The Center

The Center for Demographic Research (DEMO) brings together specialists in population issues. Its origins date back to 1963, with the creation of the first Demographic Research Group at the Catholic University of Louvain. In 2009, the Institute of Demography and the Applied Demography Study Group (Gédap) merged to create the Center for Research in Demography and Society, renamed the Center for Demographic Research in 2015. The Research Center is part of the IACCHOS Institute (Institute for the Analysis of Change in History and Contemporary Societies) and the ESPO Faculty (Faculty of Economic, Social, Political, and Communication Sciences). DEMO academics are involved in organizing and teaching the Master's in Population and Development Sciences and the Minor in Population and Development.

The DEMO Center has around 40 members, including 15 doctoral students. Involved in numerous international and national projects and networks, it develops fundamental and applied research on the demographic challenges facing societies in the North and South. Its methodological expertise ranges from organizing surveys to exploiting data from observatories and population registers, including the analysis of imperfect data, the use of mixed methods, population projections, and microsimulation.

The members of the DEMO Center conduct research on intergenerational relationships and family change, international migration and integration, internal migration and health, fertility transitions and gender relations, long-term urban and demographic transitions, consumer practices with a direct impact on the environment, etc. They participate in the development of population outlooks in both developed and developing countries and also provide expertise and consulting services to national and international organizations. Members of the DEMO Center sit on the editorial boards of several demography journals and are actively involved in organizing international conferences. Since 1974, the Center has organized the annual Quetelet Conference, an international demography conference. Since 2012, articles from the Chaire Quetelet have been published in the Quetelet Journal.