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In this issue: IUSSP Council meets in Paris ● New IUSSP Scientific Panels ● IUSSP 2026 Laureate Jane Bertrand ● Call for 2027 IUSSP Laureate Award ● Call for 2027 Early Career Award nominations ● IUSSP at PAA 2026 in St. Louis, Mo ● IUSSP at EPC 2026 in Bologna ● IUSSP Debate: When Populations Shrink - Should States Encourage Births or Adapt? ● Population Dynamics in a Changing Climate ● Global Perspectives in Lifetime Migration Data Infrastructures ● SOCSIM Demographic Microsimulation in R ● Kinship Structures, Dynamics, and Inequalities conference ● Member News ● Regional Population Associations ● Other Announcements ● N-IUSSP ● Calls for papers ● Training courses and workshops ● Career and study opportunities ● Calendar The IUSSP Council held its first meeting on 7–8 April at IUSSP headquarters, hosted by INED on the Condorcet Campus in Aubervilliers, in the Paris region. The Council discussed priorities for 2026–2029, including preparations for IUSSP’s centenary in 2028 and early planning for the International Population Conference (IPC2029) in Barcelona, Spain, and approved the creation of six new Scientific Panels. Six new Panels were created and three were renewed. Several Panels were also extended to complete their programme of activities and two IUSSP Panels are "ongoing". In addition, the IUSSP Council decided to establish a new Early-Career Panel to organize activities for the benefit of Early Career Researchers. IUSSP awards IUSSP 2026 Laureate – Jane Bertrand
The Council elected Jane Bertrand as the 2026 IUSSP Laureate in recognition of her exceptional contributions to the advancement of population sciences and distinguished services rendered to the population community. An in-person Laureate Award ceremony was held on Thursday 7 May 2026 at the PAA Annual Meeting in St. Louis, Missouri. A virtual ceremony will take place on 28 September. Call for 2027 IUSSP Laureate Award The IUSSP Laureate Award honours exceptional achievements in the population field. Nominate a deserving colleague for the 2027 IUSSP Laureate Award. Deadline for nominations: 1 December 2026. Call for 2027 Early Career Award nominations The IUSSP Early Career Awards are offered in the following world regions: Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, and North America. One award will be bestowed per region in a unique collaboration with UAPS, APA, EAPS, ALAP and PAA. Deadline for nominations: 1 November 2026. IUSSP at other conferences IUSSP at the 2026 PAA Annual Meeting  After missing the 2025 PAA meeting, the IUSSP returned to the Annual Meeting of the Population Association of America (PAA), which was held in St. Louis, Missouri from 6 to 9 May 2026. The IUSSP had an exhibition booth and held a member-organized meeting that included a ceremony to present the 2026 Laureate award to Jane Bertrand. The meeting provided an important opportunity to reconnect with members and colleagues in North America.  The 2026 European Population Conference (EPC2026), held from 3 to 6 June at the University of Bologna, brought together over 1,000 researchers and students from all over Europe and beyond. The IUSSP shared a booth with EAPS and four IUSSP Scientific Panels organized three pre-conference workshops. (Read more on the EPC 2026 Conference in Bologna) IUSSP activities IUSSP Debate: When Populations Shrink - Should States Encourage Births or Adapt?
The IUSSP Debate "When Populations Shrink – Should States Encourage Births or Adapt?" was held online on 1 April 2026. The debate was proposed and organized by Stan Becker and Apoorva Jadhav and included four debaters – Youngtae Cho, Reiko Hayashi, Anna Rotkirch and Vegard Skirbekk – with opening insights on the question from Tomas Sobotka. Population Dynamics in a Changing Climate The newly founded IUSSP Panel on Climate and Environmental Demography and the EAPS Working Group on Climate Demography organized a workshop on “Climate Demography: Population Dynamics in a Changing Climate” on 3 June 2026 as a preconference event at the European Population Conference (EPC) in Bologna, Italy. Global Perspectives in Lifetime Migration Data Infrastructures The IUSSP Scientific Panel on Lifetime Migration organized a workshop on “Global Perspectives in Lifetime Migration Data Infrastructures” on 3 June 2026 as a side event of the European Population Conference held at the University of Bologna. SOCSIM Demographic Microsimulation in R The Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, in collaboration with the IUSSP Panel on Kinship Structures, Dynamics and Inequalities and the IUSSP Panel on Digital and Computational Demography, organized a preconference workshop on 3 June 2026 on the topic of SOCSIM Demographic Microsimulation in R at the 2026 European Population Conference. Kinship Structures, Dynamics, and Inequalities conference The international conference on Kinship Structures, Dynamics, and Inequalities was held on 8-9 June 2026 at MPIDR in Rostock, Germany, in collaboration with the IUSSP Scientific Panel on Kinship Structures, Dynamics and Inequalities. Its central aim was to advance comparative and interdisciplinary research on kinship by sharing ideas on how rapid sociodemographic transformations reshape family systems beyond the household, and how these transformations contribute to social and economic inequalities. Forthcoming activities  The IUSSP Panel on Aligning Population Policies with Low Fertility invites you to this hybrid conference on 20 August 2026: “Beyond Birth Rates: Advancing a Pro-Alignment Approach to Low Fertility in North America”. This event will bring together leading experts and policy analysts to examine the implications of low fertility, dispel common myths and misperceptions, and propose pro-alignment policies to help people avoid both unintended and unrealized fertility and foster demographic resilience. Members News
This section advertises members’ software packages. These packages, which enhance the study of population, must be published in established repositories with rigorous peer testing and review.
IUSSP members' blogs. Do you have a blog or podcast on population issues that you would like to share with IUSSP members? Please send information to the IUSSP Secretariat (contact@iussp.org) for inclusion in the next Bulletin.
Nandita Bajaj – podcasts and interviews  Nandita Bajaj (Population Balance) invites members to check out the recent episodes on her OVERSHOOT podcast with Philip N. Cohen (Falling birth rates are not a crisis), Samuel Miller McDonald (The elite’s fixation with low birth rates) and Vegard Skirbekk (The advantages of declining fertility). As a scholar-activist, Nandita writes and publishes for academic and media outlets and offers presentations, specifically on the harms of pronatalism and low-fertility alarmism on reproductive rights and planetary health. She also runs a storytelling podcast, Beyond Pronatalism, which she invites members to check out (and potentially join as guests).  Marion Burkimsher (Independent Researcher) was interviewed by a New Zealand think tank on NZ’s falling fertility rate and looming population decline. She explores whether immigration can fill the gap as birth rates drop, the psychological implications of ageing societies and what might actually help young people form families - from modern partnering challenges, the advantages of cross-cultural interactions and how education might help, to realistic expectations about parenthood. (To listen to this podcast, click here) Nine new Members and 4 new Student Associates joined the IUSSP between 1 March and 31 May 2026. Please encourage your colleagues and students to become members. (See list) • Dirk J. van de Kaa (1933-2026)
• Yasuhiko Saito (1955-2026)
• Alphonse L. MacDonald (1940-2026)
• Tom Merrick (1939-2026)  We are saddened to report the death of Thomas W. Merrick on 18 March 2026. An IUSSP member since 1968, he was a distinguished economist and demographer whose work helped shape the study of population and development in Latin America and beyond. Tom Burch – 2026 PAA Honored Member  Our late IUSSP member and colleague, Thomas K. Burch was recently included into the Population Association of America (PAA) Honored Member List. This is a highly deserved recognition that honors his memory and scholarly contributions to population science. During his long academic career, he made significant contributions to the fields of fertility and family planning, families and households, demographic theory and the teaching of demography. Tom Burch passed away on July 26, 2022. He was Professor Emeritus in the department of Sociology at Western University, Canada, and Adjunct Professor of Sociology at the University of Victoria. Regional Population Associations 2026 ALAP congress in San Jose, Costa Rica
The XII Congress of the Latin American Population Association (ALAP) will take place in San José, Costa Rica, 24-28 August 2026 on the theme "New Frontiers: Demography, Digital Revolution, Democratization of Information and Dialogue in the Americas". (Read more on the ALAP website)  The 7th Asian Population Association Conference (APAC 2026) will be held in Hanoi, Viet Nam, 24-27 November 2026. APAC 2026 will bring together population scholars, researchers, practitioners, and policymakers from across Asia and beyond to discuss emerging demographic trends and pressing population issues. The conference is expected to feature approximately 300 oral presentations across 56 parallel panel sessions, and up to 300 poster presentations over the course of the event. APAC 2026 is now accepting Expressions of Interest for exhibit booths, side meetings, and sponsored sessions. Deadline for applications: 31 August 2026. 2026 PAA Annual Meeting in St-Louis, MO
The European Population Conference 2026 (EPC 2026) convened in Bologna, Italy, from 3 to 6 June, was organized by EAPS in collaboration with the University of Bologna. The conference programme and photos of the event are available on the EAPS website. Other Announcements Survey on next generation future scenarios  The Scenario Evolution Process (SEP) is a global, research community-led initiative to evaluate and update the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs). Whether the SSPs require a minor update or a fundamental redesign will be decided by the research and policy community. 1/ Respond to the survey. 2/ Attend the Community Webinar on 30 June. 3/ Submit a contribution to the SEP's call for papers for a Special Issue on “Socioeconomic futures frameworks for motivating actions for sustainability” in the journal Futures. 4/ Propose nominations for the SEP Orchestration Working Group, particularly from researchers outside the Global North.
(Read the IASSH conference report) N-IUSSP
Calls
Training Training courses and workshops
Career and Study Opportunities Jobs/Fellowships/PhD Positions/Post-Docs
Calendar Forthcoming IUSSP meetings & other events
Submit your announcements Feel free to share news from your institution and region so that we can keep all IUSSP members informed about recent or forthcoming events and opportunities in the population field. IUSSP members are welcome to submit information on conferences, calls for papers, training, career or study opportunities as well as their recent publications or peer-reviewed software for inclusion in the newsletter and IUSSP website. Please send the information to contact@iussp.org and remember to include important dates for application deadlines (and photos when appropriate). Information should be sent by email or in a Word document so that it can be edited. For inclusion in the next Bulletin, please send information by 1 September 2026. We look forward to hearing from you soon. IUSSP Bulletin / Bulletin de l’UIESP Publication Director: Mary Ellen Zuppan, IUSSP Executive Director ISSN: 2427–0059 |
