The Population Council mourns the loss of Paul Demeny, former Vice President of the Population Council and founding editor of Population and Development Review— a role he served from 1973 to 2012. Demeny was a renowned demographer, economist, and leading academic, with professorships at Princeton University, University of Michigan, and University of Hawaii, who left an indelible mark in his field.
Born in Nyiregyhaza, Hungary, Demeny earned his PhD in economics from Princeton University in 1961. He joined the Population Council in 1973 as Vice President and Director of the Center for Policy Studies. In 1975, Demeny founded Population and Development Review. To this day it remains a leading demography journal. Demeny’s vision for the journal was to broaden the conventional boundaries of population studies and to publish research accessible to a wide readership. He valued intellectual quality and liveliness, and prioritized ideas as much as data. Shortly after his retirement in 2012, Population and Development Review published a supplement issue in his honor in 2013.
His numerous accolades throughout his career include serving as president of the Population Association of America (PAA) in 1986, laureate of the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population in 2003, recipient of the Central Cross of the Hungarian Order of Merit in 2017, and the Hungarian Order of St. István in 2018.
We extend our deepest condolences to his loved ones.