About

Clark Gray is a Professor of Geography & Environment at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His research primarily investigates the interactions between environmental factors and human populations, with a focus on the developing world. One major line of his work examines the consequences of climate variability on multidimensional population well-being by linking large-sample and longitudinal population data with spatial climate data. This research provides new insights into the impacts of future climate change on human development. Another significant area of his research explores the effects of environmental change on human migration, particularly in the context of global climate change and natural disasters. His findings challenge Neo-Malthusian predictions by showing that environmental factors influence migration patterns in complex ways, with many climate migrants moving temporarily or over short distances, and some being trapped in place.

Research topics

• Economics
• Geography
• Ecology
• Biology
• Socioeconomics
• Natural resource economics
• Demographic economics
• Development economics
• Medicine
• Environmental protection
• Psychology
• Developmental psychology
• Environmental health
• Demography
• Economic growth

Selected publications

• The changing climate-migration relationship in China, 1989–2011

  UNC Libraries · 2025-07-16

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Climate anomalies and childhood growth in Peru

  UNC Libraries · 2025-06-21

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Climatic conditions and household food security: Evidence from Tanzania

  UNC Libraries · 2025-05-09

  articleOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Characterizing the indigenous forest peoples of Latin America: Results from census data

  UNC Libraries · 2025-07-12

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Smallholder responses to climate anomalies in rural Uganda

  UNC Libraries · 2025-09-09

  articleOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Early-Life Environmental Exposures and Socioeconomic Attainment: Evidence from Historical U.S. Census Data

  2025-03-08

  preprintOpen accessSenior author

  Environmental stressors, and their downstream social and economic impacts, can affect a broad set of social processes and outcomes. One growing line of research examines how climatic and environmental exposures in early life affect later-life outcomes, which can occur through biological, developmental, and socioeconomic mechanisms. We contribute a historical perspective to this literature by leveraging unique, linked census data from early twentieth-century America (1900-1940). We match these data to historical temperature and precipitation estimates from the PRISM project at the county level. We then fit a series of regression models to measure the effects of exposures to temperature and precipitation anomalies in utero and during early childhood (i.e., the year before birth through age 5) on migration, marriage, labor force participation, and occupational prestige for men in early adulthood (i.e., ages 20 to 24). Our results show that temperature is positively associated with labor force participation and occupational prestige but negatively associated with the likelihood of marriage. Precipitation is positively associated with occupational prestige and negatively associated with marriage. Temperature and precipitation exposures are not significant predictors of migration prior to stratification. Additional models test for effect heterogeneity, revealing differences by region, farming status, and race. These findings underscore the complex and varied ways in which early-life climate exposures shaped socioeconomic trajectories in early twentieth-century America.

  PublisherDOI

• Temporary migration and climate variation in eastern Africa

  UNC Libraries · 2025-07-19

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Climate exposures and child undernutrition: Evidence from Indonesia

  UNC Libraries · 2025-07-12

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Stability and change within indigenous land use in the Ecuadorian Amazon

  UNC Libraries · 2025-07-15

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Environmental change, aquatic conditions, and household food security: evidence from Lake Malawi

  Population and Environment · 2025-01-24 · 3 citations

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• The Relationship Between Soil Degradation, Rural Livelihoods, and Household Well-Being

  NSF · $400k · 2012–2016

• Climate, Population Health, and Well-being over Time

  NIH · $148k · 2015–2018

• Population Dynamics in Africa: Selected Outcomes and Causes

  NIH · $170k · 2019–2022

• Economic Well-being in the Aftermath of the Indian Ocean Tsunami

  NIH · $727k · 2009–2015

• Economic Well-being in the Aftermath of the Indian Ocean Tsunami

  NIH · $125k · 2009–2011

Frequent coauthors

• Valerie Mueller

  Clemson University

  17 shared

• Brian C. Thiede

  17 shared

• Richard E. Bilsborrow

  16 shared

• Heather Randell

  University of Minnesota

  10 shared

• Maia Call

  National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center

  7 shared

• Samuel Sellers

  Virginia Mason Bainbridge Island Medical Center

  6 shared

• Matthew Bozigar

  Oregon State University

  5 shared

• Elizabeth Frankenberg

  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

  4 shared

Labs

• Clark Gray LabPI

Education

• PhD, Geography

  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill