Journal rankings · indicator year 2021
Choose a field to open its ranking, or a journal to find its row in its subfield’s list.
Subfield ranking · 2021
Demography journal rankings 2021
42 ranked journals · Subfield in Social Sciences
Demography has 42 ranked journals in 2021. The median OJR fell 0.06 on 2020 to 0.91, below the world average of 1.00; Q1 starts at OJR 1.82. The top three are Journal of Economic Growth, European Journal of Population / Revue européenne de Démographie, and Work Aging and Retirement.
Ranks and citation indicators: 2021. Journal access status and listed APC: source snapshot September 23, 2026.
Journals whose main subfield sits in this category and that published at least 30 citable documents (articles, reviews and conference papers) in 2018–2020, the window the 2021 score is computed on.
The OpenJournalRank Indicator (OJR) is a free, publicly available metric of a journal’s field-normalized citation impact, computed from open OpenAlex citation data. It compares citations to a journal’s papers from the previous three years with the world average for papers of the same subfield, year and type, so 1.00 is the world average and values can be compared across fields. It is computed with the NCI3 method.
The middle OJR among ranked journals in this category: half score higher, half lower. 1.00 is the world average for papers of the same subfield, year and type.
The dot is this category, the solid tick is the median of all ranked journals and the dashed line is the world average.
Share of ranked journals in this category that are fully open access, so every paper is free to read. Hybrid journals, which sell subscriptions and open single papers for a fee, are not counted.
Median list price of the article processing charge, in US dollars, among ranked journals in this category that list a price above zero. Journals with a listed APC of $0 and journals with no known price are left out of this median. The At a glance table below gives a second median that includes the $0 prices.
Subfields of Social Sciences (22)
42 ranked journals
Filters
Rank is the position by OJR within the list on screen; 1 is the highest. | OJR is field-normalized 3-year citation impact: 1.00 is the world average for papers of the same subfield, year and type, so values compare across fields. The badge is the journal’s quartile in this list. | Citations per paper over a two-year window, counted from OpenAlex. It is not field-normalized, so compare it only between journals of the same field. ▲ or ▼ is the change from 2020. This is OpenJournalRank’s own count, not Clarivate’s Journal Impact Factor. | Citable documents (articles, reviews and conference papers) published in 2018–2020, the window the 2021 OJR is computed on. A journal needs at least 30 to be ranked. | Share of the journal’s 2018–2020 papers that are free to read in any open-access form. The green OA tag next to a title marks a fully open-access journal. | List price of the article processing charge in US dollars. “$0 listed” means the listed price is zero; a dash means no price is listed. | The line is the journal’s OJR from 2012 to 2021. | Compare |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1Journal of Economic GrowthSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 6.32Q1 | 5.08 1.51 down from 2020 | 33 | 71% | $4,290 | ||
2European Journal of Population / Revue européenne de DémographieSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 3.81Q1 | 3.48 0.07 down from 2020 | 105 | 100% | $2,990 | ||
3Work Aging and RetirementOxford University Press · United Kingdom | 3.40Q1 | 4.77 1.20 up from 2020 | 74 | 49% | $4,177 | ||
4Asia & the Pacific Policy StudiesOAWiley · Australia | 3.31Q1 | 3.37 0.44 up from 2020 | 88 | 100% | $1,810 | ||
5Journal of Management Spirituality & ReligionTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 2.67Q1 | 2.06 0.03 up from 2020 | 77 | 24% | — | ||
6Population StudiesTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 2.37Q1 | 3.06 0.11 down from 2020 | 101 | 90% | — | ||
7Journal of Elder Abuse & NeglectTaylor & Francis · United States | 2.31Q1 | 2.39 0.24 up from 2020 | 65 | 32% | — | ||
8Demographic ResearchOAMax Planck Institute for Demographic Research · Germany | 2.12Q1 | 2.70 0.15 down from 2020 | 314 | 100% | — | ||
9Population Health MetricsOABioMed Central · United Kingdom | 2.05Q1 | 4.47 0.78 up from 2020 | 72 | 100% | $2,890 | ||
10Island Studies JournalOAUniversity of Prince Edward Island · Canada | 2.05Q1 | 1.77 2.05 down from 2020 | 101 | 100% | — | ||
11OceaniaWiley · Australia | 1.82Q1 | 1.37no change | 93 | 43% | $2,900 | ||
12The Journal of the Economics of AgeingElsevier BV · Netherlands | 1.65Q2 | 2.50 0.10 up from 2020 | 112 | 24% | $3,380 | ||
13Journal of Population AgeingSpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 1.48Q2 | 1.64 0.06 down from 2020 | 96 | 56% | $3,190 | ||
14Journal of Divorce & RemarriageHaworth Press · United States | 1.47Q2 | 1.27 0.47 down from 2020 | 99 | 23% | — | ||
15Journal of Child CustodyTaylor & Francis · United Kingdom | 1.46Q2 | 2.61 1.29 up from 2020 | 40 | — | — | ||
16Journal of Technology in Human ServicesTaylor & Francis · United States | 1.40Q2 | 2.93 1.20 up from 2020 | 62 | 15% | — | ||
17Annals of Actuarial ScienceCambridge University Press · United Kingdom | 1.17Q2 | 2.43 1.39 up from 2020 | 75 | 57% | $3,550 | ||
18ShimaOAShima Publishing · Australia | 1.07Q2 | 1.20 0.56 up from 2020 | 85 | 100% | — | ||
19Journal of Housing for the ElderlyTaylor & Francis · United States | 1.00Q2 | 2.40 1.13 up from 2020 | 40 | — | — | ||
20North American Actuarial JournalTaylor & Francis · United States | 0.99Q2 | 1.59 0.39 up from 2020 | 150 | 32% | — | ||
21Journal of Population ResearchSpringer Science+Business Media · Australia | 0.91Q2 | 1.12 0.07 up from 2020 | 54 | 48% | $3,190 | ||
22Documents d Anàlisi GeogràficaOAUniversitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Geografia · Spain | 0.90Q3 | 0.90 0.07 up from 2020 | 121 | 100% | — | ||
23Marriage & Family ReviewTaylor & Francis · United States | 0.87Q3 | 1.26 0.17 up from 2020 | 111 | 13% | — | ||
24The Contemporary Pacific/The contemporary Pacific (Online)University of Hawaii Press · United States | 0.85Q3 | 0.40 0.02 down from 2020 | 152 | 27% | — | ||
25Research on Ageing and Social PolicyOAHipatia Press · Spain | 0.75Q3 | 1.10 0.50 up from 2020 | 30 | 100% | — | ||
26European Actuarial JournalSpringer Nature · Germany | 0.71Q3 | 1.18 0.15 down from 2020 | 86 | 47% | $2,290 | ||
27The Journal of Adult ProtectionEmerald Publishing Limited · United Kingdom | 0.63Q3 | 1.16 0.45 up from 2020 | 82 | 45% | — | ||
28Activities Adaptation & AgingTaylor & Francis · United States | 0.61Q3 | 1.29 0.18 up from 2020 | 72 | 11% | — | ||
29Journal of Aging and EnvironmentTaylor & Francis · United States | 0.58Q3 | 1.08 0.08 up from 2020 | 53 | 15% | — | ||
30IJREE – International Journal for Research on Extended EducationBarbara Budrich · Germany | 0.54Q3 | 0.61 0.16 up from 2020 | 54 | 91% | — | ||
31Working with Older PeopleEmerald Publishing Limited · United Kingdom | 0.50Q3 | 0.89 0.11 up from 2020 | 82 | 23% | — | ||
32Canadian Studies in PopulationSpringer Nature · Canada | 0.50Q3 | 0.91 0.39 up from 2020 | 54 | 45% | $3,290 | ||
33Family Court ReviewWiley · United Kingdom | 0.48Q4 | 0.78 0.07 down from 2020 | 139 | 12% | $2,900 | ||
34Journal of Jewish EducationTaylor & Francis · United States | 0.47Q4 | 0.38 0.03 down from 2020 | 68 | 15% | — | ||
35Anthropology & AgingOAUniversity Library System, University of Pittsburgh · United States | 0.41Q4 | 0.77 0.04 up from 2020 | 55 | 100% | — | ||
36GenerationsPublisher not listed | 0.38Q4 | 0.62 0.27 up from 2020 | 32 | — | — | ||
37Journal of Marine and Island CulturesOAMokpo National University · Netherlands | 0.32Q4 | 0.59 0.14 down from 2020 | 56 | 100% | — | ||
38The Journal of RetirementUnited States | 0.29Q4 | 0.55 0.01 down from 2020 | 87 | 20% | — | ||
39GerontechnologyOAInternational Society for Gerontechnology · Netherlands | 0.22Q4 | 0.76 0.54 up from 2020 | 316 | 100% | — | ||
40The Journal of Aging and Social ChangeUnited States | 0.21Q4 | 0.34 0.20 up from 2020 | 56 | 19% | — | ||
41Contemporary JewrySpringer Science+Business Media · Netherlands | 0.21Q4 | 0.24 0.32 down from 2020 | 97 | 55% | $3,090 | ||
42OBM GeriatricsOAUnited States | 0.18Q4 | 0.52 0.11 up from 2020 | 142 | 100% | — |
Subfields of Social Sciences, with Demography highlighted.
- Sociology and Political Science1,377
- Education762
- Political Science and International Relations333
- Communication75
- Gender Studies64
- Safety Research57
- Health55
- Public Administration52
- Urban Studies51
- Transportation50
- Law48
- Linguistics and Language48
- Demography42
- Library and Information Sciences41
- Anthropology38
- Geography, Planning and Development33
- Cultural Studies7
- Development4
- General Social Sciences3
- Human Factors and Ergonomics1
- Archeology0
- Life-span and Life-course Studies0
Journals
Citations made in 2021. Corpus-wide, 87.7% of core-journal articles and reviews published that year have at least one matched reference; the share varies by journal and field.
5 additional Demography journals with metrics are unranked under this release’s eligibility rules: a journal needs at least 30 citable documents in 2018–2020, at least 80% of them with a subfield, and a positive world-average expectation. Ranks are within the whole category; filters hide rows without re-ranking. OJR excludes self-citations.
At a glance
Indicator year: 2021. Publication window: 2018–2020. How these summaries are calculated
- Ranked journals
- 42
- Window papers (baseline)
- 86,076 +40.7% from indicator year 2018
- Median OJR
- 0.91 -14.2% from indicator year 2018
- Rising journals (2025)
- 1
Window papers are the baseline paper population: citable papers (articles, reviews and conference papers) from 2018–2020 in all journals of the world-average baseline, including non-core journals, counted by each paper’s own subfield. They are not the papers of the ranked journals alone.
| Measure | Year series | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ranked journals | 16 | 16 | 22 | 22 | 24 | 22 | 27 | 27 | 29 | 29 | 31 | 31 | 33 | 34 | 36 | 40 | 41 | 40 | 40 | 38 | 40 | 42 | 39 | 40 | 40 | 38 | |
| Window papers (baseline) | 11,451 | 12,474 | 13,762 | 15,170 | 16,495 | 18,279 | 20,414 | 23,197 | 26,386 | 30,132 | 33,639 | 37,483 | 41,523 | 45,909 | 48,822 | 52,017 | 54,629 | 57,668 | 61,173 | 67,052 | 75,599 | 86,076 | 98,735 | 110,640 | 123,603 | 129,610 | |
| Median OJR | 0.711 | 0.854 | 0.72 | 0.683 | 0.56 | 0.708 | 0.680 | 0.84 | 0.86 | 0.90 | 1.09 | 1.060 | 1.16 | 1.27 | 1.23 | 1.21 | 1.14 | 1.13 | 1.056 | 1.04 | 0.97 | 0.91 | 0.83 | 0.74 | 0.82 | 0.846 |
How to read these rankings
- OJR, the OpenJournalRank Indicator
- A field-normalized 3-year citation impact, computed from OpenAlex with the NCI3 method. It divides the citations a journal’s papers received by the world average for papers of the same subfield, year and type, so 1.00 is the world average and 2.00 means twice as many citations as expected. Because it is normalized, it can be compared across fields. Read the methodology
- Quartiles
- Q1 to Q4 split the ranked journals of the list you are viewing into four equal groups by OJR. A journal’s quartile depends on the list: the same journal can be Q1 in its subfield and Q2 among all journals.
- Impact factor (2-year)
- Citations per paper over a two-year window, counted from OpenAlex. It is easy to compare with familiar impact factors but is not field-normalized, so compare it only within a field. It is not Clarivate’s Journal Impact Factor. Why it differs from the Journal Impact Factor
- Rank ranges
- Each rank in the latest year carries a likely range from 1,000 resamples of the journal’s papers. Where two journals’ ranges overlap, the data cannot tell them apart, so treat neighbouring ranks as ties.