Population Research Discovery Seminars
The Dividend and the Denominator: Why Demography Matters in Public Policy
Apoorva Jadhav, Demographic Futures Lead at the William H. Gates Sr. Institute for Population and Reproductive Health, Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health
Parrington Hall Room 360
To Join By Zoom: Register HERE
Follow this link to sign up for a 1:1 meeting with Dr. Jadhav during their visit on October 9th.
10/30/2026
12:30-1:30 PM PT
360 Parrington Hall
Co-Sponsor(s):
Getting population data to actually move policy requires more than good methods. It simultaneously requires creativity, an understanding of how bureaucracies and multilaterals function, strong interpersonal skills, and technical precision. Drawing on my last decade in public policy, including eight years at USAID, and subsequent work across think tanks, philanthropy, and multilateral advisory bodies, I illustrate this combination in practice through twelve examples, organized around four things this work actually demands: counting what gets measured, narrating what gets believed, strategizing what gets built, and brokering what gets resolved.
Dr. Apoorva Jadhav is a demographer and policy strategist with twenty years of experience translating demographic evidence into the investments, programs, and policy frameworks that shape global health and international development. She is the Demographic Futures Lead at the William H. Gates Sr. Institute for Population and Reproductive Health at Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health, where she helped develop the Institute’s Demographic Intelligence strategy. She concurrently serves as a Nonresident Scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s South Asia program, leading a strategic initiative on India’s demographic dividend; a member of the G7 Gender Equality Advisory Council under the French Presidency, advising G7 leaders on reframing demographic challenges through a feminist and human rights lens; and a Senior Fellow at the Population Reference Bureau, shaping how evidence on fertility, mortality, and migration reaches policymakers and the public. She also writes a weekly Substack, Demography Matters, arguing that population data is the foundation of every strategic decision touching a human life, one country at a time. Dr. Jadhav previously spent eight years as Senior Demographer and Statistician at USAID, serving as the Agency’s chief demographic expert. She oversaw demographic surveys, censuses, and analyses across USAID-assisted countries and shaped Agency-wide policy on family planning, reproductive health, and the links between population dynamics and socioeconomic development. She holds a Ph.D. in Demography from the University of Pennsylvania, an MPH from Emory University, and a B.A. in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University. She was previously a National Institute on Aging Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Michigan.