However, this does constitute a population matter, in which demographic and social processes play a major role. As a consequence, those processes – that we can call ancillary – have been largely overlooked.
More information: www.ined.fr/en/node/24183
While epidemiology and medicine have looked into the causes of obesity, demographic studies considering the evolution of obesity within a population are scarce.
The main cause is the rapid and generalized diffusion of obesogenic environments, i.e. that boost obesity, which, from the global to the individual scale, promote a higher caloric intake and a lower expenditure of those calories, among other.
In fact, other factors are worth studying too.
Obesity has rapidly increased in the last decades. Such increase has been steeper in low and middle-income countries and, in high-income countries, among the poorest social classes.
World Obesity Day | Obesity from a demographic perspective
Obesity is associated with an overly rich diet and a sedentary lifestyle.
It is usually studied via medicine and epidemiology, very seldom from a demographic perspective.
If the limits on hours-per-week for economic work were also applied to household chores, the number of children aged 5 to 17 doing child labor would be three times as high. And the majority of children implicated would then be girls.
In the 90 countries studied, a much higher proportion of children aged 5 to 14 participate in household chores than economic labor.
Most figures concern children’s participation in the economy. The time they spend on “non-economic work,” specifically, household chores, such as water or firewood collection, cleaning, cooking, and looking after young children or older household members, is not generally counted.
The number of children doing child labor has fallen considerably since 2008, as have rates of hazardous work done by children. But this is not the UN goal of total eradication, and regional situations vary widely.
| #FridayReads | Child labor across the world: how many children are involved? Is child domestic work taken into account?
A new study of this issue presented in the latest issue of #Population&Societies
www.ined.fr/en/node/24136
#INEDJournal
🔎 Interview with Vincent Caradec, a visiting researcher at INED and professor of sociology at the University of Lille: www.ined.fr/en/node/21975
What happens in the case of people what do not use digital equipment or are not familiar with digital technologies?
Does the research find inequalities in these age brackets by social background and individual characteristics, and if so, of what magnitude?
What about differences between men and women in that age bracket?
How are people in France aged 60 and over adapting to a world where administrative procedures and communication increasingly involve and in some cases require the use of digital technology and tools 🤔?
However, for some years now, experts have been obsessing over one question: when is this slick mechanism going to run out of steam? In several western countries, gains in life expectancy have become so slight, they are practically non-existent.
For over a century and a half, life expectancy has steadily increased in the wealthiest countries. Spectacular climbs in longevity have been noted in the 20th Century, correlating with the slump in infectious illnesses and advances in cardiovascular medicine.
| #FridayReads | Where are Europe’s oldest people living? What geography tells us about a fragmenting continent
@theconversation.com
theconversation.com/where-are-eu...
Submissions for the next Early-Career Researcher Prize are now open.
🔎 www.journal-population.com/early-career...
Submission deadlines: 30 April or 15 October 2026.
| #FridayReads | Call for articles | Early-Career Researcher Prize
Each year, Population, an international, scientific, and peer-reviewed journal published by INED, awards a prize to honor the work of an early-career researcher (within a maximum of 7 years post-PhD).
These discrepancies, observed as soon as study directions are chosen, are partly related to women’s anticipation of their future family lives.
While women’s initial (as distinct from continuing) education attainment now stands above men’s, they continue to be underrepresented in the sciences and in selective programs such as preparatory school courses.
🧪 #InternationalDayofWomenandGirlsinScience
Higher education and careers: gender disparities persist
🔎 Read the interview of INED Researcher Delphine Remillon: www.ined.fr/en/everythin...
However, for some years now, experts have been obsessing over one question: when is this slick mechanism going to run out of steam? In several western countries, gains in life expectancy have become so slight, they are practically non-existent.
Spectacular climbs in longevity have been noted in the 20th Century, correlating with the slump in infectious illnesses and advances in cardiovascular medicine.
| #FridayReads | Where are Europe’s oldest people living? What geography tells us about a fragmenting continent
For over a century and a half, life expectancy has steadily increased in the wealthiest countries.
🔎 theconversation.com/where-are-eu...
| Interview | A year at European Doctoral School of Demography
EDSD students Marco Esteban Aguirre and Embla Vesterdal tell us about their previous trajectories and applying to the School; they also have some advice for their fellow students and future applicant.
www.ined.fr/en/everythin...
What types of seniors are on short-term job contracts? What difficulties are they up against?
Read more: www.ined.fr/en/everythin...
| Focus on | Have reforms of the retirement system in France [organized on a redistributive basis], the raising of statutory retirement ages, and the related requirement to pay into the system longer put seniors in a situation of economic precarity?
| Tenured researcher positions |
In 2026, INED is recruiting one tenured senior researcher (directeur·trice de recherche, DR2).
Deadline for applications: 17 February 2026 (12 noon, Paris’time).
More information: www.ined.fr/en/institute...
In a world marked by demographic, social, and environmental transformations, INED will continue to play an essential role—producing and providing analysis and explanations—in 2026.
Best wishes for this new year from INED.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=w57O...
