About

Dedicated to Research, Training, and Service in Demography

For more than two decades, the Center for Family and Demographic Research (CFDR) has provided research infrastructure and support to its on-campus and external affiliates conducting cutting-edge population science. The CFDR is nationally recognized for its innovative work on the health and well-being of children, youth, and families. At its core, the mission of the Center is to build a research community that stimulates intellectual engagement and new synergies among its affiliates.

Launched in 2000 by Founding Director Wendy Manning, the CFDR was funded by infrastructure awards from NIH/NICHD from 2002-2023. During this period, BGSU was the only non-R1 institution to have NICHD population infrastructure support, a testament to the outstanding achievements of the CFDR leadership and faculty affiliates whose outsized accomplishments have placed BGSU on the national map of demographic excellence.

Now, CFDR Director Susan Brown and Ohio State’s Institute for Population Research Director Sarah Hayford are initiating the Ohio Population Consortium (OPC) to unite their two population centers. OPC provides a cost-efficient shared infrastructure designed to expand affiliate research networks and access to resources across the two campuses. This collaboration will jumpstart innovative, multidisciplinary population science and provide the material and intellectual support to nurture and grow these new collaborations. By increasing scientific impact, innovation, and productivity in a cost-efficient manner, OPC embodies the next frontier of population dynamics research centers.