News from the Network

Forced migration caused by armed conflict or persecution is unpredictable [1]. The Syrian crisis, which by October 2015 saw over four million refugees already registered outside Syria, certainly seemed to catch Europe off guard.

Population Europe is very pleased to announce its new collaboration with the OECD Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs (ELS) in Paris, France. ELS is joining a group of nine other institutions, amongst them the European Commission DG for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, Eurostat, and the Population Reference Bureau in Washington D.C.

The European Commission’s new roadmap on work-life balance for families seeks to im­prove labour market participation of women. Women’s employment, asserts the Commis­sion, is “tightly linked to the distribution of work and family responsibilities between men and women” and, consequently, gender gaps in pay and pensions [1].

Greek life expectancy is on the rise. Between 2004 and 2013, life expectancy at birth rose more than two full years from 79.3 to 81.4, keeping Greece above the EU average (up 2.2 years to 80.6) and on par with some richer countries like Germany (up 1.6 years to 80.9). Within the country, the change has not been driven by rich regions only: Epirus (Ipeiros), the country’s poorest by GDP per capita (2011), saw a rise in life expectancy similar to that of Athens (Attiki).

Why do women remain childless, why is 60 the new 70, what factors influence migration decisions? In our Population Europe Video Series "Population Europe Inter-Faces", 20 well-respected researchers from the Population Europe network answer demographic questions in a very intelligible and comprehensive way. Each one of them is also explaining one figure, that they find interesting an important. You can watch the videos here