Ethan J. Raker is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of British Columbia working in the areas of social stratification, medical sociology, and environmental sociology. His scholarship brings together various sources of novel data to examine the relationship between climate change and inequalities in human health and community well-being. He holds a Ph.D. in sociology from Harvard University.

I am a social demographer specializing in disasters. My research aims to understand the health and demographic consequences of extreme weather-related disasters, drawing particular attention to disparities across racial and socioeconomic groups. To achieve this, I combine novel data sources and subject them to advanced quantitative methods. My work provides credible empirical evidence on disaster effects and addresses theoretical questions about how risk and vulnerability shape population outcomes in a changing climate. In doing so, my research addresses core issues related to climate change and contributes to three disciplinary subfields: sociology of health, sociology of population, and environmental sociology.

Select Peer-Reviewed Publications

Raker, Ethan J. 2025. “Flooding, sociospatial risk, and population health.” Demography 62(1): 1-25.

Raker, Ethan J. and Xueqing Zhang. 2025. “Person-days under emergency order: A research brief on wildfire and flood evacuation mandates in British Columbia.” Population Research & Policy Review 44(14): 1-13.

Raker, Ethan J. 2023. “Stratifying disaster: State aid, institutional processes, and inequality in American communities.” Social Forces 102(2): 430-453.

Raker, Ethan J., Meghan Zacher, & Sarah R. Lowe. 2020. “Lessons from Hurricane Katrina for predicting the indirect health consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 117(23): 12595-12597.

Raker, Ethan J. 2020. “Natural hazards, disasters, and demographic change: the case of severe tornadoes in the United States, 1980-2010.” Demography 57(2): 653-674.

• Ana Aguado Prize, Harvard Environmental Economics Program
• Best Student Paper Award, Political Sociology Section, American Sociological Association