Wendell Cox is an expert in urban issues, especially land use and in transportation. He is principal of Demographia, a consultancy in metropolitan St. Louis. He was appointed to three terms on the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission by Mayor Tom Bradley and was appointed by Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich to the Amtrak Reform Council, to complete the unexpired term of New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman. He is a visiting professor at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Metiers, a national university in France.
He is co-author of the Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey, now in its 7th annual edition and author of Demographia World Urban Areas, which is the principal resource for urban population, land area and density for urban areas with more than 500,000 population. He produced a policy paper, Smart Growth and Housing Affordability, for the congressional Millennial Housing Commission and was co-author of the competitive pricing procedures for the New Zealand government conversion of the transit government monopoly to a system of operation by for-profit operators and competitive tendering.
He is a frequent speaker and has conducted nationwide speaking tours in Australia and New Zealand. He has presented guest lectures at international universities, such as Tonji University (Shanghai), Cairo University, the University of Paris, the University of Toronto and the University of Sydney. He has also published numerous commentary pieces, for publications such as The Wall Street Journal, The Daily Telegraph (London), Apple Daily (Hong Kong), the National Post (Toronto), Australian Financial Review, Washington Post, Washington Times, Los Angeles Times, Atlanta Journal, Boston Herald, San Francisco Chronicle, The Weekly Standard and National Review.
He also authors a regular column for newgeography.com
Demographia hosts the internet sites demographia.com, publicpurpose.com and rentalcartours.com.
Cox holds a BA in Government from California State University, Los Angeles and an MBA from Pepperdine University in Los Angeles.