Vegard Skirbekk
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vegardskirbekk.bsky.social
Vegard Skirbekk
@vegardskirbekk.bsky.social

Global Demography, Fertility, Aging, Cognition, Productivity, Religion. Interdisciplinarity.

Professor Columbia & Oslo - PI @theCEFH

https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=no&user=OZOgxGEAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate
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Vegard Skirbekk is a Norwegian population economist and social scientist specializing in demographic analysis and cohort studies. He is a senior researcher at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health and also Professor of Population and Family Health at the Columbia Aging Center at Columbia University. .. more

Sociology 22%
Political science 22%
Pinned
My book, "Decline and Prosper!", presents a comprehensive and evidence-based overview of the causes and consequences of global fertility decline.
I argue that low fertility is inevitable, yet also has positive effects. We should help people have the children they want bit.ly/35Hm3Yk
Decline and Prosper!
This book considers the historical context as well as the full breadth of factors that drive fertility rates across the globe.
bit.ly

Glad and honoured to have been invited to give a keynote in Taiwan November 2025 titled 'Embracing the inevitable - Effectively adapting to the demographic transition'.

The conference theme was ‘Foreseeing the Future: Educational Reforms in Response to Declining Birth Rates’

Vis oversettelse

The Interdisciplinary Centre on Population Dynamics (CPop) will host an ERC Workshop on "A Unified Perspective on Formation and Dissolution Processes in Demography," 9-11 March 2026, at the University of Southern Denmark, Odense.

Abstract deadline: 19 December 2025.
www.sdu.dk/en/forskning...

Orphaned adolescent girls in Africa & Asia face higher risks of early sexual debut & teenage pregnancy, which is linked to wealth and education gaps. New study with Anjali Singh, Dil Bahadur Rahut and Tetsushi Sonobe
link.springer.com/article/10.1...

🎉 New research out with @fertdem.bsky.social and @vegardskirbekk.bsky.social !

💡 Time to ART birth decreased since the 2000s, and is shorter for those in their late 30s — likely reflecting improved treatment efficiency and faster access to care.

👉 pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41152834/
Time to birth for spontaneous and ART births among infertile groups - PubMed
While assisted reproductive technologies enable individuals facing infertility issues to achieve a live birth, they require more time to succeed. However, since the 2000s, time to ART births has decreased, with the shortest observed among those initiating conception attempts in their late thirties. …
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Indonesian Govt adds Rp330 bln for expanding contraception access: Minister - ANTARA News en.antaranews.com/news/387585/...
RI Govt adds Rp330 bln for expanding contraception access: Minister
Indonesia’s Ministry of Population and Family Development has increased funding for the Family Planning (KB) Program by Rp330 billion (US$19.2 million) ...
en.antaranews.com

Many regions of the world seek to reduce fertility - lower fertility argued to be the reason why
"... GDP per capita in Indonesia is USD 4,925 and in Bangladesh USD 2,593, compared to only USD 1,581 in Pakistan"
www.brecorder.com/news/4038893...
Alarming population growth
Pakistan is in the process of formulating a National Health and Population Policy (2025–2034) with an emphasis on...
www.brecorder.com

Our study finds that higher social interaction at work (ages 30–65) linked to lower dementia risk & better cognitive health later in life based on population level data. #BrainHealth #DementiaPrevention psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/202...
APA PsycNet
psycnet.apa.org

Great to work with you, Gustavo and Bernardo!
Last week UFMG hosted Semana do Conhecimento. In the event, students present the research they worked under the supervision of a faculty member.

Gustavo Freitas presented the project, with @vegardskirbekk.bsky.social, proposing an index of aging preparedness for countries in the world.

Reposted by Vegard Skirbekk

Last week UFMG hosted Semana do Conhecimento. In the event, students present the research they worked under the supervision of a faculty member.

Gustavo Freitas presented the project, with @vegardskirbekk.bsky.social, proposing an index of aging preparedness for countries in the world.

Reposted by Vegard Skirbekk

More baby bust alarmism by @joshuaqyang.bsky.social at @washingtonpost.com. This stuff just gets so old. Time to reimagine economics for an era of degrowth. Prosperity and wellbeing do not demand growth. Please read some @vegardskirbekk.bsky.social. www.washingtonpost.com/world/intera...?
China’s demographic crisis means it’s going to run out of workers
China is experiencing unprecedented, and probably irreversible, population decline that will hamper its economic growth and its ambitions to rival the United States.
www.washingtonpost.com

Advocates raise alarm over Pfas pollution from datacenters amid AI boom | Pfas | The Guardian www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Advocates raise alarm over Pfas pollution from datacenters amid AI boom
Tech companies’ use of Pfas gas at facilities may mean datacenters’ climate impact is worse than previously thought
www.theguardian.com

“This Special Issue will provide an opportunity for population scientists to contribute to the conversations about pronatalism throughout the world. We welcome critical, theoretical, descriptive, and empirical submissions that explicitly focus on some aspect of pronatalism”
Contemporary Pronatalism in Demographic Context
Call for Papers Low and declining birth rates across the world have consequences for countries’ population size and structure. Concerns over the potential ...
link.springer.com

Our new study in Eur J Ageing finds daughters’ life satisfaction declines due to frail parents’ care needs, not caregiving itself.

No effect on sons.

Explore the emotional toll of parental frailty: doi.org/10.1007/s104... #Caregiving #WellBeing #Aging
Frail parents and adult children’s life-satisfaction: a longitudinal analysis of Norwegian data - European Journal of Ageing
Earlier research has found that adult children’s caregiving for older parents is associated with a decline in life satisfaction. However, other research indicates that emotional stress in adult children might be related to the declining health and frailty of their older parents rather than caregiving per se. Hence, there is a possibility that the first set of findings (declining life satisfaction when giving care) reflects factors not specified in statistical models rather than the care provided by adult children. This study tests this possibility by investigating changes in life satisfaction among 3,094 adult children from panel data in Norway that includes multiple indicators of health and care needs in older parents, together with data on who is providing care. Declining life satisfaction was observed among daughters but not among sons, and these changes were driven by the frailty and care needs of their parents rather than caregiving per se. The findings indicate that it is not caregiving that affects life satisfaction but the circumstances leading to caregiving. In these situations, adult daughters may struggle with sources of distress beyond providing support and care. Further research should investigate these relationships in countries with different distributions of care between families and public care institutions.
doi.org

Reposted by Vegard Skirbekk

Peak and current global fertility lower when accounting for mortality using the 2SNRR (2 Sex Net Reproduction Rate) relative to the Total Fertility Rate (TFR)
link.springer.com/article/10.1...