News from the Network

In a context of continued population ageing, countries in the UNECE region have made strong progress towards promoting active ageing and ensuring inclusive and sustainable societies for all ages. But further efforts are needed to realize the potentials of living longer. These are the main findings of a new report assessing trends and progress in countries’ actions in response to the challenges and potential linked to ageing populations, released today at the opening of the 4th UNECE Ministerial Conference on Ageing, held in Lisbon.

In the newly published book Öffentliche Gesellschaftswissen (Public Social Science) by Stefan Selke and Annette Treibel, several members of the Population Europe Secretariat collaborated on a chapter to share the best-practice experiences of Population Europe as a demographic research network. The chapter explains how the network assists leading researchers and research institutions in Europe in connecting with political and societal decision-makers, as well as the general public.

Out now: Population Europe's Quarterly Newsletter! Please download it here: Population Europe Newsletter July 2017.pdf

Population Europe sadly announces the passing of Prof. Godelieve Masuy-Stroobant (1948-2017). As the director of the Center for Demographic Research at the Université catholique de Louvain, Godelieve was one of the founding members of Population Europe in 2009 and actively supported activities, particularly during the formative years of our network, and ever since. We will miss her great support and advice and will always honor our colleague and friend in memory.   On behalf of Population Europe Dr Andreas Edel Executive Secretary  

Support of children and older persons is an important function of many social institutions, including the family and the public transfer system. Population ageing and increasing longevity require adaptions of these institutions as the share of dependent older people increases. It is of utmost importance to gain a better understanding of the way intergenerational support can be organised to be sustainable under demographic change without overburdening those who provide the support, and at the same time serve the people in the best possible way.

  Prof. dr. Clara Mulder, professor of Demography and Space at the University of Groningen and also affiliated researcher at NIDI, has been appointed as member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW).

Higher education is one of the social fields where inequalities are produced and reproduced. Nevertheless, we still know very little about the ways in which heterogeneities and inequalities have been experienced and interpreted by those involved in international academic mobility.

East German women are running the risk of an unforeseen increase in deaths through smoking, forecasts up to the year 2036 by scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR) in Rostock show. The researchers have published their findings in the leading journal on population trends, Demography.

Introduction Sexual minority individuals have a higher risk of anxiety and depression compared with heterosexuals. However, whether the higher risk is spread equally across the sexual minority population is not clear. Aim

The use of medicine differs between Member States. In the EU, almost half of the population (49 %) used prescribed medicines in 2014. Among the Member States, this proportion ranged from 23% in Romania, 36% in Cyprus, 38% in Italy and 39% in Bulgaria, to 55% in the Czech Republic, Luxembourg and Finland, 56% in Portugal and 60% in Belgium.