Our People
Dr George Leeson
Dean of Degrees, Fellow, Senior Research Fellow
Professorial Fellow the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing
MA MSc Oxf, PhD Copenhagen
Dr. George W. Leeson is a Professorial Fellow of the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing, University of Oxford; member of the Oxford Martin School; Senior Research Fellow of Kellogg College; and Visiting Professor in Demography at the University of Guanajuato-Leon in Mexico.
Dr. Leeson’s first degree was in Mathematics, followed by a Masters in Applied Statistics, both from Oxford. His Doctoral work was in Demography, firstly at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and then at the University of Copenhagen. He then worked as an Associate Professor at the Institute of Statistics, University of Copenhagen, before returning to Oxford to take up a Senior Research Fellowship in Demography.
Dr. Leeson’s main research interests are in the socio-demographic aspects of population change, covering both demographic modelling of population development and the analysis of national and international data sets, primarily in respect of mortality and longevity.
Dr. Leeson’s current research includes the changing populations of Europe and Latin America, migration and fertility in Central and Eastern Europe, and the demographics of increasing longevity.
Dr. Leeson is a leading member of The Complex Environmental Population Interactions Project which unites key demographers, economists, anthropologists, philosophers and environmentalists to address through research, modelling and scenarios, the range of complex interactions between environmental and demographic change over the first half of the 21st century.
Dr. Leeson directs the Institute’s research networks in Latin America (LARNA) and in Central and Eastern Europe (EAST) and also the Centre for Migration and Ageing Populations (MAP Centre).
Dr. Leeson is co-editor of the Journal of Population Ageing and member of the editorial board of Population Horizons.
Recent publications
Sense of Community Mediating Between Age-Friendly Characteristics and Life Satisfaction of Community-Dwelling Older Adults, Frontiers in Psychology, Vol. 11 (86), doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00086 (with Au A, Lai D, Yip H-m, Chan S, Lai S, Chaudry H, and Scharlach A), 2020. The ageing and de-institutionalisation of death—Evidence from England and Wales, Health Policy https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthpol.2019.01.013, 2019.
Cartografias do envelhecimento em contexto rural: notas sobre raca/etnia, genero, classe e escolaridade (with João Paulo Ferreira, & Vivian Ramos Melhado), Trabalho, Educação e Saúde, DOI: 10.1590/1981-7746-sol00176, 2019.
MENA: the demography of youth, the demography of ageing, Population Horizons, 10.2478/pophzn-2018-0005, 2018.
A comparison of the impact of the use of internet and social support on depression among urban older people: Evidence from a sample survey of three cities in West China, Special Zone Economy, 10, pp. 89-91 (with Li C.B., Cao Y. & Gan Y), 2018.
Global demographic change and grandparenthood, Contemporary Social Science, Vol. 13 (2) pp. 145-158, 2018.
Realizing the potentials of ageing, Journal of Population Ageing, 10: 315. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12062-017-9207-1, 2017
Book review – Race, Place and the Seaside – postcards from the edge. Journal of Population Ageing. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12062-017-9205-3, 2017.
Senior Travellers: an Emerging Market Segment in Gastronomy Tourism In Routledge Handbook of Gastronomy Tourism (Dixit, S. Eds), Routledge (with Balderas-Cejudo, A. & Patterson, I.) in press.
Leisure Travelling and its Link to an Active and Healthy Ageing. MOJ Gerontology & Geriatrics, 1 (4): 00024, 2017 (with Balderas-Cejudo, A.).
Senior tourism: An emerging and attractive market segment for destinations. In Routledge Handbook of Destination Marketing (D. Gursoy, D. & C. G. Chi (Eds)), Routledge (with Balderas-Cejudo, A. & Urdaneta, E.), in press.
Do State Pensions Crown Out Private Transfers? A Semiparametric Analysis in Urban China, Chinese Sociological Review, Routledge, March 2017, pp. 1-22, DOI: 10.1080/21620555.2017.1298968 (with Chen, T. et al).
Out of the shadows: are grandfathers defining their own roles in the modern family in Denmark? In Grandfathers: global perspectives (eds. Buchanan, A. & Rotkirch, A.), Palgrave Macmillan Studies in Family and Intimate Life, pp. 69-88, 2016.
The impact of mortality development on the number of centenarians in England and Wales, Journal of Population Research, Springer, 23 September 2016, pp. 1-15, DOI 10.1007/s12546-016-9178-8.
Increasing longevity and family dynamics in Latin America, in Larna Argentina 2014: Seminario Diversidad cultural y envejecimiento: la familia y la comunidad (eds. Ricardo Iacub et al) Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires,, pp. 304-329, ISBN 978-987-42-1283-2, 2016.
Living arrangements and intergenerational monetary transfer of older Chinese, Ageing & Society, Cambridge University Press, 23 June 2016, pp. 1-26 (with Chen, T. & Liu, C.).
Familial solidarity and orientation and life enjoyment in later life, in urban areas of Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore, Families, Relationships and Societies, Vol 5 (1), pp.59-77, University of Bristol: Policy Press, 2016.
Environment, Health and Ageing, in Environmental Gerontology in Europe and Latin America – Policies and Perspectives on Environment and Aging (eds. Diego Sanchez-Gonzales & Vicente Rodriguez-Rodriguez), pp. 93-104, Springer International Publishing, Switzerland, 2016.