Demography in the Digital Era: New Data Sources for Population Research

The spread of digital technologies and the increased access to the internet has contributed to the production and accumulation of unprecedented quantities of data about human behavior. Demographers, who have a long-standing interest in issues related to data and data quality, are in an ideal position to make sense of this new information. This paper discusses three ways in which the Data Revolution has created novel sources of data for demographic research. It discusses the unique technical and ethical challenges posed by these data sources and the opportunities they provide for understanding historical and contemporary demographic dynamics around the world.