Wittgenstein Centre for Demography and Global Human Capital (WIC)

We combine scientific excellence in a multidisciplinary context.

The Wittgenstein Centre for Demography and Global Human Capital is a collaboration among the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) and the University of Vienna (UNIVIE). Researchers from the Population and Just Societies Program (POPJUS) at IIASA, the Vienna Institute of Demography (VID) at ÖAW and the Department of Demography (DoD) at UNIVIE are working on various projects in multidisciplinary teams.

The Centre combines the partners’ strengths in the fields of demography, human capital formation and analysis of the returns to education. “Human capital” refers to the human resource base in terms of the number of people and their changing structure by age, gender, location, education, health status, cognitive skills and other relevant characteristics. Our intent is to provide a sound scientific foundation for decision-making at various levels. Scientific advice and guidance are ensured by its International Scientific Advisory Board.

Our Mission: The Wittgenstein Centre aspires to be a world leader in the advancement of demographic methods and their application to the analysis of human capital and population dynamics.