News Release 08-197
Using Mathematical Models to Predict Global Migration
Mathematicians create a new approach to figure out who will move where in the 21st Century
In the coming decades, millions of people will leave their home countries and settle elsewhere.
November 6, 2008
View a video interview of Joel E. Cohen of Rockefeller University and Columbia University.
This material is available primarily for archival purposes. Telephone numbers or other contact information may be out of date; please see current contact information at media contacts.
The growing pace of globalization has increased the level of human migration as individuals and families move from one country or continent to another to escape hardships or seek a better future. The world's future stability will require the various countries that will lose and receive people to be prepared for this trend.
Joel E. Cohen, a researcher at Rockefeller University and Columbia University, discussed his work on developing mathematical models to predict human migration patterns in a videotaped interview. In this interview, Cohen describes how he and his colleagues developed a sophisticated mathematical model that gives policy makers a better estimate of which countries and regions will face declining populations and which ones will grow as people move around the world.
The United Nations and other agencies are interested in using this new approach, which is a departure from traditional population modeling.
The research was supported by the National Science Foundation.
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Joel E. Cohen discusses his work on developing math models to predict human migration patterns.
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Dana W. Cruikshank, NSF, (703) 292-8070, email: dcruiksh@nsf.gov
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