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Youth

World Population Day 2025: Empowering Young People to Create the Families They Want

Strategic Insights

— 2 min read

This year, the 2025 commemoration of the World Population Day, celebrated on July 11, is focused on empowering young people to create the families they want in a fair and hopeful world. The event, established by the Governing Council of the United Nations Development Programme in 1989, aims to raise awareness on global population issues, promote sustainable development, and well-being. As the world observes World Population Day 2025, the focus remains on ensuring that every person has access to health services, rights are upheld, and sustainable development is achieved.

Key Takeaways:

  • The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)'s State of World Population report highlights the real issue as a lack of reproductive agency, which has made many people, especially youths, unable to have the children they want.
  • A UNFPA-YouGov survey of over 14,000 people in 14 countries found that young people are already driving change but face major obstacles, including economic insecurity, gender inequality, limited healthcare, and education.
  • The survey revealed that most young people wanted more children but were prevented by social, economic, or health barriers.
  • To respond to global population trends, leaders must prioritize young people's needs and voices, providing them with more than services, but hope, stability, and a future worth planning for.
  • The global population has grown from 1 billion to almost 7.9 billion in 2021, with an expected growth to around 8.5 billion in 2030, 9.7 billion in 2050, and 10.9 billion in 2100.
  • The recent past has seen enormous changes in fertility rates and life expectancy, with total fertility for the world falling to below 2.5 children per woman by 2015.
  • Global life spans have risen from an average of 64.6 years in the early 1990s to 72.6 years in 2019, and urbanization and migration are expected to affect economic development, employment, income distribution, poverty, and social protections.

Statistics:

  • Over 14,000 people in 14 countries were surveyed by UNFPA-YouGov.
  • The global population reached the 7 billion mark in 2011 and stands at almost 7.9 billion in 2021.
  • By 2030, the global population is expected to grow to around 8.5 billion, 9.7 billion in 2050, and 10.9 billion in 2100.
  • Women had on average 4.5 children each in the early 1970s and 2.5 children per woman globally by 2015.
  • Average global life spans have risen from 64.6 years in the early 1990s to 72.6 years in 2019.
  • By 2050, about 66 per cent of the world population is estimated to be living in cities.

Sources:

  • United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) - "State of World Population" report
  • UNFPA-YouGov survey of over 14,000 people in 14 countries
  • World Population Day 2025 commemoration press release by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
  • United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs - Population Division (2019)
  • World Health Organization (2019)

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