions around the world. Mechanisms include how decreases in child mortality rates affect the motivation to use contraception

Standard demographic research has typically constrained the existence of identity fluidity, assuming that demographic categories such as race or ethnicity and sex or gender should be static across the life course and measuring them as such. However, recent research and changes in data collection practices highlight the limitations of this approach by demonstrating fluidity in both racial and gender

City populations grow due to natural change, migration, and areas that are reclassified as part of a city. Because a time series of city boundaries was not available, most analyses ignore reclassification. This paper measures reclassification in a harmonized and transparent manner by applying a new harmonized definition of cities, towns, and rural areas, called the degree of urbanization, to gridded

Despite the increasing use of medically assisted reproduction (MAR) in modern societies, there is limited evidence on whether conceiving with MAR or remaining involuntarily childless after MAR is associated with partnership stability. While older age, the more advantaged socioeconomic position of women undergoing MAR and their strong fertility intentions could lead to higher partnership stability,

Increased gender equality in the labor market and the home are both cited as stabilizers to income inequality between households, but shifts in the economic organization of families over the life course instead appear to amplify household income inequality. Using the case of Sweden, where men have taken longer parental leave in recent years and the age at parenthood continues to advance, we analyze

The conventional approach to gauging mortality convergence in Europe relies on life expectancy estimates () at the national level. However, mortality can differ within countries significantly. To better apprehend whether Europe's mortality patterns have been converging or diverging over recent decades, we must shift our focus to regional mortality data. Using data from statistical offices, we present

At the onset of the first wave of COVID‐19 in the United States, the pandemic's effect on future birthrates was unknown. In this paper, we assess whether digital trace data—often touted as a panacea for traditional data scarcity—held the potential to accurately predict fertility change caused by the COVID‐19 pandemic in the United States. Specifically, we produced state‐level, dynamic future predictions

Most studies on the impact of birth intentions on children's well‐being do not separate risks of infant mortality associated with pregnancy intention status from the risks that are associated with sociodemographic characteristics. There is a lack of studies taking a multicountry comparative perspective. We analyzed 60 Demographic and Health Surveys in Asia, the Americas, and Africa to examine the association

Migrant destination states of the Global North generally seek to stem irregular migration while remaining committed to refugee rights. To do so, these states have increasingly sought to externalize migration control, implicating migrant origin and transit states in managing the movement of persons across borders. But do externalization policies actually have an impact on unauthorized migration flows