: World population

News from Population Matters.

  • UN building flags banner

    PM supporters call for UN action

    On 11 July 2019, World Population Day, we launched a petition calling on the UN to recognise the urgency of achieving a sustainable human population if the world is to have a reasonable chance of meeting the Sustainable Development Goals. Almost 8,000 people across 128 countries have signed up.

  • The impact of COVID-19 on women’s reproductive health in India: Safeguarding women’s rights

    In this guest blog post marking International Safe Abortion Day, Sanghamitra Singh, a health scientist working with the Population Foundation of India, examines the impact of the pandemic on women’s rights and…

  • Savannah scene banner

    You can’t stop extinctions by ignoring the number of people

    Population Matters Senior Campaigner Nina Jatana takes a look at WWF’s latest grim report on the global state of wildlife and laments the serious omission of empowering solutions that slow…

  • Kibera women banner

    The Kibra youths protecting their communities and environment

    Population Matters Campaigner Katrina Dixon reflects on what we have achieved through our Empower to Plan programme so far this year, and the continued support needed for the people of Kibra slum in Kenya.

  • NYC WPD girls with digivan banner

    It’s time to end harmful population denial

    Polemicist and pundit George Monbiot’s recent opinion piece in The Guardian claims (once again) that addressing the population issue is “blaming the poor” and “racist”. Population Matters Director Robin Maynard replies to these unjustified and irrational accusations and explains why population denial hurts everyone, especially the world’s most vulnerable.

  • Earth Overshoot Day: How smaller families shrink our ecological footprint

    Today is Earth Overshoot Day, the day on which humanity has used up all the natural resources that the Earth can produce within a year. This means that from tomorrow,…

  • Investing in contraception would save billions of dollars

    A new report estimates that fulfilling the unmet need for modern contraception in developing countries would save $16 billion a year in maternal healthcare by reducing the number of unintended…

  • Membership banner

    Championing better choices: My work as a young population activist

    The theme of this year’s International Youth Day is “Youth Engagement for Global Action”. Stella Wright, a member of the Population Matters London Local Group, is one of an increasing…

  • Tractors harvesting crop banner

    Eating the planet: what our diets and population growth mean for the environment

    A new report reveals that global adoption of current food consumption patterns in G20 countries would ruin our chance of meeting climate and sustainability targets, exceeding the planetary boundary for food-related emissions…

  • Baby looking ahead banner

    Two billion fewer people?

    A new study published in The Lancet has attracted enormous attention for projecting that the global population will peak at 9.7bn in 2064 and be 8.8bn by the end of…