World Population Day 2025: Empowering Young People to Shape Their Futures

Tahir Ali Shah

Today, July 11th, marks World Population Day, a time to highlight crucial issues related to global population dynamics and reproductive health. Did you know that the world's population officially reached 8 billion people on November 15, 2022? This represents a 60% increase since July 11, 1987 (45 years), when the population first hit five billion, a milestone that inspired the United Nations to establish this important day in 1989.

The special theme for World Population Day 2025 is "Empowering young people to create the families they want in a fair and hopeful world." As UN Secretary-General António Guterres emphasizes, reaching eight billion people represents "eight billion chances to live good and meaningful lives." This can only be achieved if everyone, especially the world's largest youth population, has the power to make their own choices about their families. The day serves to educate people about population growth, family planning, gender equality, and human rights. It reminds us to recognize the rights and aspirations of all individuals, mothers and fathers, girls and boys, refugees, migrants, and others, who seek to build healthy families. As the UN Secretary General stresses, we must "stand with young people and build a future where every person can shape their destiny in a world that is fair, peaceful and full of hope.

World Population Day began because people in the 1980s were worried about how fast the world's population was growing and what it meant for development. When the world reached five billion people on July 11, 1987 (which quickly became known as Five Billion Day), it made many people think more about population numbers. Two years later, the UN Development Programme officially made World Population Day an annual event on July 11. The UN General Assembly agreed in December 1990. They asked countries to keep celebrating the day to “make people more aware of population issues” in connection with the environment and development. By 1990, World Population Day was celebrated in over 90 countries with meetings and media campaigns. Since then, millions of people around the world have used July 11 to show the connections between population trends and people's well-being.

Over the years, big UN meetings and agreements have made the message of World Population Day even stronger. A very important meeting was the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo. This meeting changed how we think about population. It shifted the focus from just numbers to people's rights and what they hoped for. Governments at the Cairo meeting agreed on a plan that said for development to last, we must put human rights first. This includes reproductive rights, the right to make choices about having children and giving women and girls the power to make their own choices.

Other important agreements, like the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW, 1979) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC, 1989), also protect the rights of women and children to health, education, and a life free from harm. These international rules create the human rights foundation for World Population Day's message: the right to education, the right to healthcare, and the right for individuals and couples to freely and responsibly decide how many children to have and when to have them.

Today, more than 24 years into the 21st century, World Population Day is still very important for people who help others in times of crisis (humanitarians) and activists. How the global population grows affects almost every challenge that aid workers face. More people, now about 8 billion and still growing, put pressure on resources and services, especially in places where things are already difficult. At the same time, we have the largest group of young people in history (about 1.3 billion teenagers aged 10–19, which is about 16% of the world's population). This means the hopes and decisions of young people will shape societies for many decades to come. For aid workers, issues like mothers dying during childbirth, children not getting enough food, education, and sexual health are all closely connected to how populations change and whether women and young people are given power.

World Population Day specially highlights the needs of groups who are easily hurt and often left out. Women and girls, in particular, often cannot get sexual and reproductive health services in crises. A joint UN statement for World Population Day 2024 warned that “women and girls are unfairly affected” by gaps in healthcare. In many refugee camps or conflict areas, essential services, from care before birth to birth control, might be stopped. About half of the women of childbearing age worldwide still cannot freely decide if and when to get pregnant. This problem gets much worse during stressful times. Teenagers and young people also have special weaknesses, for example, teenage girls in emergencies face higher risks of sexual violence, marrying too early, and getting pregnant. People with disabilities, native communities, and ethnic minorities often face even more problems getting education and health services.

World Population Day reminds us that protecting people in humanitarian work (the right to live with dignity, not being discriminated against, etc.) must include paying attention to reproductive health & rights, preventing violence against women and girls, and making sure that even families who have been forced to leave their homes can make informed choices. In short, population issues are connected to all the Sustainable Development Goals (like health, gender equality, fighting poverty, and peace). They are basically about people's rights. As a joint statement from UNFPA and UNICEF notes, achieving the vision of the ICPD and the Sustainable Development Goals means making sure “everyone has access to sexual and reproductive health services and to improve reproductive rights” for all.

The numbers tell a dramatic story. On November 15, 2022, the world population reached 8 billion. Predictions show it will go up to about 8.5 billion by 2030, 9.7 billion by 2050, and nearly 10.9 billion by 2100. This growth has slowed down (global fertility, or how many children women have, has roughly halved from the 1970s to today), but it continues in many parts of the world. In the early 1970s, the average woman had 4.5 children; now, the total fertility rate is around 2.4 children per woman worldwide. Meanwhile, people are living much longer; the average lifespan has gone up from about 65 years in the early 1990s to 73 years in 2019.

More and more people are living in cities. In 2007, more people started living in cities than in rural areas, and by 2050, about two-thirds of the world will live in cities. These changes have big effects on food, healthcare, housing, and the environment.

The population picture is very different depending on the region. Sub-Saharan Africa still has very high birth rates (often 4–6 children per woman) and population growth. In contrast, much of Europe and East Asia have low birth rates and older populations. For example, in 2023, most countries in Africa and Central Asia had fertility rates between 3 and 7 births per woman, while East Asian nations were mostly below 1. An estimated 1.8 billion people worldwide are now under age 24, the largest youth generation in history, and what they want is changing family trends. Surveys show that nearly 20% of young adults worry about climate change, conflict, or other threats have made them have fewer children than they want. Almost one in four people of reproductive age say they can't have the family size they want, often because of cost, lack of healthcare, or social barriers.

Conclusion

On July 11th we remember that behind every statistic is a human story. World Population Day reminds us of our responsibility to each other, to protect the most vulnerable and to empower the next generation. Let us end with hope, as UNFPA survey participants put it, young people today are not merely planning families, they’re envisioning the world their children will inherit. Our mission on this day is to make the world fairer, safer and full of opportunity. If we commit to listening to young people, to funding reproductive health, and to upholding the rights of all, then the 8 billion people on this planet indeed become 8 billion opportunities, opportunities to secure peace, dignity and shared prosperity. As Secretary-General Guterres urges, let us stand with young people and build the future together.

About the Author: Tahir Ali Shah is a humanitarian professional with over 20 years of experience managing protection and development programs across South Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. He has worked extensively in refugee response, child protection, GBV prevention, and humanitarian advocacy. He can be reached at tshaha@gmail.com