Steven Ruggles

{{Short description|American historical demographer (born 1955)}}

{{Infobox scientist

| name = John Steven Ruggles

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| birth_date = {{birth date and age |1955|5|8|mf=y}}

| birth_place = New Haven, Conn.

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| nationality = American

| fields = Historical demography

| workplaces = Institute for Social Research and Data Innovation, University of Minnesota

| alma_mater = University of Wisconsin, University of Pennsylvania

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| known_for = IPUMS

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John Steven Ruggles (born May 8, 1955 - New Haven, Conn.) is Regents Professor of History and Population Studies at the University of Minnesota, and the director of the Institute for Social Research and Data Innovation.{{Cite web|url=https://isrdi.umn.edu/|title=Explore Our Centers | Institute for Social Research and Data Innovation|website=Isrdi.umn.edu|access-date=21 February 2022}} He is best known as the creator of IPUMS, the world's largest population database. IPUMS provides information about two billion people residing in 107 countries between 1703 and the present, including every respondent to the surviving U.S. censuses of 1790 to 1940.{{Cite web|url=https://www.ipums.org/|title=Homepage | IPUMS|website=Ipums.org|access-date=21 February 2022}} He served as founding director of the Minnesota Population Center from 2000 to 2016. He served as the 2015 President of the Population Association of America, the first historian to hold the position.{{cite web|last1=Norling|first1=Lisa|author-link1=Lisa Norling|title=Steve Ruggles to Head the Population Association of America|url=http://cla.umn.edu/history/news-events/news/steve-ruggles-head-population-association-america|website=College of Liberal Arts|publisher=University of Minnesota|access-date=May 25, 2015|date=June 22, 2014}} He also served as

President of the Association of Population Centers (2017–2018){{Cite web|url=https://www.popcenters.org/|title=Association of Population Centers|website=Popcenters.org|access-date=21 February 2022}} and President of the Social Science History Association (2018–2019).{{Cite web |url=https://www.ssha.org/ |title=Social Science History Association |access-date=2018-12-16 |archive-date=2018-11-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181107055502/https://ssha.org/ |url-status=dead }} He has been active on many national advisory and study committees, including the Census Bureau Scientific Advisory Committee;{{Cite web|url=https://www.census.gov/about/cac/sac.html|title = Census Scientific Advisory Committee (CSAC)|website=Census.gov}} the National Science Foundation Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences Advisory Committee;{{Cite web|url=https://www.nsf.gov/sbe/advisory.jsp|title=SBE Advisory Committee | NSF - National Science Foundation|website=Nsf.gov|access-date=21 February 2022}} the National Science Foundation Advisory Committee for CyberInfrastructure;{{Cite web |url=https://www.nsf.gov/cise/oac/advisory.jsp/ |title=NSF's Advisory Committee for Cyberinfrastructure | NSF - National Science Foundation |access-date=2018-12-16 |archive-date=2019-04-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190429075951/https://www.nsf.gov/cise/oac/advisory.jsp |url-status=dead }} and the National Academy of Sciences Board on Research Data and Information.{{Cite web|url=https://sites.nationalacademies.org/pga/brdi/pga_069853|title=Policy and Global Affairs at the National Academies|website=Sites.nationalacademies.org|access-date=21 February 2022}}

Ruggles received a Ph.D. in historical demography from the University of Pennsylvania in 1984.{{cite web|author=University of Minnesota |url=https://apps.cla.umn.edu/directory/profiles/ruggl001 |title=Steven Ruggles: College of Liberal Arts: U of M |website=Apps.cla.umn.edu |date=2010-06-03 |access-date=2011-12-23}} He has published extensively on historical demography, focusing especially on long-run changes in multi-generational families, single parenthood, divorce, and marriage, and on data and methods for population history. His study of the effects of demographic change on family structure {{cite book |author=Steven Ruggles |title=Prolonged Connections: The Rise of the Extended Family in Nineteenth Century England and America |url=http://www.hist.umn.edu/~ruggles/Articles/ISBNO-299-11034-6.pdf |location=Madison |publisher=University of Wisconsin Press |year=1987 |isbn=0-299-11034-6}} won the William J. Goode Book Award from the American Sociological Association and the Allen Sharlin Memorial Award from the Social Science History Association. Ruggles's work on migration censoring in family reconstitutionSteven Ruggles, "Migration, Marriage, and Mortality: Correcting Sources of Bias in English Family Reconstitutions," Population Studies vol. 46 (1992) pp. 507-522 stimulated a debate about biases introduced by the "Ruggles Effect."E.A. Wrigley, "The Effect of Migration on the Estimation of Marriage Age in Family Reconstitution Studies," Population Studies vol. 48 (1994) pp. 81-97; Alice Bee Kasakoff and John W. Adams, “The Effect of migration on Ages at Vital Events: A Critique of Family Reconstitution in Historical Demography” European Journal of Population 11 (1995), pp. 199-242; B. Desjardins, “Bias in Age at Marriage in Family Reconstitutions: Evidence from French-Canadian data.” Population Studies 49 (1995) 165–169; E. Voland and R.I.M. Dunbar, “The Impact of Social Status and Migration on Female Age at Marriage in an Historical Population in North-West Germany.” Journal of Biosocial Science 29(1997), pp. 355-360; Steven Ruggles “The Limitations of English Family Reconstitution.” Continuity and Change 14 (1999) 105-130; M. A. Jonker and A. W. van der Vaart, “Correcting Missing-Data Bias in Historical Demography” Population Studies vol. 61 (2007) pp. 99-114

In 2003, Ruggles received the Robert J. Lapham Award from the Population Association of America in recognition of lifetime contributions that blend research with the application of demographic knowledge to policy issues,{{cite web |url=http://www.popassoc.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageID=3309 |title=Robert J. Lapham Award - Population Association of America |website=Popassoc.org |access-date=2011-12-23 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071203200719/http://www.popassoc.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=3309 |archive-date=2007-12-03 }} and in 2009 he received the Warren E. Miller Award from the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research for meritorious service to the social sciences.{{cite web|url=http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/content/membership/awards/ruggles.html |title=Warren E. Miller Award |website=Icpsr.umich.edu |access-date=2013-01-18}} In 1995, Ruggles was described as the "King of Quant" by Wired Magazine,{{cite news|url=https://www.wired.com/wired/archive/3.03/ruggles_pr.html |title=The King of Quant |website=Wired.com |access-date=2011-12-23 |first=Hillary |last=Rettig}} and in 2014, he was named “Wonkblog-Certified Data Wizard” by the Washington Post Wonkblog, which noted that losing to Steven Ruggles in Name That Data is kind of like losing to Adele on American Idol.{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/09/22/name-that-data-answers-week-9/|title=Name That Data Answers Week 9|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=21 February 2022}} In 2022 Ruggles was awarded a MacArthur "Genius" grant.{{cite web |url=https://www.macfound.org/fellows/class-of-2022/steven-ruggles#searchresults | title=MacArthur Fellows Program Steven Ruggles}}

In 1994, Ruggles married Lisa Norling, another historian. They have two daughters.