News

The COVID-19 pandemic reshaped mortality across the world, but official COVID-19 death counts often tell only part of the story. In countries where reporting practices differ or health systems are under strain, many pandemic-related deaths may be hidden in other causes. Understanding the true impact of the pandemic therefore requires looking beyond COVID-19 itself. In this new working paper, Ekaterina Degtiareva, whose PhD research is based at the Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science (LCDS), together with Sergey Timonin, Andrea Tilstra (LCDS), and José Manuel Aburto, provide the first detailed cause-specific analysis of excess mortality in Russia during 2020–2021.

Please join us on Wednesday 25th March, 15:30 to 16:30 in the Butler Room, Nuffield college for our upcoming seminar.

A new study published in World Development examines how programmes aimed at strengthening women’s empowerment can influence household decisions about energy use — particularly the adoption of cleaner cooking fuels.

A new study involving LCDS researcher Thomas Rawson examines how social and demographic factors influence COVID-19 vaccine uptake and protection across populations. Published in the journal Vaccine, the research highlights how differences in vaccination behaviour can create unequal protection against infectious disease.

A major international study led by researchers at the Australian National University (ANU) and the Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science at the University of Oxford, has found that female reproductive cancers significantly reduce women’s overall survival advantage in low-mortality countries.

A new article by LCDS affiliated DPhil Micol Morellini, published in the European Journal of Population, proposes a novel method for evaluating migration theories by examining how well they reproduce the spatial patterns of migration flows.

The Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science will host a Hilary Term seminar featuring Aja Sutton, Postdoctoral Scholar at the Population Research Center at Portland State University. Her talk, titled “Online interactions, real-world epidemics: how digital social media influencers can affect epidemics in group-structured populations” will explore how online influence can shape health behaviours and epidemic outcomes. The seminar will take place on Tuesday 17th March 14:00-15:30 in the Butler Room at Nuffield College.

Jakub Bijak, Professor of Demographic Science at the Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science (LCDS), is featured in a recent Financial Times article examining how demographic trends are reshaping the global economy.

For International Women's Day 2026, Nuffield College is delighted to host a talk from Professor Melinda Mills: How to Be Brilliant Without Being Behaved. The talk will take place on Monday 16th March from 17:30 at Nuffield College.