Ilya is a demographer at Statistics Denmark. The topic that unifies his research activities is population dynamics — the multifaceted exploration of the factors that define the speed and characteristics of population change and the societal effects that they cast.

During the PhD project conducted at Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute, he explored full population dynamics at the sub-national level, focusing on population ageing, depopulation, and the challenges they pose for welfare states and regional cohesion. At postdoc period spanning into Assistant Professor tenure at Interdisciplinary Centre on Population Dynamics in Denmark, he focused on mortality analysis and new methods development. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, his work shifted to evaluating the mortality shock. These efforts resulted in his participation in a WHO and UN technical advisory group. His latest research focuses on small-area demographic estimation.

Recognized with the European Association for Population Studies' Outreach Award, Ilya is a vocal proponent of Open Science and strives to promote, use, and teach transparent and replicable research practices. He runs the "demographer’s notes" blog, indexed at R-bloggers, teaches intensive workshops on Data Visualization, and serves as a board member for the recently revived Danish Demographic Society.

Ilya is following demography, data visualization, science of science, open science, forensic metascience, and research evaluation.