The Population Association of America (PAA) is a non-profit scientific professional association dedicated to the study of issues related to

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 ...

and

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 PAA was established by

Henry Pratt Fairchild Henry Pratt Fairchild (August 18, 1880 – October 2, 1956) was a distinguished American sociologist who was actively involved in many of the controversial issues of his time. He wrote about race relations, abortion and contraception, and immig ...

and

Frederick Osborn Major General Frederick Henry Osborn CBE (21 March 1889 – 5 January 1981) was an American philanthropist, military leader, and eugenicist. He was a founder of several organizations and played a central part in reorienting eugenics in the y ...

, with funds secured by

Margaret Sanger Margaret Higgins Sanger (born Margaret Louise Higgins; September 14, 1879September 6, 1966), also known as Margaret Sanger Slee, was an American birth control activist, sex educator, writer, and nurse. Sanger popularized the term "birth control ...

from the Milbank Memorial Fund. In its early years, the PAA was a coalition of population scientists, birth control activists, immigration restrictionists, and

eugenicists Eugenics ( ; ) is a fringe set of beliefs and practices that aim to improve the genetic quality of a human population. Historically, eugenicists have attempted to alter human gene pools by excluding people and groups judged to be inferior or ...

History

Founding

According to the website of the History Committee of the Population Association of America, the PAA was conceived on December 15, 1930 at a meeting in the office of

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

. It was an offshoot of the American National Committee of the

International Union for the Scientific Study of Population International Union for the Scientific Study of Population is an international union for the study of human population Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exce ...

(IUSSP) which had been formed in 1927 with

Raymond Pearl Raymond Pearl (June 3, 1879 – November 17, 1940) was an American biologist, regarded as one of the founders of biogerontology. He spent most of his career at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Pearl was a prolific writer of academic books, ...

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...

as its first President. The History Committee identifies the following events in the timeline prior to the founding of PAA that were relevant to founding PAA: * 1922: Scripps sets up the Scripps Foundation for Research in Population Problems. This would later be renamed the Scripps Gerontology Center in 1972. * 1927: The World Population Conference is held in

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...

, leading to the formation of the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population (IUSSP). * 1928: Milbank Memorial Fund begins studies in population in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. * 1929: Guy Burch founds the

Population Reference Bureau The Population Reference Bureau (PRB) is a private, nonprofit organization specializing in collecting and supplying statistics necessary for research and/or academic purposes focused on the environment, and health and structure of populations. The ...

. * December 15, 1930: A small group begins to discuss forming the PAA in

New York City Town Hall The Town Hall (also Town Hall) is a performance space at 123 West 43rd Street, between Broadway and Sixth Avenue near Times Square, in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It was built from 1919 to 1921 and designed by a ...

. * May 7, 1931: The PAA is organized in

. * April 22–23, 1932: The PAA holds its first annual meeting in

. * 1935:

Eleanor Roosevelt Anna Eleanor Roosevelt () (October 11, 1884November 7, 1962) was an American political figure, diplomat, and activist. She was the first lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945, during her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt's four ...

, wife of then-U.S. President

Franklin Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

, attends the PAA's ''Conference on Population Studies in Relation to Social Planning.''

Frank Lorimer Frank or Franks may refer to: People * Frank (given name) * Frank (surname) * Franks (surname) * Franks, a medieval Germanic people * Frank, a term in the Muslim world for all western Europeans, particularly during the Crusades - see Farang Curre ...

produces the first issue of ''Population Index'' using office space at Victor Building, which at the time also hosted the Population Reference Bureau.

Journal

The flagship journal of the PAA, called ''

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 ...

'', is a bi-monthly open access journal published by

Duke University Press Duke University Press is an academic publisher and university press affiliated with Duke University. It was founded in 1921 by William T. Laprade as The Trinity College Press. (Duke University was initially called Trinity College). In 1926 Du ...

and was founded in 1964. It is one of the world's leading journals on issues related to population and demographic trends.

Award

The Irene B. Taeuber Award for research achievements of the Population Association of America is named after

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 ...

. PAA award
8 different awards

Conferences

The PAA holds an annual meeting every March/April where people present research and data on population trends. The PAA held its first annual meeting on April 22–23, 1932, in

. Since then, annual meetings have been held every year except the year 1938 and the years 1943, 1944, and 1945 (the latter three due to the United States' involvement in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

). Initially, PAA Annual Meetings were held in New York City and nearby

East Coast East Coast may refer to: Entertainment * East Coast hip hop, a subgenre of hip hop * East Coast (ASAP Ferg song), "East Coast" (ASAP Ferg song), 2017 * East Coast (Saves the Day song), "East Coast" (Saves the Day song), 2004 * East Coast FM, a ra ...

cities, due to the concentration of population researchers and policymakers in that area. The first meeting outside the eastern U.S. time zone was held in Chicago in 1958. Since then, conferences have been held in numerous locations across the United States ranging from

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

and

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

, and also in some cities in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

such as

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

and

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

. The Annual Meetings for 2011, 2012, and 2013 were held in

Washington D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, Na ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, and

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

respectively. The annual meeting website is maintained in collaboration with

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 ...

. The

Pew Research Center The Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan American think tank (referring to itself as a "fact tank") based in Washington, D.C. It provides information on social issues, public opinion, and demographic trends shaping the United States and the w ...

is among the many demography-related research groups that sends many papers and posters to this conference. Some of the PAA's Annual Meetings and additional meetings have been held in collaboration with other professional associations such as the

American Statistical Association The American Statistical Association (ASA) is the main professional organization for statisticians and related professionals in the United States. It was founded in Boston, Massachusetts on November 27, 1839, and is the second oldest continuousl ...

(1933, 1950),

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

(1938), National Economic and Social Planning Association (1939), and American Sociology Association (1967). The Annual Meeting for 2020 was canceled, and the 2021 meeting was held virtually. The PAA has also sponsored other population-related conferences, such as the 1935 ''Conference on Population Estimates'' that

attended and the 2013 conference ''Integrating Genetics and the Social Sciences'' held at the

University of Colorado The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: University of Colorado Boulder, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, University of Colorado Denver, and the University of Co ...

Presidents

Recent presidents were :2020 - Robert A. Hummer :2019 - John Casterline :2018 – Wendy Manning :2017 –

Amy Tsui Amy Ong Tsui (born 1949) is an American demographer. Due to the Chinese Civil War, Tsui's father emigrated to the United States to pursue doctoral studies in agricultural economics. Tsui was born in Pullman, Washington in 1949. The elder Tsui work ...

:2016 – Judith A. Seltzer :2015 –

Steven Ruggles Steven Ruggles (born May 8, 1955) is Regents Professor of History and Population Studies at the University of Minnesota, and the director of the Institute for Social Research and Data Innovation. He is best known as the creator of IPUMS, the worl ...

:2014 – Robert Moffitt :2013 – Christine A. Bachrach

Membership

PAA allows people to become members for a fee depending on their status and location. Members get PAA publications including the journal ''

,'' weekly e-newsletter, and they can attend the PAA Annual Meeting at a reduced rate. As of 2013, there were about 3,000 members.

Other activities

The PAA is a partner in the Science and Technology Fellowship Program of the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control Professional associations based in the United States Population 1930 establishments in New York City Non-profit organizations based in Virginia