(2008) Extremely low birth rates in most of Europe have fueled concerns about population decline, yet one segment of the continent's population—Muslims—continues to grow. The increasing number and visibility of Muslims in Western Europe, juxtaposed with the low fertility among non-Muslims, has led some Europeans to worry that the region will eventually have a Muslim majority, fundamentally changing Western European society.
(August 2005) The April 2005 death of Pope John Paul II and the weeks leading to the selection of his replacement stimulated much thought and discussion about who the new pope would be and in which directions he would lead the world's 1.1 billion Roman Catholics.
(2004) Ten years ago this summer, representatives from 179 countries, scores of international agencies, and about 1,200 nongovernmental organizations met in Cairo for the United Nations-sponsored International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), a landmark event in world population and health.
Project: Strengthening Evidence-Based Policy to Expand Access to Safe Abortion (SAFE ENGAGE)
Evaluation highlights stakeholder commitment to a common vision in quest for policy change.
Project: Demography and Economics of Aging and Alzheimer’s Disease
(Issue 38) Sleep may be as important to health in old age as diet and exercise. Numerous studies have shown that sleeping too much or too little is associated with mortality among older adults.
(2005) A new study contends that rising childhood obesity rates will cut average U.S. life expectancy from birth by two to five years in the coming decades—a magnitude of decline last seen in the United States during the Great Depression.
(2012) As more evidence about the health and economic benefits of family planning becomes available, global and national stakeholders are paying more attention to addressing the reproductive health needs of women and couples through family planning.
(2001) The people of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) have long played an integral, if sometimes volatile, role in the history of human civilization. MENA is one of the cradles of civilization and of urban culture. Three of the world's major religions originated in the region — Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Universities existed in MENA long before they did in Europe.