How POP Began
The first formal population activities began in 1974 and were merged into the Human Settlement and Services (HSS) Program. The main emphasis was on international migration, and under the leadership of Andrei Rogers, leader from 1974-1983, IIASA became the cradle of the methods of multi-state population analysis.
From 1983-1991 Nathan Keyfitz led IIASA's population activities which were then renamed the Population Project (POP). It was one of the few places that studied the possible impacts of population aging in a systematic manner, and Keyfitz was one of the first demographers to seriously study the relationships between population and the environment.
Wolfgang Lutz has led the Program since 1992. The research group was renamed as the World Population Program in 2004 to emphasize POP's core research on global population dynamics.