Research Themes

The Carolina Population Center is an umbrella organization which houses cutting-edge population research across disciplines at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 

Inside our center, you’ll find Carolina Demography, an applied demographic research group, as well as a branch of the Federal Statistical Research Data Center, where researchers can perform statistical analysis on non-public microdata from a variety of statistical agencies to address important research questions. The Carolina Population Center also supports two T32 training programs.  

We receive core infrastructure funding from the National Institutes of Health for research in population dynamics broadly and for work focusing on aging. This infrastructure funding allows us to create a vibrant, collaborative community of population researchers representing 18 departments at UNC, along with external affiliates outside of UNC. 

Population Dynamics Research

Infrastructure support for research on demography, reproductive health, and population health at the Carolina Population Center is provided by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development’s Population Dynamics Branch (P2C HD050924). Faculty conduct research and engage in primary data collection within four primary research areas: 

Aging Research

Our aging research is housed in the Carolina Center for Population Aging and Health, one of 12 centers in the Demography and Economics of Aging Centers Program sponsored by the National Institute on Aging (P30 AG066615).  The center supports a multidisciplinary group of scholars studying topics related to the demography and economics of aging. Faculty conduct research and engage in primary data collection in support of three themes: 

Research and data produced as part of this center provide important new results on patterns and determinants of healthy aging around the world.