David Voas is Professor of Social Science in the UCL Social Research Institute, which he led until 2020. He is a demographer and sociologist of religion.  

David studied at London School of Economics and the University of Cambridge: 

He worked in the private sector for a number of years and also spent extended periods outside the UK, particularly in France, the United States and Bulgaria. He returned to academic life in 1998, first as a researcher at the University of Liverpool and subsequently as a lecturer at the University of Sheffield. 

David was awarded a Simon Research Fellowship at the University of Manchester in 2003 and remained there for eight years, first in the Cathie Marsh Centre for Census and Survey Research and later in the Institute for Social Change. In 2007, he was promoted to professor and given a chair in the Institute for Social Change, later merged into the Cathie Marsh Institute for Social Research. 

David was Professor of Population Studies in the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex from November 2011 to January 2016. He joined UCL as Professor of Social Science and Head of the Department of Social Science (now the UCL Social Research Institute) in February 2016.  He stepped down as Head at the end of September 2020.