Events Detail

Hudson Institute’s Center for European Studies recently held an event titled:

How Many Americans,
How Many Europeans,
And Which Ones?

Featuring Demographer
David Coleman

Demographic change is perhaps the single most important factor transforming modern societies. Most of the time, however, it passes relatively unnoticed under the radar of partisan politics until its effects become sufficiently dramatic and even painful. In the last decade, however, demography has become a hotly-discussed topic in both America and Europe. Projections by, among others, the United Nations suggest that the populations of nations such as France, Germany, Italy, and Spain are likely to fall substantially in the next half century and, in addition, to show large shifts in ethnic and religious composition. America's population, in contrast, is projected to rise substantially while also exhibiting ethnic and other changes.

Hudson Institute's Center for European Studies was pleased to hold a lecture featuring David Coleman, Professor of Demography at Oxford University. Coleman discussed the comparative demographic futures of Europe and America. Are they as different as the headlines figures suggest? Are the projections reliable? What political, social and economic implications arise from these projections? And if governments on either side of the Atlantic wish to change their apparent futures, what policy tools are available to them?

David Coleman became Professor of Demography at Oxford in October 2002. Between 1985 and 1987 he worked for the British government, as the Special Adviser to the Home Secretary, and then to the Ministers of Housing and of the Environment. He has worked as a consultant for the Home Office, for the United Nations and for private business. He has published over 90 papers and eight books including Europe's Population in the 1990s (ed. 1996, Oxford University Press), Ethnicity in the 1991 Census. Volume 1: Demographic characteristics of ethnic minority populations . (edited (with J. Salt), London, HMSO) and Immigration to Denmark: national and international perspectives (with E. Wadensjo, 1999, Aarhus University Press).

For more information, please email Ioannis Saratsis at isaratsis@hudson.org

Betsy and Walter Stern Conference Room
Hudson Institute
1015 15th St, NW, 6th Floor
Washington, D.C. 20005