Hervé Le Bras

About Hervé Le Bras

Born in Paris in 1943, Hervé Le Bras is currently an emeritus research director at the National Institute for Demographic Studies (INED), a research director at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS), an associate researcher at Churchill College (Cambridge), and holds the chair in Territory and Population at the Global Studies College of the Maison des Sciences de l’Homme. He is a former student of the École Polytechnique, graduated in demography and mathematical economics.

In 1966, he was an intern ethnologist in Chad for SEDES. After a year, he returned to the National Institute for Demographic Studies (INED) where he initially worked as a researcher. Since 1976, he has been a research director there. He has also been a research director at EHESS since 1980.

From 1980 to 1992, he was the Director of the Methods and Projections Department at INED. He was a lecturer in economics at the DEA at the Institute of Political Studies (1979-1990) and at the École Polytechnique (1974-1992).

Between 1988 and 2008, Hervé Le Bras was the Director of the Historical Demography Laboratory (EHESS-CNRS). From 1990 to 1996, he founded and directed the DEA in Demography and Social Sciences at EHESS. Abroad, he has also been an associate professor at the University of Michigan, Geneva, Virginia, and Churchill College (Cambridge).

He has been an emeritus research director at INED since 2008. Hervé Le Bras has also been a member of the scientific councils of DATAR from 1969 to 2003 and president from 2002 to 2003; of the Urban Plan (PUCA) from 2000 to 2004; of the concerted actions Cities and Spaces and Territories from 1998 to 2005. He is a member of the conference of peripheral regions of Europe (EU, 1998-), of the commission for the enhancement of growth (“Attali” commission, 2007-2011), of the commission for the white paper of the MAE (Juppé-Schweitzer commission, 2007-2008), of the migration commission (Mazeaud commission, 2008), of the Wieviorka mission on diversity (2008) and of the Think Tank Futurescence of BNP-Paribas (2007-11).

He has notably published:

-Birth of Mortality: Political Origin of Demography and Statistics, Springer, New York, (2013).

-Crisis of Places, Crisis of Morals. For a Solidarity Social Housing, ed. de l’Aube, Paris, 2012 (with Pierre Carli).

-The Invention of France, Gallimard, NRF collection, Paris, 2012 (with Emmanuel Todd)

-The Invention of the Immigrant, ed. de l’Aube, Paris, 2012.

-From Migrations to Mobilities, IPEMED, Paris, 2011 (with Pierre Beckouche).

-Ethnic Statistics: The Real Debate, Jean-Jaurès Foundation, Paris 2010 (foreword by Elisabeth Badinter).

-Paris and the Sea, Fayard, Paris 2010 (with J. Attali, E. Orsenna, P. Grumbach, P. Aghion)

-Life and Death of the World Population, ed. Le Pommier and Cité des Sciences de la Villette, Paris, 2009, 2011.

-For or Against Immigration Control, ed. Prométhée, Bordeaux, 2009 (with G.F. Dumont)

-The 4 Mysteries of the French Population, Odile Jacob, Paris, 2007, 312p.

-Positive Immigration, Odile Jacob, Paris, 2006, 246p. (with Jack Lang).