Gilles Pison

Biography

A former student at the École normale supérieure, Gilles Pison is a professor at the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, associate researcher at the Institut national d’études démographiques and editor-in-chief of the journal Population et Sociétés. He conducts research into demographic change worldwide, with a particular interest in sub-Saharan Africa. He has designed several scientific exhibitions, including 6 milliards d’hommes at the Musée de l’Homme (1994), and La population mondiale… et moi? at the Cité des sciences et de l’industrie (2005), and is the author of numerous scientific publications and various books, including Atlas de la population mondiale (Autrement, 2019).

Conference: Has life expectancy reached its limits?

In France, in the mid-18th century, life expectancy at birth was less than 30 years; since then, it has almost tripled. In recent years, since the middle of the 20th century, it has increased by an average of almost three months a year, from 66 years in 1950 to 82 years in 2018. Will it continue to rise? How much higher? For some time now, it has been progressing more slowly, by an average of two months a year. Is this a sign that it’s approaching its limits? To get a clearer picture, we’ll be analyzing its past evolution and the factors behind its formidable progress to date. We’ll also examine its consequences for current and future demographic ageing.