Author Archives: Ben
The relationship between demography and democracy
The global population is ageing and many experts predict that this will have some negative consequences for society. But in new research, we examine whether the demographic transition also has important positive consequences, including the promotion and development of democracy. In 1970, only 8 per cent of the world’s population was classified as ‘old’ (aged […]
The Land of Babushka
This is a post by Ilya Kashnitsky, which discusses his recent research on population dynamics in Russia. There are some Russian words that are commonly known across the world. One of them is “babushka”, meaning “granny”, which in some contexts can simply be translated as “old lady”. In fact, this word may become even more […]
Exploring the limits of household surveys in Africa
In this post, LSE’s Ernestina Coast and UCL’s Sara Randall outline the importance of accuracy of data taken in international surveys to ensure poverty-related data are high quality. Poverty statistics often depend on household-level measurements from survey data, making the definition of household of critical importance. Many policy-makers, government agencies and researchers see poverty as […]
African Health Statistics
MamaYe has announced the launch of an innovative data site which allows you to chart, map and compare key health indicators across all 54 African Union member states. After months of carefully gathering data, deciding the indicators, testing the codes, designing how the numbers will be translated into graphs or maps, and consulting with governments […]
Causal inference
Does working as a researcher cause your eyesight to become strained, your back to become hunched, and your social life to become rather limited? Or is this just an association? The fact that I’m even asking this question probably suggests that I need to get out more. But the question of causality arises frequently in […]
What are data? Exploring the question that no one asks
There is evidence that people fundamentally differ in their understanding of data. Three (implicit) philosophies speak of data as objective facts (measurements), as subjective observations (records), and as communications (signs). An example explains what this means in practice. The case study below is adapted from Brian Ballsun-Stanton’s PhD thesis Asking about data. He is an […]
News: Population conferences
It seems unlikely, unless you have a very narrow set of research interests, that you’ll be able to attend every “relevant” conference. For one thing, most research budgets won’t stretch that far, (even if you can handle sleeping in a youth hostel dormitory with twenty drunken gap year students). For another, conferences certainly take up […]
Research spotlight: When legalising abortion isn’t enough
LSE’s Ernestina Coast is the Principal Investigator on a new research project in Zambia that seeks to establish how investment in abortion services impacts the socio-economic conditions of women and their households. Zambia’s relatively liberal abortion laws make the country a rare case in sub-Saharan Africa, a region where abortion is generally prohibited altogether or […]
The origins of population statistics: a glimpse at the UK
With the release of the Demotrends blog, I started wondering about the origins of my discipline. What was the first population statistic? Which population did it enumerate? And who created it? I wasn’t thinking about a simple headcount – the campfire estimate of an ancestor like Lucy (if indeed she could count?), but something a […]
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