Martin Kreidl

@martinkreidl.bsky.social

Social demographer interested in family and inequality. Professor @soc-muni.bsky.social. UCLA sociology and @ccpratucla.bsky.social alumnus. @ggp.bsky.social @ggp-cz.bsky.social country coordinator.

Co-organising (with Wendy Sigle and Sarah Walters) a new strand at the @bspsuk.bsky.social conference this year on the Politics of Demography, to encourage more discussions among demographers about the political implications of their work, and about the politics of producing demographic knowledge

Banner of the BSPS at the entrance to the conference venue

The day a child is born is the most dangerous day of life. After birth, a child’s risk of dying declines rapidly across their first year. Risks continue to decline over the next few years, but suddenly rise again during adolescence. Finally, in adulthood, the chances of dying grow exponentially.

Line chart (log scale) of death rates by age for Swedish birth cohorts from the 1800s to the 1980s where lines show a steady decline in mortality across almost all ages — much higher infant and child death rates in early cohorts and lower mortality in recent cohorts. Data source: Human Mortality Database (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, University of California, Berkeley, French Institute for Demographic Studies) via OurWorldInData.org. License: CC-BY to the author Saloni Dattani.

The same traits that shape women’s desirability in dating markets—race, education, body type, parenthood—do surprisingly little to predict inappropriate contact from men. The main dividing line is age. A reminder that this behavior is less about attraction than about dominance and opportunity.

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Congratulations to the data wizards at @ourworldindata.org who created this elegant tool so you can adjust fertility, mortality & migration rates for any country to see the impact on population sizes & age structures. This is really, really great!! Check it out!! Excellent tool, terrific write up.

Our World in Data@ourworldindata.org · 6mo ago

How will populations across the world change in the 21st century? 🔧 Explore for yourself with our new interactive tool!

An image of the new interactive population simulation tool from Our World in Data, showing South Korea.

“We argue for a paradigm shift in demography, moving beyond alarmist narratives fixated on “lowest-low fertility”. Initially useful, the concept now obscures more than it reveals, as it conflates vastly different demographic trajectories across an increasingly heterogeneous global landscape”

<em>Population and Development Review</em> | Population Council Journal | Wiley Online Library

This paper argues for a paradigm shift in demography, moving beyond the alarmist and deterministic narratives fixated on “lowest-low fertility (LLF)” (total fertility rate ≤ 1.3). Initially a useful ...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

@statnews.com conducted a national survey of NIH-funded researchers and found that, a year after Trump's return, many scientists are reeling, with some closing labs entirely. ‘This is like the Titanic,' one respondent told me. For full details, see our special report www.statnews.com/2026/03/19/n...

National survey of NIH-funded researchers shows precarious state of U.S. science — ‘This is like the Titanic’

A nationwide STAT survey of NIH-funded researchers reveals that, a year after Donald Trump's return to the White House, many scientists are reeling

statnews.com