World Population Day - July 11, 2006

UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund

UNFPA, together with partners, works to ensure youth participation and leadership so that their voices are heard, needs are met and human rights are protected.

Learn more

For more on how UNFPA supports adolescents and youth:
http://www.unfpa.org/adolescents/index.htm
For more UNFPA examples of youth participation: http://www.unfpa.org/adolescents/initiatives.htm
For more on the MDGs and reproductive health:
http://www.unfpa.org/icpd/mdgs-rh.htm
Chasing the Dream: Youth Faces of the MDGs
http://www.chasingdream.org

Each year for the past 16 years, UNFPA offices in all parts of the world have raised awareness about important population and development issues by finding creative ways to publicize World Population Day.

	Attract attention to the message by inviting politicians and celebrities to make public statements and take a leadership role in promoting the participation of young people.
	Make sure to include young people in the planning and execution of World Population Day.
	Organize public contests for posters, essays and plays about the benefits of listening to what young people have to say.


Half of the world’s people are under the age of 25. Some three billion children and young people are, or will soon be, of reproductive age.	Universal access to reproductive health, including family planning, is the starting point for a better future for the 1.5 billion young people (ages 10 to 24) who live in developing countries.	In 57 developing countries, over 40 per cent of the population is under 15.	The number of youth in the world surviving on less than a dollar a day in 2000 was an estimated 238 million, almost a quarter (22.5 per cent) of the world’s total youth population.	Despite a shift toward later marriage in many parts of the world, 82 million girls in developing countries who are now aged 10 to 17 will be married before their 18th birthday.

See more statistics

Youth and the Millennium Development Goals

UNFPA has a vision of a world fit for young people. It is a world that promotes and protects their rights, provides opportunities to develop their full potential, welcomes and respects their voices and views, and where they live free of poverty, discrimination and violence. In such a world, young people possess the knowledge and skills required to make informed, voluntary and responsible life choices, including decisions about sexual and reproductive health.

That vision is also reflected in the Millennium Development Goals. Find out how...

World Population Day in previous years:

2005 |2004 | 2003