Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research

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.

Press Release | April 23, 2026

Men Have Fewer Children Than Women

Researchers investigated whether men or women have fewer children. Using international datasets, they demonstrate that imbalances in population structure, particularly an increasing proportion of men, affect male fertility. While men used to have higher fertility than women globally, this has reversed, and women have and will have a higher fertility rate than men. The scientists offer recommendations to counteract the social implications of this trend. More

April

Scientific Presentations

LabTalks@KinshipInequalities

Elena Maria Pojman from the Research Group: Kinship Inequalities gives a talk. More

All Events

Recommended Readings | April 02, 2026

Family Complexity Influences Health in Mid-Adulthood

Pre-Conference Workshops EPC2026

Population Dynamics in a Changing Climate
Health, Morbidity and Mortality Working Group Side Meeting
Demographic Microsimulation in R using SOCSIM
LLM Coding and Research Agents for Academics
EAPS Working Group on Open Science in Demography

Introduction to our research groups

Labor Demography

New Research Project | April 21, 2026

The Future of Education: Max Planck Society Starts Interdisciplinary Research Project “EduTrack”

The Max Planck Society is launching a 6-year research project to explore how education must change to account for rapid societal transformations. As of April 2026, the “EduTrack” project initiates a collaboration between researchers across three Max Planck Institutes. Experts from demography, history, computer science and political science will collaborate to produce fresh insights on digital education, the globalisation of knowledge, as well as the impact of education on social mobility, crisis resilience, and democracy. More

Selected Publications

Lorenti, A.; De Rose, A.; Racioppi, F.:

Volunteering during early retirement reduces depression Social Science and Medicine 367:117790, 1–12. (2025)

Dańko, M. J.; Wiśniowski, A.; Jasilionis, D.; Jdanov, D. A.; Zagheni, E.:

Assessing the quality of data on international migration flows in Europe: the case of undercounting Migration Studies 12:2, 1–21. (2024)

More Publications

New Issue 1/2026 available | March 31, 2026

The Quarterly German Newsletter

MPIDR@PAA2026

Introduction to Digital Trace Data for Migration Studies

Questions and Answers

Being a Researcher at the MPIDR

Working at MPIDR

Life & Research in Rostock

Latest Publications

Jobs & Fellowships

News | March 04, 2026

Large Gaps in Migration Research

Open Access

Online Available Books

New Publication | April 16, 2026

People With a Similar Risk of Divorce are More Likely to Marry Each Other

A study by the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR) and the Norwegian Institute of Public Health found that spouses tend to be very similar in terms of their risk of separation. Marriage is shaped not only by a person's own background, but also by that of their partner. The analysis of over 350,000 Norwegian marriages reveals a previously underestimated phenomenon: people with a similar risk of divorce tend to marry one another. More