Gilles Pison

Population & Sociétes is a four-page monthly bulletin of scientific information. Each issue, written by one or several researchers, discusses a single question related to population. The bulletin offers both a overview of knowledge on the question and the most recent research findings on it.

A great variety of topics, all pertaining to population. For example—and here I’m referring to some quite recent issues—we have articles on couples (Who uses online dating sites in France? Who finds their partner this way?), the family (Living alone or with family beyond age 85: major differences across French départements) and death (End-of-life medical decisions in France). Articles may concern France, like those I just cited, or Europe (such as the recent issue, Has childlessness peaked in Europe?), a country in another world region (such as our January 2018 issue, Why has fertility been increasing in Egypt?) or the world as a whole (such as a 2017 article entitled The population of the world).

All Population & Societies articles are written with a two-fold concern: to provide scientifically exact and complete information to as wide a readership as possible. The publication is therefore addressed to researchers, journalists and the public at large. And teachers at both the secondary and higher education levels can use the journal in preparing their courses or have their students study the articles directly.

The Population & Societies editorial board examines articles submitted to the bulletin; if they consider them publishable they may ask for modifications to improve them. The articles we receive are either author-submitted or, for some subjects, we solicit articles ourselves. The bulletin aims to cover all major questions related to population. If we think a question deserves to be handled—for example, a topic that has not been handled in a long time and about which our knowledge has evolved thanks to new data or new analyses—we ask a specialist to write and submit an article on it. It also happens that a particular topic becomes the focus of a current event, in which case it is important to offer readers an updated overview of it.

You can find all back issues of Population et Sociétés in French at https://www.ined.fr/fr/publications/population-et-societes/ and in English from September 2000 at https://www.ined.fr/en/publications/population-and-societies/