Youssef Courbage

Institute of Demographic Studies, Paris

Youssef Courbage, born in Aleppo in 1946, has lived his infant and childhood in Beirut. After studying Economics and Sociology at St-Joseph and Lebanese Universities in Lebanon, he graduated in Demography and Urban Planning at the Sorbonne and Dauphine Universities.

Since then his career was mainly devoted to demographic research and training. Namely with the United Nations in Beirut, Cairo, Yaoundé (Cameroon), Port-au-Prince (Haiti) and Rabat (Morocco). In 1990 he was appointed as researcher then research director at the National Institute of Demographic Studies in Paris. He has been continuously a member of this Institute, except in 2003-2005 where he headed the department of contemporary studies at French Institute of the near East in Beirut (IFPO).

His research has covered mainly the Arab and Muslim populations, the old and new minorities and the political, social and economic correlates of population dynamics. He has published around 350 books, chapters, articles and reports.