Launching the new Demographic Science Unit (DSU)
The new Demographic Science Unit (DSU) was launched on 1 August 2023 and is at the forefront of demographic research in Oxford and beyond. Based at Oxford Population Health and directed by Professor Melinda Mills, the unit is home to the Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science and world-leading demographers. From biosocial, computational and geospatial demography, to inequality, climate and family, the unit leverages existing and new types of data, alongside innovative methods and unconventional approaches to tackle the most challenging demographic and population problems of our time. The unit’s interdisciplinary and demographic expertise are disrupting and realigning the study of demography for the benefit of populations around the world.
Latest

Unravelling ‘deaths of despair’ across countries
Researchers from the Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science, and Universities of Sheffield and Western Ontario, have explored the pre-pandemic rise of 'deaths of despair' – attributed to drugs, alcohol, and suicide – and its impact on mid-life mortality in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada.
Latest publications

Unravelling ‘deaths of despair’ across countries
Researchers from the Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science, and Universities of Sheffield and Western Ontario, have explored the pre-pandemic rise of 'deaths of despair' – attributed to drugs, alcohol, and suicide – and its impact on mid-life mortality in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada.

Uncovering footprints in genetics data: Addressing participation bias
A new paper published today in Nature Genetics by Stefania Benonisdottir and Professor Augustine Kong sheds light on the impact of ascertainment bias on genetic studies and the role of footprints in genetic data to overcome it.

Fertility declined across all educational groups in the UK
A new Population Studies paper by Emeritus Professor of Family Demography John Ermisch from Oxford’s Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science finds that women across all educational groups had fewer children and later on in life.