World Population day - 11th July

2018 theme: “Family Planning is a Human Right”

A majority of the world’s population could soon be middle- or upper-class.

World Population day is an annual event, observed on July 11 every year, 

In 1987 there was an event called “Five Billion Day”, which recognized when the human population boiled over the 5 billion mark. Since then the United Nations Development Programme has been working to anticipate, support, and offset the needs of a rapidly growing population. The population had been deemed to be growing out of control, and an awareness was being spread about the need for family planning, ways to offset poverty, and the ability to ensure that proper maternal health was observed.

The primary aim of this initiative is to increase awareness about reproductive health problems among the people. This is due to the fact that a large number of pregnant women succumb to poor reproductive health. Research shows that 800 women die every day due to the process of birthing a baby. Therefore, the primary aim and importance of this day is to get more and more people to know how to boost their reproductive health pay attention on the importance of family planning.

World Population Day was established in the year 1989.

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

FACTS observed on word POPULATION day

About 1.8 billion people around the world are between the ages of 10 and 24, which is the largest population of young people ever. In fact, about 52% of the total world population is under 30 years old.

Every 20 minutes, 3,000 more people are born into the world. However, in that same amount of time, another plant or animal becomes extinct, adding up to 27,000 extinct species per year.

The countries with the largest populations are China with 1.38 billion, India a close second with 1.32 billion, and the United States with 324 million. Indonesia (260 million) and Brazil (209 million) are next. With a more rapid population growth, India is expected to surpass China in population within a few years.

In 1800 only 3% of the world’s population lived in cities. (Source) However, about half of the world’s population now lives in urban centers.

It’s expected that by 2050, nearly 70% of the world’s population will live in cities.

2.4 billion people - or 1 in 3 - don’t even have access to a toilet.

More than 700 million women in the world were married before the age of 18, including around 15 million girls forced into marriage in 2015 alone.

If Facebook were a country, it would be the 3rd most populous in the world, with 1.39 billion “citizens” logging on to the social networking site every month.

The total world population stands for 7,485,254,719(seven billion four hundred eighty-five million two hundred fifty-four thousand seven hundred nineteen).

 
    
Antonio Guterres is the Secretary-General of the United Nations.     
The UN Headquarters in New York, United States.