Zhongwei Zhao graduated from University of Cambridge (PhD), University of Exeter (MA), and Peking University (BA).

Zhongwei Zhao has been a Professor at the Australian Demographic and Social Research Institute, College of Arts and Social Sciences, the Australian National University since 2008.

Prior to taking up this appointment, he was a senior research associate at the Cambridge Group for the History of population and Social Structure, a Bye-Fellow at Pembroke College, University of Cambridge, a senior fellow/fellow/research fellow at the Australian National University, a post-doctoral fellow at the University of New South Wales and the East-West Centre of Hawaii, and a researcher at Peking University.