Francesco C. Billari - Demography and Hyperdiversity
Academy Lecture: Karl Popper-Lecture
"Demography and Hyperdiversity"
Francesco C. Billari (Bocconi University, Mailand)
23 February 2026, 17:00 CET
Festive Hall, Austrian Academy of Sciences
Opening and Welcome: Christiane Wendehorst (President of the Division of Humanities and Social Sciences of the OeAW) & Marc Luy (Director of the Vienna Institute of Demography of the OeAW)
A series of major revolutions has greatly increased population diversity. Longer life expectancy has created generational diversity and encouraged long-term investment; expanded education has increased social diversity; social and technological change has enhanced gender diversity; and migration has intensified diversity by origin, leading to globally diverse cities and countries. Together, these forces produce “superdiversity,” which, through varied life courses and lifestyles, evolves into “hyperdiversity.” The talk examined empirical evidence as well as the opportunities and challenges of this hyperdiverse world.
Francesco Billari is Professor of Demography at Bocconi University in Milan, where he became Rector in November 2022 after previously serving as Dean of the Faculty, and corresponding member abroad of the OeAW.
