Population Studies Centre

The Population Studies Centre generates and co-ordinates research in Population Studies, and provides a service function in this field. The Centre is the only such unit in New Zealand, so its functions are national as well as regional. It also has major international and cross-national research interests. Centre staff work in three broad areas: demography, migration research, and population economics.

Associates of the Centre are drawn from a number of disciplines including Demography, Economics, Education, Geography, History, Psychology, Sociology and Statistics. There is provision for the appointment, as Associates, of persons outside the University with relevant experience and expertise.

The demographic research interests of members of the Centre span diverse areas including work with and on behalf of the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population and other scientific organisations, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, the South Pacific Commission, the United Nations Fund for Population Activities, and many different public and non-governmental agencies in New Zealand. Research on policy matters related to demographic topics includes the family, labour force and ageing, population redistribution, fertility and reproductive health in both New Zealand and overseas, refugee movements and the consequences of international migration. Research also includes such areas as mortality, health, population-development and population-food security, inter-relations in the Third World, population policy, historical demography and fertility and family formation.

Finally, Centre staff and Associates contribute to interdisciplinary teaching at undergraduate and graduate level.