Institut national d'études démographiques

The French Institute for Demographic Studies (French: Institut national d'études démographiques, INED) is a French research institute specializing in demography and population studies in general.

In 1941, Nobel Prize winner Alexis Carrel, an early proponent of eugenics and euthanasia, and a member of Jacques Doriot's French Popular Party (PPF), advocated for the creation of the French Foundation for the Study of Human Problems (Fondation Française pour l'Étude des Problèmes Humains), using connections to the Pétain cabinet. Charged with the "study, in all of its aspects, of measures aimed at safeguarding, improving and developing the French population in all of its activities", the Foundation was created by decree of the collaborationist Vichy regime in 1941, and Carrel appointed as 'regent'. The Foundation also had for some time as general secretary François Perroux. The Foundation was behind the 16 December 1942 Act mandating the "prenuptial certificate", which required all couples seeking marriage to submit to a biological examination, to insure the "good health" of the spouses, in particular with regard to sexually transmitted diseases (STD) and "life hygiene". Carrel's institute also conceived the "scholar booklet" ("livret scolaire"), which could be used to record students' grades in French secondary schools, and thus classify and select them according to scholastic performance. Besides these eugenic activities aimed at classifying the population and improving its health, the Foundation also supported the 11 October 1946 law instituting occupational medicine, enacted by the Provisional Government of the French Republic (GPRF) after the Liberation. The Foundation initiated studies on demographics (Robert Gessain, Paul Vincent, Jean Bourgeois), nutrition (Jean Sutter), and housing (Jean Merlet), as well as the first polls (Jean Stoetzel). The foundation, which after the war became the INED demographics institute, employed 300 researchers from the summer of 1942 to the end of the autumn of 1944. "The foundation was chartered as a public institution under the joint supervision of the ministries of finance and public health. It was given financial autonomy and a budget of forty million francs, roughly one franc per inhabitant: a true luxury considering the burdens imposed by the German Occupation on the nation's resources. By way of comparison, the whole Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) was given a budget of fifty million francs. "</blockquote>

INED was founded by virtue of the ministerial order no. 45 2499 of 24 October 1945. It was created on the initiative of the eminent paediatrician Robert Debré (1882 1978), who had submitted a report on the institutionalization of demography to the Comité français de la Libération nationale d'Alger in January 1944. To head the institute, General Charles de Gaulle appointed the statistician and economist Alfred Sauvy who, as advisor to the President of the Council, Paul Reynaud, had drafted the French government's first pro natalist measures in 1938. INED moved into the premises of the Fondation française pour l'étude des problèmes humains headed by Dr Alexis Carrel, and employed around 7% of the foundation's personnel, which counted only a handful of demographers. The 1945 order defined the missions of INED: "The role of INED is to study demographic problems in all their aspects. To this end, the Institute will collect the relevant documentation, conduct surveys, carry out experiments and follow experiments conducted abroad, study the material and moral means which may contribute to the quantitative growth of the population and its qualitative development, and ensure the dissemination of demographic knowledge".

In 2007, INED has a staff of 200, including 60 tenured researchers, 110 technicians and engineers, plus around 20 PhD students and associate researchers. Like other French public research institutions, INED has two categories of researchers – research officers and research directors – each comprising two grades. As of January 2000, INED comprises 11 research units and several departments (surveys, library and documentation, publications, IT, etc.) A statistical methods department was set up in January 2007. While maintaining a flexible structure of specialized units (researchers may belong to two units simultaneously), INED has developed a system of organization by projects, built around some 30 key projects which are assessed by the Scientific Council and whose detailed content is presented on the INED website. These key projects include major household surveys and European projects.

There are three other European research institutes comparable to INED: NIDI (Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute) in The Hague (Netherlands), MPIDR (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research) in Rostock (Germany) and VID (Vienna Institute of demography) in Vienna (Austria), founded respectively in 1970, 1996 and 2002, and largely based on the model of INED. In the other countries of Europe, demographers work in universities or national statistical offices. INED maintains close relations with its various European counterparts, via both European Commission research projects and international consortia linked to the United Nations. Since 2000, INED has hosted the world headquarters of the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population (IUSSP), of which it is a member along with other national demographic research organizations. In March 1998, after fifteen years in the 14th arrondissement of Paris, INED moved to new premises in the 20th arrondissement, at 133 boulevard Davout.

Though government funded research is not the same thing as government statistics, INED works closely with French statistical bodies, notably INSEE (Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques). It is nevertheless different from INSEE in several ways. While INSEE is a department of the Economy and Finance Ministry present in all regions of France and employing more than 5,000 people, INED is an institute of just 200 people attached to the Ministry of Research and based exclusively in Paris (though some of its researchers work on long term assignments abroad). INSEE calculates the demographic indicators of France (birth rate, death rate, fertility, life expectancy) using vital records and census data. INSEE also estimates net migration using administrative data. INED reprocesses these data, adjusts them if necessary and performs in depth analyses. It uses complementary sources (such as first residence permits awarded by the prefectures) and organizes surveys to collect new data. The scope of the two organizations is also different: INSEE focuses primarily on France, while INED studies all countries of the world.