Demography is the study of human populations, past, present and future. It is concerned with how births, deaths, and migration determine change, and so determine key trends such as rapid population growth and population ageing. It includes the analysis of characteristics that determine the components of change and/or are affected by population structure, such as age, sex, marital and health status, and the composition of families and households.
Formal demography is concerned with the measurement of the size, composition, and spatial distribution of human populations. Social demography (or population studies) explores the explanation and consequences of population trends and differentials, drawing on insights from a number of relevant disciplinary perspectives, including sociology, economics, anthropology, human geography, epidemiology and human biology.
LSE has a long-standing interest in population studies. An MSc in Demography was instituted at LSE in 1965, and LSE continues to provide demographic training at MSc and PhD level. The Population Investigation Committee, a small independent research group, was founded in 1936 and since World War II has been housed at LSE, and publishes the journal, Population Studies. LSE also houses the British Society for Population Studies.
The PhD programme in Demography (Social/Formal) is currently located within the department of Methodology.
Current researchers in population studies at LSE bring a range of disciplinary and methodological approaches to bear on population research. They are based across departments at the LSE to include Social Policy, International Development, Gender, Sociology, Economic History, Methodology and Psychological and Behavioural Sciences. Geographical focus is also diverse, encompassing developed, developing and transitional countries. Population researchers include those with training in anthropology, economics, biology, physics, sociology and statistics.
Contact: population@lse.ac.uk
Department of Health Policy
PhD topics for supervision: Social determinants of health and ageing over the life course, early life circumstances and health/ageing over the life course, biomarkers of health and ageing, health effects of social interventions and policies over the life course.
e.courtin@lse.ac.uk
Dr Ursula Henz
Department of Sociology
PhD topics for supervision: Gender division of unpaid work; Labour-force participation; Ethnic minority families; Partnership formation; Childcare; Eldercare; Intergenerational transfers; Fertility; Divorce; Time-use.
u.henz@lse.ac.uk
Professor Stephen Jenkins
Department of Social Policy
PhD topics for supervision: Quantitative analysis of data from household surveys and administrative sources; Labour markets and family behaviours.
s.jenkins@lse.ac.uk
Prof Tiziana Leone
Department of International Development
PhD topics for supervision: lifecourse and women's health in LMICs, ageing, reproductive health, biometrics and biomarkers, interaction between conflict and health.
t.leone@lse.ac.uk
Dr Berkay Özcan
Department of Social Policy
PhD topics for supervision: Social demography, especially families &children, (marriage, divorce, fertility and child outcomes) in addition to immigration if it intersects with family demography.
b.ozcan@lse.ac.uk
Prof Almudena Sevilla
Department of Social Policy
PhD topics for supervision: applied micro economist whose research focuses on the areas of gender, child development, and human capital
A.Sevilla@lse.ac.uk
Hampton Gaddy
PhD student, Department of Economic History
Research interests: historical mortality; the 1918 influenza epidemic; the demographic impacts of crises
Email: h.g.gaddy@lse.ac.uk
To view our researchers' thesis, click HERE
Dr Diego Alburez-Gutierrez
Beyond excess mortality: the demographic life of a Mayan community after a war of massacres
Dr Paul Bouanchaud
Male sex work in China: understanding the HIV risk environments of Shenzhen’s migrant money boys
Victoria Donnaloja
What is it to become a citizen? The perspective of immigrants and natives
Dr Joe Strong
Department of International Development