Charles Francis Westoff
Charles F. Westoff is the Maurice P. During Professor of Demography and Sociology, Emeritus, at Princeton University and former Director of the Office of Population Research. He is a world leader in the study of childbearing, contraception, sexual behavior, and the design and analysis of fertility surveys, with more than 50 years of research and publication on these topics.
Westoff received his BA in international relations and MA in sociology from Syracuse University and a PhD in sociology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1953. In the course of his career, Westoff has published over 300 books, articles, and reviews. His work has appeared in the most prestigious journal of social science including Science, American Journal of Sociology, American Sociological Review, Milbank Memorial Quarterly as well as in the leading journals of demography, including Studies in Family Planning, International Family Planning Perspectives, Population Studies, and Demography.
The range of topics he has covered includes teenage fertility, fecundability, coital frequency, contraceptive failure and discontinuation, the marriage market, religion and fertility, mass media and reproductive behavior, and sex pre-selection. He is colloquially known in the field for his graphic description of coital frequency by age or marital duration as “the saddest curve in the world.” He is best known professionally for his work on unwanted and wanted fertility, unmet need for family planning, and the relationship between contraception and abortion. He continues to publish actively and in 2011 produced an article on “The Association of Television and Radio on Reproductive Behavior” for the Population and Development Review.
In recognition of his service to demography he was elected President of the Population Association of America and served in 1974-1975. He is an elected fellow of the Institute of Medicine, a recipient of the Irene Taeuber award for excellence in demographic research, and in 2007 was named a Laureate of the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population.