Richard Gisser is a retired director of population statistics at Statistics Austria and a former director and deputy director of the VID. He also headed VID’s Research Group Demography of Austria. He continues to work as a freelancer, focusing on the historical demography of Austria. Due to his extensive expertise, he acts as a consultant within VID and for Statistics Austria (STATjournal).

• Creating a machine-readable aggregate database for Austrian historical demography (ATHiD).
• Closing gaps in demographic data series, especially such originating in the two world wars.
• Analysing cross-sectional data series in longitudinal perspective: literacy in 19^th century Austria, long-term generational life tables.
• Excess mortality during the pandemic 2020-2023 in Austria and Europe.