Peter MacDonald is the Professor of Demography, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health at the Centre for Health Policy at The University of Melbourne. Prior to this, he was Professor of Demography in the Crawford School of Public Policy at The Australian National University. He was also President of the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population (IUSSP) for the years 2010-2013, and is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia.

He is frequently consulted on the issue of population futures (causes, consequences and policies) by governments around the world, especially in Australia, Europe and East Asia. In 2008, he was appointed as a Member in the Order of Australia. He is Deputy Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence in Population Ageing Research.