World Population

The World Population Program is renowned for its work on the changing size, distribution, and educational composition of the world’s population and the effect of these changes on sustainable development. The program’s research complements the institute’s work on environmental topics and provides insights on the resilience of populations and how human health and wellbeing are being affected.

Selected highlights

New survival-based measure for wellbeing

New survival-based measure for wellbeing

IIASA researchers have introduced a new, simple measure for human wellbeing across countries that for the first time takes inequality in lifespans into account to produce reliable comparisons of survival-based wellbeing across countries, both in the past and the present.
Forecasting world population and migration

Forecasting world population and migration

When fertility levels are low, as is currently the case in Europe, international migration becomes the main factor influencing population growth. However, research shows that in terms of economic consequences, the size of the labor force and productivity matter more.
Rethinking the predictors of longevity

Rethinking the predictors of longevity

Researchers from IIASA and the Vienna University of Economics and Business have challenged the popular view that income and medical interventions are the main drivers of health, and showed that improving education is the main driver.
Accounting for diversity in population projections

Accounting for diversity in population projections

Researchers from IIASA and the Asian Demographic Research Institute have shown that explicitly accounting for differences within populations significantly influence future population projections. Their work contributes to current debates in population forecasting and more broadly to social and economic forecasting models in general.