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Introduction to the 60^th Anniversary Issue of Population Review

William J. Haller
Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminal Justice
College of Behavioral, Social, and Health Sciences,
Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina, USA

and

The Balsillie School of International Affairs
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

The first volume of Population Review – a peer-reviewed journal of sociological demography – appeared in 1957.  In 2003, the journal went ‘digital’ and formed a solid and productive relationship with Project MUSE – one that we are very grateful for.  Now, we have reached a milestone:  our 60th volume!

To celebrate this accomplishment, Population Review is presenting a digital-only issue that features the journal’s 10 most-read articles on Project MUSE.  The articles are free to download until 2022. This special collection highlights articles that fall under the general category of sociological demography – a science (more quantitative than qualitative) that attempts to understand population composition and change through a sociodemographic lens.

We did not select them; rather, our readers did.  Through this special collection, we hope to inspire young sociologists and demographers to explore sociological demography.  Although sociological demography can cover many topics, those of population well-being in terms of health and equity have been the most frequent among our articles so far over the past 12 years. Within the broad areas of health and socioeconomic equity, the ten articles can be categorized into three main areas: health and longevity gaps resulting from racial and economic inequalities, populations traditionally addressed only infrequently in the research literature, and interactions between population change and economic pressure on the welfare state, mainly due to the drops in fertility in highly economically developed (and some less developed) countries. Each paper – summarized thematically below– demonstrates their impact in a wide range of subject areas.

The events during the months since the COVID-19 outbreak morphed into an epidemic and then into a pandemic emphasize the crucial nature of population studies that are not bounded by specific territories and geographies. Although Population Review was founded through the auspices of the Indian Institute for Population Studies it has evolved into a global venture, encouraging submissions that address population processes and characteristics in all parts of the world and on emergent population issues and understudied populations. In many ways, the concerns of our contributors and readers in this special collection emphasize population health, and prospects for the welfare state and global civil society.

In their 2020 article, “Who’s Skeptical of Vaccines? Prevalence and Determinants of Anti-Vaccination Attitudes in Italy” Engin and Vezzoni show that the core groups embracing an anti-vaccination position are younger and less-educated adults who exhibit distrust in both political institutions and the health-care system. In the Italian context, they found no association between religiousity and anti-vaccination attitudes, perhaps because of the religious homogeneity of Italian society and that the Catholic Church removed ethical and moral concerns about common childhood vaccines. Surprisingly, higher trust in others is associated with greater anti-vaccination attitudes, which is somewhat alarming given that the disease, of course, spreads through close physical proximity. Political orientations on the right or the left do not drive anti-vaccination attitudes but those attitudes are most common among those who refuse to situate themselves in terms of the left-right political spectrum (including the 5-star movement), so there is nevertheless some link between populism and anti-vaccination attitudes in Italy.

“Socio-Economic Status and Life Expectancy in the United States, 1970-1990” by Swanson, McGehee, and Hoque (published in 2009) examines the overall increase in the life-expectancy gap between high- and low-SES populations (seven of the eight states examined: Colorado, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Ohio, South Dakota, and Washington) and a small but statistically significant narrowing of the gap in Pennsylvania. The political economy of the US welfare state changed dramatically between 1970 and 1990 between the years of the Nixon and Bush presidencies, through a combination of global economic shocks (e.g., the oil crisis of 1973, stagflation, US Federal Reserve response raising the prime rate to nearly 22%) and the largely general implementation of neoliberal economic policies that led to cutting social welfare programs even while socioeconomic inequalities were increasing. Health disparities and SES inequalities rose during this time, as did rapid advancements in medical technologies. Because socially driven investments in health care access in the United States….

Population Review

Introduction to the 60^th Anniversary Issue of Population Review

William J. Haller, Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminal Justice
College of Behavioral, Social, and Health Sciences
Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina, USA, and
The Balsillie School of International Affairs, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada