World Population Day

The focus is on the need to re-energize our commitment to universal access to reproductive health services, especially voluntary family planning.

The Governing Council of the United Nations Development Programme established World Population Day in 1989, to focus attention on the urgency and importance of population issues. It was an outgrowth of the interest generated by the Day of Five Billion, which was observed on 11th July 1987.

People around the world observe World Population Day in different ways. Many UNFPA country offices and other institutions mark the day with celebrations, poster or essay contests, sports events, concerts or other activities, to bring attention to population issues.

As we commemorate World Population Day, we wish to reiterate the call to make each and every person count.Only by considering the needs of all peoples can we achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

This is crucial as we strive for universal access to education, HIV prevention, treatment, care and support, and reproductive health and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.

Population dynamics - including growth rates, age structure, fertility and mortality, migration, and more - influence every aspect of human, social and economic development.

On this World Population Day, we emphasise the right of everyone to be counted, especially women, girls, the poor and the marginalised. Censuses and population data play a critical role in development and humanitarian response and recovery.

With quality data, we can better track and make greater progress to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, and promote and protect the dignity and human rights of all people.

“The broad masses of a population are more amenable to the appeal of rhetoric than to any other force.”

Adolf Hitler