The research of the PSC is ever-evolving. The scale of research ranges from macro to micro and reaches across many disciplines including economics, demography, and sociology. PSC scientists seek to understand the dynamics of human populations.
Building on PSC’s strengths in demography and the social study of race and ethnicity, plus Penn’s targeted institutional investment, to advance work on a central issue of the 21st Century: the relationship between health and inequality this research theme covers: population composition, migration, race and ethnic identity, and health and inequality.
Health Care and Long-Term Care in Older Adults, Investigates the strain that aging societies place on the health care system, both acute care and long-term services and support (LTSS), how to best meet the needs of older and disabled adults, and how to measure and finance the medical burden of aging societies.
PSC is anchored by a long, distinguished tradition and topics are a major source of intellectual identification across fields within the PSC, as researchers who are not trained in formal demography, but who are studying fertility, marriage, family etc. are attracted to population research. Research areas include: Fertility, Family planning, and Reproductive Health and Mortality.
Cognition and Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementia (ADRD) examines the precursors of cognitive decline and the effects of cognitive decline, including ADRD, on patients, caregivers, and health care systems, both domestically and around the globe.
Addresses differences in health and social outcomes between and within populations that are functions of individual differences in the characteristics with which individuals are endowed, from genes and their phenotypic expression through family background characteristics.
PSC has a strong scientific and professional presence in international population research and is engageed to address leading challenges at the intersection of global demographic change and global health.

