Michael Anderson was born 21 February 1942. He was educated at Kingston Grammar School and he studied at Queens' College, Cambridge, where he was awarded the degrees of BA (1964), MA (1968), and Ph.D (1969). In 1967, he was appointed as an Assistant Lecturer, Edinburgh University, Department of Sociology, and then became a Lecturer in 1969, and Reader in 1975. He became Professor of Economic History in 1979 until 2007. In 1985 he was appointed Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, and Vice-Principal between 1989-1993, and 1997-2000. During a few months of 1994 he served as Acting Principal, and he was Senior Vice-Principal, 2000-2007.

Anderson became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1990 and was awarded with an OBE in 1999. He has an Honorary Doctorate from Edinburgh University, 2007, and is a Fellow of the British Academy, a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and an Honorary Fellow of the Faculty of Actuaries.

His publications include Family structure in nineteenth century Lancashire (1971), editor of Sociology of the family (1972), Approaches to the history of the western family, 1500-1914 (1981), The 1851 census: a national sample of the enumerators returns (1987), Population change in northwestern Europe 1750-1850 (1988), editor of Social and political economy of the household (1995), and editor of British population history (1996).

Michael Anderson OBE, MA, PhD, Dr H.C., FBA, FRSE, FRHist Soc, HonFFA is currently Emeritus Professor of Economic History at Edinburgh University.