A "Demographic Transition" at the Population Council

Back in 1952, John D. Rockefeller 3rd founded the Population Council in New York City to provide a place where population issues could be better understood. He was one those visionaries who saw very clearly that the aftermath of WWII was going to be a huge demographic shift in the world, and he played an important role in helping the world to try to cope with that, not just from the point of view of helping to slow population growth, but also in terms of feeding the population--having helped to launch the Green Revolution with his support of Norman Borlaug's work in Mexico.

In 1975 the Population Council started the journal Population and Development Review (PDR), which has become one of the most influential journals in the field, focusing on the translation of population science into policy relevant issues. From the beginning, Paul Demeny was the editor of the journal and in his 38 years as editor, Paul shaped the journal and helped to shape the field of demography, as well. He is a Past President of the Population Association of America and the author of a long list of important publications. In December of 2012, at age 80, Paul Demeny transitioned into retirement from the editorship of PDR and the journal has just recently made available a supplemental issue that highlights policy-relevant papers in honor of Paul Demeny. The journal is open-access, and I encourage you to read it carefully.