An analytical report prepared by Asghar Zaidi and David Stanton under the joint management project by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and the European Commission’s Directorate General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion (DG EMPL) was launched on 16 April 2015 at an International Seminar “Building an evidence base for active ageing policies: the Active Ageing Index and its potential”.

This book by Frans Willekens presents a step-by-step procedure for investigating life histories using descriptive methods and statistical modeling, as well as the popular software language for statistical computing (R). It also provides an introduction to multistate event history analysis. It is an extension of survival analysis, in which a single terminal event (endpoint) is considered and the time-to-event is studied. Multistate models focus on life histories or trajectories, conceptualized as sequences of states and sequences of transitions between states.

Variations of demographic patterns and trends range from very high fertility to sub-replacement fertility situations, from very young to aging populations, and from immigration-open to immigration-shy countries. This book, authored by John F. May, concludes that population policies are more necessary and relevant than ever for developed and developing countries.

The relationship between the economy and population dynamics has long been discussed, but is still controversial. Fertility is commonly assumed to follow the economic cycle, falling in periods of recession and vice-versa, though scientific evidence is still not unanimous on this. This report by Giampaolo Lanzieri looks at fertility trends in 31 European countries against selected indicators of economic recession.