News & Press Releases

All Press Releases News Defo News

May 12, 2025 | Recommended Reading

Birth Seasonality: Eastern Germany Realigns With the West After Reunification

istockphoto.com / phaustov

There are times of the year when more children are born than usual. In his latest publication, Risto Conte Keivabu, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR), examines how the seasonal distribution of births in East and West Germany has changed between 1946 and 2017, and whether German reunification was associated with a change in the seasonality of births. more

May 09, 2025

Review of the Rostock Open Science Workshop 2025

MPIDR/Schulz

In March 2025, the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR) hosted the second Rostock Open Science Workshop in Rostock, Germany. The two-day event brought together researchers, scientists, and experts from around the world to discuss and learn about open science practices, with a focus on making research results and materials freely available to everyone. The workshop aimed to increase knowledge sharing, transparency and reproducibility of published results. more

May 08, 2025 | New Faces at MPIDR

Welcome, Antonino Polizzi!

MPIDR/Ruhland

Antonino Polizzi has been a researcher in the Laboratory of Population Health at the Department of Social Demography since February. He will defend his doctoral thesis in sociology at the University of Oxford. In Rostock, he finds the astronomical clock in St. Mary's Church particularly interesting. more

May 07, 2025 | Award

DGD Young Scientists Award for Anna-Kathleen Piereth

MPIDR/Schulz

The DGD Young Scientists Award is presented at the annual conference of the German Association for Demography. This year, Anna-Kathleen Piereth from the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR) won the award in the category "Best Master's Thesis". She received the award in March 2025 at the DGD's annual conference in Wiesbaden for her master's thesis "The Demography of Inpatient Care: Insights from the German Diagnosis Related Groups (G-DRG) Statistics". more

April 23, 2025 | Spotlight

Women with pregnancy losses show persistent health decline

istockphoto.com/Bevan Goldswain

In his recently published study, Alessandro Di Nallo, Research Scientist at the MPIDR examines how pregnancy outcomes — live births and pregnancy losses  — affect women’s physical health over time. The findings indicate that while physical health declines for all women after pregnancy, this decline is more pronounced and persistent among those who experienced a pregnancy loss.  more

March 24, 2025 | Award

IUSSP Early Career Award 2025 Europe for Diego Alburez-Gutierrez

MPIDR/Schulz

MPIDR research group leader Diego Alburez-Gutierrez receives the IUSSP Early Career Award 2025 Europe. The IUSSP Early Career Awards were established by the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population (IUSSP) in 2023 for each of the world regions. The award recognizes and honors outstanding contributions to the development of our discipline and the wider field of population studies by early career researchers in the different regions of the world, and promotes the global visibility of their achievements. more

March 21, 2025 | Award

DGD Best Paper Award for Athina Anastasiadou

Maximilian Frenz-Göllnitz

Migration researcher Athina Anastasiadou has won the Best Paper Award of the German Society for Demography (DGD). Anastasiadou received the award on March 20 at the DGD's annual conference for her paper "Gender Differences in the Migration Process: A Narrative Literature Review" in the journal Population and Development Review.
  more

March 17, 2025

How have Covid-19 vaccinations affected birth rates?

iStockphoto.com / Leonsbox

A recent study by the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR) found a link between the introduction of Covid-19 vaccination and a decline in fertility rates nine months later, with behavioral changes likely being the main cause. However, in most of the countries studied, the fertility rates returned to pre-pandemic levels after vaccination. There was no evidence of long-term adverse effects of Covid-19 vaccination on fertility tends. more

March 13, 2025 | Spotlight

A Difficult Childhood Increases the Risk of Dying Early

istockphoto.com/Imgorthand

In their recent paper, Josephine Jackisch and Alyson van Raalte from the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR) find that a difficult childhood is an important determinant of inequalities in mortality. The size of the contribution is equivalent to established behavioural risk factors such as smoking or little exercise. more

March 12, 2025 | Recommended Reading

Online Genealogies for Demographic Research - Potential Benefits and Pitfalls

Irina – stock.adobe.com

In a recent study, Andrea Colasurdo of the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR) and Riccardo Omenti of the University of Bologna examined the potential benefits and pitfalls of using online genealogies for demographic research. Using the FamiLinx database as an example, they investigated how the completeness and quality of demographic information in online genealogy data affects its usability. more

Contact

Head of the Department of Public Relations and Event Organization

Silvia Leek

E-Mail

+49 381 2081-143

Science Communication Editor

Christine Ruhland

E-Mail

+49 381 2081-157

Science Communication Editor

Silke Schulz

E-Mail

+49 381 2081-153

What next?

To the Home Page

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.