Mortality Crises

Description

How can we measure and understand the demographic consequences of acute mortality shocks—such as pandemics, natural disasters, and armed conflict—on populations? This line of research develops and applies demographic methods to estimate mortality by age and sex in crisis contexts, often working with incomplete or fragmented data. It focuses on reconstructing mortality patterns, quantifying excess and crisis-related deaths, and evaluating broader demographic impacts, including reductions in life expectancy, shifts in population structure, and the indirect effects of mortality on kinship networks through bereavement. Mortality crises such as pandemics and drug-related epidemics (e.g., the opioid crisis) provide key empirical contexts for advancing these approaches and for understanding their uneven consequences across populations. Particular emphasis is placed on violent settings—such as conflict-related deaths and disappearances—where mortality is both underreported and profoundly disruptive to social and familial life.