Social Demography (Myrskylä)
At a Glance
Laboratories
Publications
Team
Detailed Description
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Demographic change is among the defining forces shaping societies in the 21st century. Declining fertility, increasing longevity, migration, changing family structures, and widening social inequalities are transforming populations across the globe, with profound implications for health, labor markets, social welfare systems, and economic development. At the same time, demographic change is itself shaped by social, political, economic, and biological processes. Understanding these complex interactions is at the core of the Department of Social Demography.
The Department investigates how demographic processes emerge, how they vary across populations and over time, and what their consequences are for individuals and societies. Our research seeks not only to explain contemporary demographic trends, but also to chart possible demographic futures and evaluate societies' capacity to adapt to challenges related to population aging, changing family patterns, health inequalities, and demographically shaped long-term social and economic sustainability.
Research in the Department is organized around five closely connected laboratories and research groups, each addressing a fundamental dimension of demographic change.
The Laboratory of Population Health investigates health and mortality dynamics across the life course and generations, asking how increasing longevity translates into healthy years of life and how inequalities in health emerge and evolve across and within populations.
The Laboratory of Fertility and Well-Being examines the determinants and consequences of reproductive and family formation behavior in contemporary societies. Its research explores fertility postponement, childlessness, family and partnership dynamics, reproductive health, and the relationship between fertility and well-being, providing an empirical foundation for understanding changing fertility patterns and family life.
The Research Group Labor Demography studies the implications of demographic change for labor markets, retirement, and human capital. By examining labor market participation across the life course, changing educational profiles, and retirement dynamics, the group evaluates how demographic change influences economic productivity and the sustainability of welfare systems.
The Max Planck – University of Helsinki Center for Social Inequalities in Population Health (MaxHel) investigates the origins of health inequalities across generations. Combining rich genealogical data, complete kinship structures, genetic information, and population registers, the Center studies how biological, social, and family processes jointly shape health and mortality throughout the life course.
The ERC-fynded Synergy Project BIOSFER: Untangling the Biological and Social Causes of Low Fertility in Modern Societies focuses on one of the defining demographic puzzles of our time: persistently low and increasingly polarized fertility. BIOSFER investigates why childlessness and low fertility are becoming increasingly concentrated among socioeconomically disadvantaged groups, even in countries characterized by high levels of social equality. By integrating biological and social perspectives and developing novel data resources and analytical approaches, the program advances our understanding of the mechanisms underlying contemporary fertility inequalities.
Across these research themes, the Department places strong emphasis on understanding both population-level trends and the micro-level mechanisms that generate them. We combine demographic theory with cutting-edge statistical, mathematical, computational, and causal inference methods, drawing on comprehensive population registers, longitudinal surveys, biomarker and genetic data, and newly collected datasets. Our research spans countries, historical periods, and institutional contexts, while maintaining a particular focus on contemporary demographic change and future population challenges.
By integrating insights across health, fertility, labor markets, social inequality, and methodological innovation, the Department aims to advance a comprehensive understanding of demographic change as both a consequence and a driver of social transformation. Through interdisciplinary research and methodological excellence, we contribute evidence that informs scientific debate and supports policies promoting healthier, more equitable, and more sustainable societies.