The Office of Population Research (OPR) at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

is the oldest

population Population typically refers to the number of people in a single area, whether it be a city or town, region, country, continent, or the world. Governments typically quantify the size of the resident population within their jurisdiction using a ...

research center in the United States. Founded in 1936, the OPR is a leading demographic research and training center. Recent research activity has primarily focused on healthcare, social demography, urbanization, and migration. The OPR's research has been cited in numerous articles by the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' and the ''

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''.

History

Major General, heir, and eugenicist Frederick H. Osborn, a graduate of Princeton University, laid the foundation for the Office of Population Research in 1936. The founding director of OPR was Frank W. Notestein, who was a demographer at the Milbank Memorial Fund, a leading

peer-reviewed Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work (peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field. Peer review ...

healthcare journal This is a list of academic journals on health care. General *''Health Affairs'' *''Health and Human Rights'' *''Human Resources for Health'' *''Health Service Journal'' *''Milbank Quarterly'' Epidemiology *'' American Journal of Epidemiology'' ...

. While at the OPR, he was also the director of the Population Division of the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

between 1946 and 1948. He left in 1959 to lead the

Population Council The Population Council is an international, nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The Council conducts research in biomedicine, social science, and public health and helps build research capacities in developing countries. One-third of its res ...

, an international, nonprofit,

non-governmental organization A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...

. He was succeeded as OPR director by Ansley J. Coale, who held the post from 1959 to 1975. One of the early faculty appointments was

Irene Barnes Taeuber Irene Barnes Taeuber (December 25, 1906 – February 24, 1974) was an American demographer who worked for the Office of Population Research at Princeton University, where she edited the journal ''Population Index'' from 1936 to 1954... Her scholar ...

, whose scholarly work helped found the science of

demography Demography () is the statistics, statistical study of populations, especially human beings. Demographic analysis examines and measures the dimensions and Population dynamics, dynamics of populations; it can cover whole societies or groups ...

. The current Director of the OPR is

Douglas Massey Douglas Steven Massey (born October 5, 1952 in Olympia, Washington, United States) is an American sociologist. Massey is currently a professor of Sociology at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University and ...

, an American sociologist and Professor at the

Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs The Princeton School of Public and International Affairs (formerly the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs) is a professional public policy school at Princeton University. The school provides an array of comprehensive course ...

Academics

The OPR offers four degrees and certifications for

graduate students Postgraduate or graduate education refers to academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications pursued by post-secondary students who have earned an undergraduate (bachelor's) degree. The organization and str ...

at Princeton: * Ph.D. in Demography * Department Degree with Specialization in Population * Joint-Degree Program in Demography and Social Policy * Certificate in Demography

Ph.D. in Demography

The Ph.D. in Demography enrolls a small number of graduate students with an interest in population research and strong quantitative backgrounds, such as

statistics Statistics (from German language, German: ''wikt:Statistik#German, Statistik'', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of ...

and

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

. The program allows students to select up to two fields of concentration.

Department Degree with Specialization in Population

Doctoral candidates in other departments at Princeton are able to work towards a specialization in Population. Most of these students work primarily in the Departments of Economics or Sociology, while some may also come from the Departments of History or Politics.

Joint-Degree Program

The Joint-Degree Program allows students interested specifically in

Social Policy Social policy is a plan or action of government or institutional agencies which aim to improve or reform society. Some professionals and universities consider social policy a subset of public policy, while other practitioners characterize soci ...

to apply for a specialized program. Students apply after their first or second year of graduate study and must complete additional coursework in “Issues in Inequality and Social Policy,” and “Advanced Empirical Workshop.” In the 2018–2019 academic year, there were nine students concentrating in Social Policy.

Certificate in Demography

The Office of Population Research, in connection with the Program in Population Studies, offers a non-degree Certificate in Demography for students who complete four approved courses, one Independent Reading course, and one elective. Students must complete an individual or joint-research project under the supervision of an OPR faculty or research. Students who complete this certificate are often enrolled in the

Master's of Public Administration A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

program at the

Woodrow Wilson School The Princeton School of Public and International Affairs (formerly the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs) is a professional public policy school at Princeton University. The school provides an array of comprehensive course ...

Research

Specialties

Research conducted at the OPR falls within six categories: * Biosocial Interactions * Children, Youth, and Families * Data and Methods * Education and Stratification *

Health and Wellbeing Health, according to the World Health Organization, is "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity".World Health Organization. (2006)''Constitution of the World Health Organiza ...

* Migration and Development

Affiliations

The OPR maintains close relations with other departments within the

. Because of its inherent interdisciplinary research, the OPR works with researchers at the Bendheim-Thoman Center for Research on Child Wellbeing (CRCW), the Center for Migration and Development (CMD), and the Center for Health and Wellbeing (CHW). Outside of Princeton, the OPR maintains partnerships with some of the world's leading research centers, including the Wiggenstein Centre for Demography and Global Human Capital and the

United Nations Economic Commission for Europe The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (ECE or UNECE) is one of the five regional commissions under the jurisdiction of the United Nations Economic and Social Council. It was established in order to promote economic cooperation and i ...

References

External links

*
Intute entry

{{Authority control Princeton University Population Research institutes established in 1936 Research institutes in New Jersey Demographics of the United States 1936 establishments in New Jersey