Miloš Macura (1916–2005) graduated from the Faculty of Law of the University of Belgrade in 1938, and received PhD from the Faculty of Economy of the same university in 1956. As of 1947, he was Director the Statistical Office of Serbia, while from 1954 to 1960, he was the deputy Director of the Federal Statistical Office. During 1960, he visited India and Ethiopia as an UN expert.
He worked in the Institute of Social Sciences from 1961 to 1963. In 1962, he founded the Centre for Demographic Research within the ISS, and was elected the head of the Centre that same year. In mid-1963, he was appointed the Director of the Federal Statistical Office. From 1966 to 1972, he was the Director of the Population Department of the United Nations.
He was elected full university professor in 1958; he taught demography at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Belgrade (1958–1966). He also taught at universities in Zagreb and Skopje. From 1972 to 1974, he was invited to teach population economics at the University of Leuven.
He was elected a corresponding member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Art (SASA) in 1974, and received full membership in 1981. He was the Secretary of the Department of Social Sciences from 1985 to 1989 and a member of the SASA Presidency from 1989 to 1994. He chaired the Board for the Population Studies, Interacademic Board for the Study of Human Rights and National Minorities, and Commission for the Study of Life and Customs of the Roma.
He was elected a corresponding member of the French Academy of Moral and Legal Sciences in 1968, and an honorary member of the Royal Statistical Society in London in 1974. He was the Head of the International Statistical Institute (1975–1977), member of the council of the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population (1973 –1977), and the Head of the International Committee for Social Science Information and Documentation (1975–1977).
