The Office of Population Research (OPR) at Princeton University is the oldest population research center in the United States. Founded in 1936, the OPR is a leading demographic research and training center.[3] Recent research activity has primarily focused on healthcare, social demography, urbanization, and migration. The OPR's research has been cited in numerous articles by the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.[4][5][6]
The OPR offers four degrees and certifications for graduate students at Princeton:[9]
Ph.D. in Demography
Department Degree with Specialization in Population
Joint-Degree Program in Demography and Social Policy
Certificate in Demography
Ph.D. in Demography
The Ph.D. in Demography enrolls a small number of graduate students with an interest in population research and strong quantitative backgrounds, such as statistics and mathematics. The program allows students to select up to two fields of concentration.[9]
Department Degree with Specialization in Population
Doctoral candidates in other departments at Princeton are able to work towards a specialization in Population. Most of these students work primarily in the Departments of Economics or Sociology, while some may also come from the Departments of History or Politics.[9]
Joint-Degree Program
The Joint-Degree Program allows students interested specifically in Social Policy to apply for a specialized program. Students apply after their first or second year of graduate study and must complete additional coursework in “Issues in Inequality and Social Policy,” and “Advanced Empirical Workshop.”[10] In the 2018–2019 academic year, there were nine students concentrating in Social Policy.
Certificate in Population Studies
The Office of Population Research, in connection with the Program in Population Studies, offers a non-degree Certificate in Demography for students who complete four approved courses, one Independent Reading course, and one elective. Students must complete an individual or joint-research project under the supervision of an OPR faculty or research. Students who complete this certificate are often enrolled in the Master's of Public Administration program at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs.[11]
Research
Research Interests
OPR faculty affiliates pursue traditional and cutting edge research and teaching on a range of topics, using a range of quantitative, qualitative, genomic and mixed methodologies in the study of human population in both the US as well as around the world. For example, areas of current research among OPR faculty include poverty, housing and eviction, child wellbeing, bio-social interactions, aging and health across the life course, educational achievement, racial/ethnic inequality, epidemics and pandemics such as HIV/AIDS and COVID-19, and migration and immigration. [12]
Affiliations
The OPR maintains close relations with other departments within the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and the Department of Sociology. Because of its inherent interdisciplinary research, OPR works with researchers at Center for Health & Wellbeing (CHW), The Center for Migration & Development (CMD), Center on Contemporary China (CCC), the Eviction Lab and Center for Research on Child & Family Wellbeing (CRCFW).[13]
