The reciprocal relationships between human populations and the environment becomes increasingly important in the light of climate change. Researchers from IIASA and Wittgenstein Centre published the Fact Sheet Climate Change and Demography, providing information for policy makers and scientists about some key areas where demography can contribute to climate research.
Human populations are at the center of climate change research. On the one hand, human activities contribute to climate change. On the other hand, changes in the climate system affect human wellbeing and livelihoods. Both the contribution to and the impact of global warming is not distributed equally across the planet. Rather, different people in different places contribute and suffer to different degrees, depending on their characteristics and their level of affluence. Climate risks are the outcome of differential exposure and vulnerability to hazards. Understanding the reciprocal relationships between human populations and climate change and how they will evolve in the future, thus, is crucial for policy design and planning, in the areas of both mitigation and adaptation.
News
07 September 2026
More than numbers: first global dataset shows who is immigrating
As countries compete for skilled workers and grapple with aging populations and labor shortages, understanding who is moving across borders is increasingly important. A new study provides the first global dataset of immigration composition disaggregated simultaneously by age, sex, and educational attainment, offering a new basis for tracking brain gain and brain drain and improving population projections.
12 August 2026
Planning for the future through a population lens
IIASA researcher suggests a fundamentally different way for governments to plan for the future: using population as a common framework to connect health, education, food, jobs, housing, social protection, and climate risk. The approach integrates demographic data with sectoral planning to help governments make more coordinated, evidence-based decisions and improve population wellbeing.
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Focus Issue in Environmental Research: Climate – Guest Editors from SPARCCLE, CROSSEU and ACCREU
A new Focus Issue has been launched in Environmental Research: Climate on ‘Climate Risks and Socioeconomic Vulnerability’, bringing together Guest Editors from sister projects SPARCCLE, CROSSEU and ACCREU.