Heini Väisänen

Heini Väisänen is a Researcher at the Institut national d’études démographiques (INED), France, affiliated with the Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights and Demography of the Global South units. She is the Principal Investigator of the ERC Starting Grant-funded project Social Inequalities in the risk and aftermath of miscarriage (2024–2028). Previously, she was a Lecturer in Social Statistics and Demography at the University of Southampton, UK. She completed her PhD at the London School of Economics and Political Science in 2016 with the thesis A Life Course Perspective to Abortions in Finland.

• PhD, London School of Economics and Political Science, 2016
• Master’s, London School of Economics and Political Science, dissertation on Social Inequalities and Fertility in Adolescence: Teenage Pregnancy Trends of Three Birth Cohorts in Finland

Her research centers on social demography and sexual and reproductive health, with a focus on induced abortions, miscarriages, and pregnancy intentions over the life course. She investigates how reproductive events affect long-term health and wellbeing, utilizing longitudinal, multilevel, and event-history modeling. Her work emphasizes social inequalities and applies advanced quantitative methods to population-level data, particularly from Finland and sub-Saharan Africa.

She serves as an Associate Editor for Demographic Research and previously for Reproductive Health. Her scholarly contributions have been recognized with multiple early career awards from the IUSSP, BSPS, and ESHMS. She has supervised several PhD students across institutions, focusing on topics such as obstetric fistula, women’s economic empowerment, and health behaviors.

• International Union for the Scientific Study of Population (IUSSP) Early Career Award (Europe), 2023
• British Society for Population Studies (BSPS) Early Career Award, 2021
• ESHMS Best Paper Prize, 2016
• BSPS Best Student Poster Award, 2014
• BSPS Prize for Best Student Dissertation, 2013

Dr. Väisänen leads a significant ERC-funded research program and is actively involved in academic service and mentorship. Her work bridges demography, public health, and social science, with a strong commitment to equity in reproductive health outcomes globally.