Announcing the Chinese Versions of the Online Multilingual Demographic DictionariesDecember 2025
The IUSSP is pleased to announce the release of the Chinese versions of the Online Multilingual Demographic Dictionaries, now accessible through the Demopaedia platform. Importantly, the project includes two Chinese variants—one for Mainland China (Simplified Chinese) and one for Taiwan (Traditional Chinese)—reflecting linguistic practice and terminology differences across Chinese-speaking regions. Their addition marks an important expansion of this long-standing international reference resource.
The printed versions can be ordered /purchased through Lulu.com, a "print-on-demand" service, using the links provided above. Additionally, you can download the PDF or EPUB versions of the dictionaries in Chinese as well as in other languages via the Demopaedia website for downloads. [If your browser automatically changes the URL from http to https, please manually edit the URL back to http to ensure proper access]. The Demopædia dictionaries, available both in web format and as printed books, are released under the Creative Commons ShareAlike license.
The dictionary initially aimed for a single unified Chinese edition. However, traditional Chinese indexing relies on counting strokes, a method younger generations increasingly cannot perform because handwriting has declined sharply as people increasingly use computers and smartphones for communication. The team had to find more appropriate classification methods but each proposed classification method is specific to the character variant, resulting in the need for two variants. (For more information on this, read "Why One Dictionary Became Two Books", by Nicolas Brouard.)
A Long-Standing Resource, Now Online and Expanded
The Multilingual Demographic Dictionaries were originally developed under the auspices of the United Nations and the IUSSP beginning in the 1950s. Their purpose was to establish a standardized, multilingual vocabulary of demographic concepts for use in research, teaching, and statistical reporting.
With the creation of Demopaedia, the dictionaries were transformed into an online, openly accessible, and evolving resource. Today, Demopaedia provides harmonized definitions, stable term identifiers, and a shared conceptual structure across multiple languages. The online environment allows the dictionaries to be consulted easily and updated over time while maintaining cross-linguistic coherence.
Languages Currently Available on Demopaedia
Demopaedia now hosts dictionary content in a broad set of languages, including Arabic, Chinese (Mainland), Chinese (Taiwan), Czech, English, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Nepali, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Thai, and Vietnamese.
Languages With a Unified Version of the 2nd Edition
The “unified” edition refers to a harmonized, structurally consistent version of the 2nd edition intended to serve as the basis for translation into multiple languages. At present, the unified format is fully available in English and French; it is used as the reference base for all subsequent translations, including the newly added Chinese versions. Other languages have been partially harmonized or are in progress.
Why the Online Dictionaries Matter for Demographers
In an international research environment where work routinely crosses linguistic and institutional boundaries, the online multilingual dictionaries serve several essential functions:
The inclusion of the two Chinese variants significantly broadens the reach and usability of this shared terminology. It also supports the many researchers worldwide who engage with demographic data and scholarship from Chinese-speaking regions.
A Foundation for Interoperability and Machine-Readable Terminology
The structured, multilingual nature of the dictionaries provides a natural foundation for making demographic terminology FAIR—Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable—by both humans and machines.
As part of a new IUSSP initiative, work is underway to explore how Demopaedia’s stable identifiers, definitions, and translations can support:
The availability of harmonized terminology across many languages—including the two Chinese variants—is essential for this vision. Machine-readable demographic vocabularies depend on a shared conceptual framework, and the Multilingual Demographic Dictionaries provide precisely such a foundation.
Looking Forward
The addition of the Chinese versions represents both a milestone and an opportunity. It expands access to this authoritative demographic lexicon, strengthens the global utility of Demopaedia, and supports the IUSSP’s emerging work on FAIR and machine-actionable demographic terminology.
We encourage members to explore the Chinese dictionaries and to revisit the broader multilingual collection at Demopaedia.org. Your engagement and feedback will help guide the next stages of this evolving resource. Acknowledgements
The IUSSP warmly thanks all those who contributed to the development of the Chinese versions of the Multilingual Demographic Dictionaries. Special recognition goes to Nicolas Brouard, whose vision and sustained commitment have been central to Demopaedia from its inception and whose leadership was instrumental in bringing the Chinese versions to fruition. We are also grateful to Feinuo Sun, Xiaochun Qiao and Chyong-Fang Ko for their expertise, dedication, and collaborative work in adapting and harmonizing demographic terminology for Chinese-speaking audiences. Their collective efforts have significantly strengthened this global resource for the demographic community. |