In Memory of Patrick Festy

Patrick Festy, an INED researcher and Director of the Institute from 1995 to 1998, passed away on 7 December 2022.

Holder of a State Doctorate awarded in 1978 for his thesis on fertility in Western countries, Festy was author or co-author of some 15 books and more than 250 publications on a wide range of topics including fertility, marriage, family, ageing, mortality, and demographic trends. His work focused on populations in France, Europe, and elsewhere in the world, Morocco especially.

Not only did Festy contribute around 20 articles to Population as an author, along with four reports on demographic developments in France, but he will be remembered above all for his work as the journal’s editor from 1989 (starting with the first volume of 1990) until 1995. Over this period, he assumed responsibility for the reports to parliament on the French population published annually in Population. He also oversaw numerous special thematic issues, including three that paid tribute to the illustrious demographers Jean Bourgeois-Pichat, Roland Pressat, and Alfred Sauvy, two of whom were former directors of INED.

During his term as editor, Festy helped to establish Population as a journal fully independent of its host institution and met the standards of the international scientific community. The range of contributors became progressively more diverse and international, as Jean-Paul Sardon points out in his introduction to the feature devoted to the journal’s 50th anniversary in 1995. The growing number of published articles, and of methodological and explanatory papers, highlighted by Etienne Van de Walle in that same issue, also bear witness to the journal’s dynamic expansion.

Patrick Festy did much to shape the success of Population, and for the last 30 years, its successive editors and editorial committees have sought to pursue and develop his legacy.

References in Population journal:

Évolution de la fécondité en Europe occidentale depuis la guerre
1970, volume 25(2), pages 229 à 274

Projections de population comparées : États-Unis, U.R.S.S., France
1970, volume 25(5), pages 1108 à 1115

Évolution de la nuptialité en Europe occidentale, depuis la guerre
1971, volume 26(2), pages 331 à 379

Le divorce en Europe depuis 1950
1975, volume 30(6), pages 975 à 1017

Les divorces en France. Evolution récente et perspectives
1976, volume 31(3), pages 617 à 648

La fécondité des mariages au Québec, d’après l’enquête famille de 1971
1976, volume 31(4), pages 875 à 900

Âge et endurance des Marathoniens
1980, volume 35(3), pages 687 à 690

La situation démolinguistique au Canada, évolution passée et prospective
1981, volume 36(3), pages 619 à 622

Le mouvement quadriennal des mariages en Grèce
1983, volume 38(2), pages 409 à 413

Conjoncture démographique et rythmes familiaux : quelques illustrations québécoises
1986, volume 41(1), pages 37 à 58

Les divorces en France et la Seconde Guerre mondiale
1988, volume 43(4), pages 815 à 828