The Population Research Center at NORC and the University of Chicago, now in its 25th year, is designed to facilitate high-quality population research conducted by economists, sociologists, and other population scientists. The Center's growth since 1983, when it became a P-30 Population Center, has come from researchers in economics, psychology, business, public policy, medicine, and social services administration.  That diversification reflects both a broadening in all population centers and a consistent trend at Chicago.

The Center has always worked at the margins of what was considered to be traditional demography, and as a result our center has helped expand the domain of the field. For example, we have placed less emphasis on the demographic methods featured in other population centers than on statistical methods adopted from the field of labor economics, including event-history analysis, and we have stressed the importance of understanding selection bias and censoring. We have also researched determinants of fertility decisions and their dynamics, timing, and spacing rather than more traditional fertility analyses. Though the research occasionally may have appeared to be on the periphery of demography, over time it has helped to redefine the domain more broadly.

Visit the Population Research Center homepage.