Personal profile
Biography
Dr Julia Mikolai is a Lecturer in Demography/Quantitative Population Geography in the Population and Health Research Group at the School of Geography and Sustainable Development. She is PI of the ChildLives project (supported by the Horizon Europe Guarantee, selected for funding as an ERC Starting Grant. Her research interests include children's life courses; partnerships, families, and fertility; residential mobility and housing; life course research; cross-national comparisons; and longitudinal data analysis. Previously, she was a Senior Research Fellow on the ERC funded MigrantLife project, a Research Fellow at the ESRC Centre for Population Change Scotland, and on the PartnerLife Project. She holds a PhD in social statistics and demography from the University of Southampton. Her background is in sociology and demography; she studied at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, Hungary; Utrecht University, the Netherlands; and participated in the European Doctoral School of Demography (EDSD) hosted by the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Rostock, Germany and the Centre for Economic Demography at Lund University, Sweden.
Research interests
Dr Julia Mikolai's research interests include children's life courses; partnerships, families, and fertility; residential mobility and housing; life course research; cross-national comparisons; and longitudinal data analysis.
Profile Keywords
Children; partnerships; fertility; residential mobility and housing; cross-national comparison; longitudinal data and methods
Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
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SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being -
SDG 5 Gender Equality -
SDG 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth -
SDG 10 Reduced Inequalities -
SDG 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities -
SDG 16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
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Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years
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Complex families in the United Kingdom: mapping children’s diverse family pathways and their correlates from birth to age ten
Šťastná, M., Mikolai, J., Finney, N. & Keenan, K. L., 19 Jan 2026, (E-pub ahead of print) In: Longitudinal and Life Course Studies. Early View, 27 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile -
Health decline and residential transitions among older adults in Europe
Afable, S. D., Vierboom, Y., Evans, M., Mikolai, J., Kulu, H. & Myrskylä, M., 1 Oct 2025, In: Population, Space and Place. 31, 7, 13 p., e70116.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile -
Heterogeneity or disadvantage? Partnership, childbearing, and employment trajectories of the descendants of immigrants in the United Kingdom
Mikolai, J. & Kulu, H., 1 Dec 2025, In: Advances in Life Course Research. 66, 12 p., 100703.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile -
Origin, generation, and destination country context: employment changes and childbearing among female immigrants and their descendants in the UK, France, and Germany
Mikolai, J., Kulu, H., Delaporte, I. & Liu, C., 1 Dec 2025, In: European Journal of Population. 41, 1, 54 p., 26.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile -
Projection of migrant family life-courses in England and Wales using multistate models and microsimulation
Ibbetson, A., Kulu, H. & Mikolai, J., Jan 2025, St Andrews: MigrantLife, 27 p. (MigrantLife working papers; no. 24).Research output: Working paper
Open Access
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HILIGHT CPC - Connecting Generations: HIGHLIGHT: CPC - Connecting Generations Centre
Kulu, H. (PI), Demsar, U. (CoI), Finney, N. (CoI), Fiori, F. (CoI), Hale, J. M. (CoI), Keenan, K. (CoI), McCollum, D. (CoI) & Mikolai, J. (CoI)
Economic and Social Research Council
1/04/22 → 31/03/27
Project: Standard
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Family Complexity and Children's Outcomes in the UK: A Longitudinal Approach
Mikolai, J. (PI) & Šťastná, M. (Student)
1/08/20 → 31/05/24
Project: Studentship
Activities
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Partnership, fertility, and employment trajectories of immigrants in the UK: A three-channel sequence analysis
Mikolai, J. (Speaker) & Kulu, H. (Speaker)
7 Dec 2021Activity: Talk or presentation types › Presentation
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Family trajectories among immigrants and their descendants in three European countries
Kulu, H. (Speaker), Mikolai, J. (Speaker), Delaporte, I. (Speaker), Liu, C. (Speaker) & Andersson, G. (Speaker)
7 Dec 2021Activity: Talk or presentation types › Presentation
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Partnership, fertility, and employment trajectories of immigrants in the UK: A three-channel sequence analysis
Mikolai, J. (Speaker)
12 Oct 2021Activity: Talk or presentation types › Invited talk
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Partnership, fertility, and employment trajectories of immigrants in the UK: A three-channel sequence analysis
Mikolai, J. (Speaker)
29 Sept 2021Activity: Talk or presentation types › Invited talk
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Annual Meeting of the British Society for Population Studies
Mikolai, J. (Organiser)
13 Sept 2021 → 15 Sept 2021Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Participation in or organising a conference
Prizes
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British Society for Population Studies
Mikolai, J. (Recipient), 10 Sept 2019
Prize: Election to learned society
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Jon Rasbash Memorial Prize for Quantitative Social Science
Mikolai, J. (Recipient), 2018
Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)