PhD in Population Studies - Poverty and Inequality in Princeton United States | Princeton University

Established in 1936, the Office of Population Research (OPR) serves as Princeton University's hub for demographic studies and advanced academic training. This interdisciplinary field covers diverse specialties across social, mathematical, and biological sciences. While maintaining its traditional expertise in demographic techniques, fertility studies, and health/mortality research, OPR scholars now explore contemporary population topics including global migration, child and family dynamics, biosocial connections, health disparities, poverty issues, and socioeconomic inequalities. The center's investigators also pioneer emerging areas like epigenetic research, biodemographic studies, social epidemiology, and online experimental methods. OPR's faculty includes leading U.S. experts on poverty and social stratification, whose influential research shapes public policy. Much of their work concentrates on urban challenges facing disadvantaged populations (Edin), including criminal activity in impoverished areas (Sharkey), housing instability (Desmond, The Eviction Lab), economically disadvantaged fathers (Nelson), and interactions between government systems and urban poverty (Fernandez-Kelly). Their studies analyze racial segregation in U.S. cities and its effects on poverty, education, and health in Black communities (Massey, Sharkey), how family background affects children's development (Espenshade, The Future of Families and Child Wellbeing), and how race, class, and gender inequalities impact education and health (Jennings, Conley). Additional research compares health and employment outcomes between native-born and immigrant populations (Hamilton). OPR collaborates with Matthew Desmond's Eviction Lab initiative.