Why demography needs psychologists

‘Demography matters. The study of population dynamics is undeniably useful, as population trends have important political and economic implications. They affect policy planning for health, economies, the environment, resources and infrastructures. Yet most demographic research fails to account for the psychology behind reproductive behaviour, which is a key factor underlying population change.

We have come together as a behavioural scientist, an anthropologist and a demographer, who share interests in reproductive decision making. Here we put forward questions that psychologists might help to answer and outline why it is important to answer them. There has been surprisingly little interest so far from psychologists in reproductive decision-making: we hope that will soon change, so that we can gain a better understanding of why people so often fail to meet their reproductive goals.’