Everyone has the right to decide freely whether and when to have children, with access to the healthcare, education and support they choose. Population Matters works to advance reproductive rights, strengthen public understanding and bring evidence into conversations about population change and sustainability.

We bring evidence and public understanding to conversations about reproductive rights, population change and sustainability.

Our research looks at how rights, inequality, policy and consumption shape people’s lives and the natural world. 

We work with partners and decision-makers to support approaches grounded in agency, justice and respect for human rights. 

Our partnerships support work shaped by communities and conversations with policymakers about reproductive rights and sustainability.  

How does Population Matters deliver its mission? 

We use evidence-based research and advocacy to explore how reproductive rights, inequality and policy shape people’s lives. Our work considers population dynamics alongside consumption and resource use, and shares approaches grounded in ethics and respect for human rights.

Through research and partnerships, we support public understanding and contribute to conversations with partners, policymakers and decision-makers. Those conversations should recognise unequal consumption and the systems shaping environmental outcomes, alongside demographic evidence. 

Is Population Matters a Malthusian organisation?  

No. We advocate voluntary, rights-based solutions focused on strengthening access to education and evidence-based information, gender equality, human rights, and sustainability. We categorically reject Malthusian ideology – Malthus’ theories promoted fear-based narratives and coercion, which we strongly oppose. We recognise that poverty, inequality, and environmental degradation are driven by economic and political structures, not just population growth. A more sustainable world is built on implementing human rights centred decision-making and investment rooted in the principles of justice, empowerment, and equity.   

How does Population Matters collaborate with PARTNERS?

We work with a range of international and grassroots organisations, through our Empower to Plan initiative, which aims to strengthen women’s leadership by providing funding to community-led projects. The projects improve access to reproductive health services, education, and tackle climate injustice. We also contribute to policy discussions on sustainability, ensuring that population dynamics are considered within wider human rights and environmental debates.  By integrating these perspectives, we promote policies that are ethical, sustainable, and grounded in social justice.  

why is it so difficult to talk about population?  

Population is a difficult issue to talk about as it’s a large, complicated topic that a lot of people don’t understand outside of a simple idea of the numbers of people. That’s why our strategy focuses on how to communicate the interlinkages between population and climate change, biodiversity loss, and resource pressure, and how population dynamics interact with wider systems, including consumption, production, technology and policy.

There is a contentious history surrounding population as well, but again our strategy aims to destigmatise the word population and define it with human rights, environmental sustainability, for the wellbeing of people and the planet, at the heart of it. Our work will open up the conversation on population, for it to be continued for many years to come.