The French Institute for Demographic Studies or INED, is a public research institute specialized in population studies that works in partnership with the academic and research communities at national and international levels.
Founded in 1945, the Institut national d’études démographiques (French Institute for Demographic Studies, or INED) stands as one of the major public research institutions in the population sciences. It investigates population issues in all their diversity, disseminates demographic knowledge, and promotes training in and through research. INED’s expertise spans a broad spectrum of scientific disciplines—including not only demography but also sociology, economics, history, geography, statistics, and epidemiology. While a large share of its research concerns France, international comparisons are frequently undertaken and other geographical regions are a strong focus of interest.
In 1986, INED became one of France’s eight public scientific and technical institutions (EPST), alongside CNRS, INSERM, INRA and the IRD (Institut de Recherche pour le Développement). The Institute’s overall missions are to study all aspects of population, to provide training in and through research, to keep the government, public authorities and general public informed about demographic questions and to disseminate French demographic research internationally.
Nearly 250 people, including 50 tenured, or permanent, researchers and more than 40 doctoral students, work at INED; there are also 40 associate researchers. The Institute has 10 research units, a mixed research unit and 5 research support services, including the Statistical Methods and Surveys departments
INED has several governing bodies: the Scientific Council, the Board of Administration, the Evaluation Committee and the Ethics Committee
INED, the French Institute for Demographic Studies, is a founding member of the Campus Condorcet. All Institute teams are settled at the Campus’s Aubervilliers site and actively working to make this new, comprehensive human and social sciences research center a national and international benchmark institution.
INED research projects are funded in part by the Institute’s budget line. They may also receive support from funding agencies like the Agence Nationale de la Recherche or ANR [French national research agency] and other public organizations, companies, or European Union programs such as the European Research Council or ERC and the Horizon 2020 program.
Every year INED researchers apply for ANR project grants.
The “Investments in the Future Program” or PIA has awarded INED ongoing funding for Laboratories of Excellence (LabEx), Research Infrastructures of Excellences (ÉquipEx), graduate research programs, and the Institut Convergences. These structures provide the population sciences with funding instruments to facilitate the development of ambitious scientific projects that will further increase the scientific excellence and international visibility of French research.
In accordance with INED internationalization policy, the Institute’s research teams regularly submit grant proposals in response to international calls for grant proposals, specifically in connection with the Horizon Europe program, Erasmus+, and Hubert Curien Partnerships.
INED regularly signs partnership agreements with a wide range of French organizations to formally establish scientific objectives and a cooperation framework. At the national level, the Institute is also strengthening its ties with higher education.
One distinguishing characteristic of INED is its ability to conduct research studies that cover not just France but a large part of the world. The international scope of the Institute may be seen in its many partnerships with institutions abroad and its active role in the world scientific community.
INED is a key partner in major European demography research programs. The Institute is involved in a large number of projects funded by the European Union and in the main projects of the European demographer community.
INED supports international mobility for researchers, viewing it as training and cooperation that helps refresh and renew research questions and methods.
Knowledge is meant to be shared. INED is committed to an active policy of promoting access that is as open as possible to research data, methods, and findings on population.
Through its Charter for Open Science, INED is committed to promoting access that is as open as possible to research data, methods, and findings on population.
Because INED is a public organization, its staff and permanent researchers are civil servants hired on the basis of competitive examinations that range from vocational certificate to doctoral level. It also hires on a task- or limited-term contract-basis in extremely diverse areas.
INED recruits researchers, engineers and technicians by way of official competitive examinations. On this page you can find the latest examination announcements, descriptions of currently available positions and information on submitting an application.
Use this section to submit a speculative application for a job or internship at INED.
Research at INED is organized around multidisciplinary and topic-focused teams made up of its own permanent researchers and associated researchers. Institute research units host doctoral students and post-docs for training in and through research. Over 70 multi-annual projects are under way. For some, INED designs and carries out its own surveys—one of its specificities. Collected data are then made available to the scientific community.
INED is placing increasing emphasis on training in research through the practice of research. Every year the Institute hosts PhD students from France and abroad selected on an application basis. Students work under researcher supervision and depending on their thesis topic, they join one or two research teams. They are benefiting from INED work resources and its stimulating environment.
INED also offers one- or two-year post-doctoral contracts to young French or foreign researchers. Recipients are selected on the basis of their competence, the quality and originality of their research project, and its relevance to INED research areas.
INED designs and carries out its own surveys. The data thus collected are accessible to the entire scientific community. The Institute has its own survey office, which defines sampling methods, assists in designing questionnaires and drawing up data collection protocols, and adjusts statistical samples. It is also in charge of making anonymized data available to others. INED’s survey catalogue and a description of the projects in progress may be consulted on line.
INED makes a vast body of resources on population available to website users, including the INED library, open to all and accessible on line; and presentations of statistical analysis and survey methods.
Research relies on a wide range of statistical analysis methods to process survey data and to describe and model demographic events and phenomena on the basis of that data. Alongside classic methods such as data analysis and logistic regression, several other methods have come to the fore in the last 30 years.
Seminars on research methodology and practices in France and abroad, articles on method use, and extensive reference lists are just some of the statistics-related resources available
Each survey is specific but all surveys include a number of requisite steps and phases. Important factors to be taken into account from the outset include survey protocol, sampling frame, budget, regulations, questionnaire testing, data file compilation, and quality assessment. INED’s Surveys Department handles most of the data collection procedures involved in INED research projects. It may assist with data production throughout the process or provide help on particular survey phases only.
Every INED survey is designed to investigate a particular research question or set of questions. INED surveys are “custom-made” and in many cases highly innovative. Methodological choices are therefore a key phase of the research. The time required to prepare the survey, design questions, conduct and assess pilot surveys and, later, to evaluate the quality of the data collected must not be underestimated.
Ined offers you an overview of the Institute’s scientific production on a topical issue.
Recent social and medical advances implicated in contemporary bioethics issues have generated many new research topics. Several innovative research projects, surveys, and scientific articles are now contributing new knowledge on subjects such as assisted reproduction technology (ART), surrogacy, and end-of-life. As the French parliament examines a new bioethics bill, INED will be presenting a set of resources and material here that shed scientific light on several major bioethics topics.
INED Publications has been in existence since the Institute’s founding in 1945, consistent with one of its fundamental missions: to disseminate scientific knowledge. INED Publications reflects and enacts the Institute’s commitment to multi-disciplinarity in demographic research by diffusing and promoting scientific production and survey results and findings to a diverse audience, thereby making solid scientific expertise and knowledge available for public debate on major social issues. Recently, the Open Archive has widened diffusion of free-access published materials while ensuring the continued preservation of INED researchers’ studies.
Vast documentary resources on population are freely available on the INED website, including the Institute’s Library, open to all and accessible on line; a selection of related websites; selected articles by INED researchers on a set of population-related themes; and presentations of survey and statistical analysis methods. The Institute’s Library, Documentation and Archives service has become integrated into the Humatheque of the Campus Condorcet. It comprises the collections of over 50 libraries, documentation, and archive centers, all in the service of human and social science research.
A tour of the globe to explore its population. Use this section to: compare demographic indicators for different countries; help prepare for a class or an oral presentation; find simple answers to your questions; reflect on complex issues; learn the basics of demography; extend your knowledge through play...
All about population in Figures: tables on the French and world population and access to several online databases.
The latest data on the population of metropolitan France (structure and trends) are given in a series of tables. They are based on data published regularly by INSEE and on INED estimates and projections. More complete datasets dating back to earlier years can also be downloaded in CSV format.
The tables for “All of France” bring together data for metropolitan France and the four overseas départements (DOMs). These figures do not include Mayotte, which became the fifth DOM on 31 March 2011, or the overseas territories and collectivities (New Caledonia, French Polynesia, Saint Barthélémy, Saint Martin, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Wallis and Futuna). INSEE includes the DOMs in its annual demographic overview and in most of the tables in its detailed annual study of the demographic situation in France.
The population of France by sex and age is estimated by INSEE each year. A provisional estimate is first issued and final figures are published at a later date. Censuses are conducted in certain years to enumerate the population. The population estimates are adjusted on the basis of census data, for the whole of France and for the different départements and regions.
The population changes from one year to the next. Natural change is the difference between births and deaths, and can be determined precisely from vital records. Net migration is the difference between the number of immigrants and the number of emigrants. It is estimated on the basis of available statistics. Adjustments are sometimes made to establish overall consistency between census population figures and inter-census estimates of population change. To estimate its relative scale, population change is often expressed in relation to the mean population of a given year. Rates of birth, death, natural increase and total variation are obtained in this way.
Registered births are recorded in statistical bulletins which provide a rich source of information. Births are counted on the basis of many different characteristics: parents’ marital status and nationality, sex of the child, twin births, etc. Information on the mother’s age is used to calculate annual fertility indicators, such as the total fertility rate expressed as a total number of children per woman. Completed cohort fertility is also calculated every year. For example, women born in 1970 were 34 years old in 2004. We know how many children they have had before age 34 and we can estimate how many children they will have during their reproductive life.
Fertility can be controlled by means of contraception and induced abortion. Information on contraceptive practice in France is obtained through surveys conducted regularly by INED since 1978 among the entire female population. The number of induced abortions is estimated on the basis of abortion notifications and hospital statistics. INED is responsible for publication of abortion statistics.
Marriage registers provide a rich source of information on marriage practices: number of marriages, previous marital status and nationality of spouses, etc. Statistics on divorces and civil unions (PACS) are supplied by the Ministry of Justice.
The first task in a population census is to enumerate dwellings. Persons living in the same dwelling form a household, so each household comprises all the persons living in a single dwelling. According to the census definitions, a household may comprise one or more families. A family is a group of persons comprising a couple with no children, a couple with children, or one adult and his/her children.
Death registers provide a means to measure variations in mortality. Deaths by sex and age are used to construct life tables which give life expectancy at birth, i.e. the number of years a newborn infant would live if prevailing patterns of mortality at the time of its birth were to stay the same throughout its life. The mortality of children under the age of one year is also specifically calculated. When a person dies, a doctor records the cause of death on a death certificate which is sent to INSERM where all causes of death are coded.
Two statistical series drawing on different sources are presented. INSEE uses annual census surveys that provide an overview of net migration and entries and departures of non-immigrants and immigrants (including undocumented foreigners). INED, meanwhile, counts the number of non-EU foreigners admitted who have obtained an initial residence permit of at least one year (AGDREF file, French Interior Ministry).
Population censuses provide an opportunity to count the number of inhabitants who were born outside France. Among foreign-born inhabitants, a distinction is generally made between persons born with French nationality and immigrants, who are born with a different nationality. Inhabitants are distinguished by their nationality, i.e. French or foreign and, among French citizens, those who were born French and those who have been naturalized. The census provides information on current nationality and nationality at birth. Foreigners and immigrants form two different categories. Immigrants "born abroad as a foreign national" may still be foreigners at the time of the census or may have become French. Foreigners, for their part, may have been born abroad (in which case they are immigrants) or in France (in which case they are not immigrants).
This section provides data tables on populations, births and deaths in Europe and in developed countries. It also includes indicators of population change (birth and death rates) and the two main demographic indicators: the total fertility rate and life expectancy at birth.
The World Population Prospects publication provides United Nations population estimates for all countries in the world for each year between 1950 and 2020 and projections under different scenarios (low, medium and high) for each year between 2020 and 2100. The figures presented here correspond to the projections for the current year in the medium scenario.
An atlas, interactive maps, an animated film on migrations and annotated graphs that will enable you to visualize and understand world demographic trends and the issues they involve.
With the population simulator and INED’s interactive games and quizzes, mastering the main concepts of demography, from projections to fertility factors, becomes (almost) child’s play.
So you think you know everything about population? Check how well you do on our quizzes.Update: November 2022, based on United Nations World Population Prospects
Demographic fact sheets offer a brief, clear overview of current knowledge about populations. These materials—teaching kits, analytical notes, and interviews—summarize specific scientific questions and decipher the issues related to population questions. All of them may be used as tools for introducing students to demographic phenomena and demographic change in France and throughout the world.
par Laurent Gobillon (Professeur à Paris School of Economics)
