SPOTLIGHT | September 11, 2024

Less smoking and better education: Improving U.S. Mortality Trends

A recent study found that behavioral changes, such as a decline in smoking, and social progress, including an expansion of education, have contributed to recent improvements in U.S. mortality. Together, these two factors accounted for 65% of the improvements in mortality. The researchers also identified an increase in psychological distress as a contributing factor to the slowing of mortality improvement in the U.S. during the study period, but most of the slowing remains unexplained.  More

Latest Publications | September 12, 2024

Summer 2024

Introduction to our research groups

Labor Demography

SPOTLIGHT | September 06, 2024

Robust improvements in cognitive health in European countries, but not in the United States

Cognitive impairment is a major concern for the aging population, with more than 55 million people worldwide suffering from dementia, a number expected to triple by 2050. A recent study found that compared to the United States, most European countries have shown significant improvements in average memory function among adults aged 50 and older over the past two decades.  More

Selected Publications

Loi, S.; Li, P.; Myrskylä, M.:

At the intersection of adverse life course pathways: the effects on health by migration status    Demography, 1–22. (2024)

Coimbra Vieira, C.; Lohmann, S.; Zagheni, E.:

The value of cultural similarity for predicting migration: evidence from food and drink interests in digital trace data   Population and Development Review, 1–28. (2024)

More Publications

Questions and Answers

Being a Researcher at the MPIDR

Working at MPIDR

Life & Research in Rostock

New Issue 2/2024 available | June 26, 2024

The Quarterly German Newsletter

New Faces at MPIDR | September 13, 2024

Welcome René Langenhan!

The administration team of the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR) welcomed René Langenhan as an in-house technician/driver this summer.  More

The Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR) in Rostock is one of the leading demographic research centers in the world. It's part of the Max Planck Society, the internationally renowned German research society.