December 06, 2013 | Defo News

One is better than none

The current issue and all past issues can be found at www.demografische-forschung.org © MPIDR

The new issue (Nr. 4/2013) of "Demografische Forschung Aus Erster Hand", the popular science newsletter with latest research results from demography, has been released. (The Newsletter is available in German only.)

Topics of the 4/2013 issue:

The first year of life leaves a mark
Being born in a year in which the economy was booming increases the chances that a person will remain mentally acute in old age

According to the latest World Alzheimer Report, by 2050 the number of people with dementia will have tripled, from 35 to 115 million. A team led by Rostock demographer Gabriele Doblhammer has studied the question of how the state of the economy in the early years of a person’s life influences his or her cognitive abilities in old age.


One is better than none
Couples with children generally agree they want to be parents before the first baby is born. Childless couples, by contrast, may not agree on parenthood

It’s a conflict that affects many partnerships: the woman wants to have a child, but the man does not; or vice versa. Maria Rita Testa of the Vienna Institute of Demography has studied how a lack of consensus between the partners on this question affects family planning, and what might cause the couple to decide to have a child. 

Old and alone in a foreign country
Turkish seniors living in Germany feel lonelier than elderly people who were born in Germany

Is the idea that elderly Turkish migrants living in Germany are especially lonely just a cliché? A German-Dutch research team have studied this question. They found that this preconception is based in reality, and investigated the underlying causes. The researchers identified higher rates of poverty and illness as the main reasons why Turkish seniors are lonelier than their German counterparts.

"Demografische Forschung Aus Erster Hand" is a joint publication of the Max Planck Institute for demographic Research (MPIDR), the Rostocker Zentrum zur Erforschung des Demografischen Wandels (RZ), the Vienna Institute of Demography (VID), the Wittgenstein Centre for Demography and Global Human Capital and the Federal Institute for Population Research (BiB). The newsletter is released four times a year and is available electronically and as a printed version and is free of charge.

All past issues are available online on the Newsletter website. On the website you also have the possibility to subscribe to the Newsletter to get informed about the release of the new issues or to receive the printed versions by mail.

Contact

Head of the Department of Public Relations and Publications

Silvia Leek

E-Mail

+49 381 2081-143

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.