Population Connection

10/18/2026

A new study published in the journal Sustainable Development makes the case for gradually shrinking our (still growing) population of 8.3 billion to 4 billion or fewer by 2200, demonstrating why reduced population pressure is key to achieving sustainability.
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A new study makes the case for gradually shrinking our (still growing) population of 8.3 billion to 4 billion or fewer by 2200.

10/17/2026

Economic growth doesn't always translate into better lives for everyone.

Zambia remains one of the world's poorest countries, with more than 7 in 10 people living in extreme poverty, according to World Bank estimates using 2022 data.

This International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, we're spotlighting our Global Partner, The African Education Program (AEP) , which is working to change that reality, one community at a time.

Through education, women's entrepreneurship, nutrition, food security, and sexual and reproductive health programs, AEP is helping families build opportunities for a more secure future.

Because ending poverty takes more than economic growth. It takes investing in people, expanding opportunities, and empowering communities to shape their own futures.

10/16/2026

Our numbers, what we choose to eat, and how much food we waste, have a huge impact on our planet. Global food systems are leading drivers of our environmental crises, including climate change, water overextraction, deforestation, biodiversity loss, and pollution.

Shrinking our food footprint is a prerequisite to a livable future.

Fortunately, we already have solutions: reducing food waste, shifting toward more plant-heavy diets, especially in high-consuming high-income countries, and addressing the growing demand for food as our global population increases.

Empowering solutions that help stabilize population, alongside more sustainable patterns of consumption, are an important part of creating a food system that can better support people and the planet.

At an individual level, wasting less food and avoiding particularly high-impact foods, such as beef, can also make a difference.

This , let’s work toward a future where we can nourish people without putting the planet under ever-increasing pressure. A more sustainable food future is within reach.
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https://populationconnection.org/blog/we-need-to-talk-about-our-food-footprint/

10/16/2026

“It may be only 20 miles, but it can take eight hours to reach a health center.”

For rural women in Guatemala, accessing reproductive health care can mean overcoming terrible roads, limited transportation, and the cost of getting to a clinic. Sometimes, reaching just two women requires an entire team of health professionals to travel deep into underserved communities.

As Dr Michelle Dubón of WINGS Guatemala, one of our Global Partners, explains: "Those two women, we know that we’re saving their lives.”

That’s why working with rural women matters. Access to voluntary family planning and reproductive health services shouldn’t depend on where a woman lives or how far she is from a clinic. When services reach women in their own communities, they gain the information, care, and freedom to decide if and when to have children.

And that’s about more than health care. It’s about autonomy, opportunity, and the power to shape their own futures.

This International Day of Rural Women, we’re recognizing the organizations and health workers going the extra mile — sometimes literally to make reproductive health care accessible to the women who need it.

Because reaching two women is worth the journey.

10/15/2026

Missed our series? 👀

In this four-part video series, Marian Starkey of Population Connection opens up about being childfree by choice and challenges common assumptions about women, relationships, family, and motherhood.

Because choosing not to have children is just as valid as choosing to have them.

🎥 Catch up on all four videos here. 👇

What happens when a woman decides not to have children — and everyone seems to have an opinion about it? In this four-part video series, Marian Starkey of Po...

10/15/2026

According to the United Nations, fertility rates have fallen below the replacement level of 2.1 births per woman in 55 percent of all countries and areas, accounting for more than two-thirds of the global population. This means that in the absence of net immigration, these populations would eventually begin to decline. Some countries are already shrinking, including China, Japan, Italy, Russia, and most of Eastern Europe.

Today, more than a quarter of the global population — over 2 billion people — live in countries with a very low total fertility rate below 1.3 births per woman. China alone, which has a fertility rate of just 1, accounts for 1.4 billion of these people. South Korea is the country with the world’s lowest fertility rate, at just 0.8 births per woman.

Not only are people having fewer children — the proportion of people completely forgoing parenthood is also increasing.

A new paper by demographer Tomáš Sobotka, The global fertility freefall: trends, drivers and uncertainties, published in Reproductive BioMedicine Online, notes that in some countries, including Italy, Spain, and Japan, up to 25–30% of women born between the 1960s and the early 1980s don’t have children.

Is this a crisis?
https://populationconnection.org/blog/study-where-and-why-are-fertility-rates-very-low/

10/14/2026

Explore how the is affecting the livelihoods of young leaders in Uganda, Kenya, and Colombia. During the event, our Gen Z panelists will highlight their unique experiences working at the intersection of climate change and and rights. They will touch on youth-led solutions they’ve been part of and share how they leverage their unique skills to create change in their communities.
Join us👇
https://populationconnection-org.zoom.us/webinar/register

10/12/2026

Young people are navigating financial insecurity, climate breakdown, widening inequality, and an increasingly uncertain future. Perhaps instead of panicking about falling birthrates, governments should focus on making the world a place where people feel secure about the future — whether or not they choose to have children.

Falling fertility rates are not automatically a crisis. They can reflect greater reproductive freedom and people making thoughtful decisions about their lives.

Rather than pressuring people to have more babies, let's build a safer, healthier, more sustainable world for everyone.

Read Population Connection's response to The Guardian's editorial on falling birthrates. 👇

Our response to The Guardian editorial board's thoughts on falling birthrates and the uncertainty factor.

10/11/2026

A girl's first period should never mark the end of her childhood or her opportunities.

Yet in communities where menstruation is surrounded by stigma, misinformation, and limited access to menstrual products, girls can face barriers to education, dignity, and reproductive autonomy.

This , we're spotlighting our Global Partner FlowReady, which is working in Uganda to prepare girls before their first periods through menstrual health education, reusable period products, and community engagement.

In this video, Lea Bwanika of FlowReady shares how the organization's work is helping break menstrual taboos, bring fathers and boys into the conversation, and challenge the harmful misconception that a girl's first period means she's ready for marriage or motherhood.

With support from Population Connection, FlowReady has taken these conversations beyond classrooms and into communities through a 12-week local-language radio program.

Because growing up should mean more opportunities, not fewer choices. Thankful to all our donors especially those who invest in the Global Partners program.

https://populationconnection.org/learn/global-partners/

10/09/2026

“Economic growth is a tool to reduce poverty through productivity growth. When properly distributed, the bigger pie leads to higher material standards for the majority. If the pursuit of economic growth no longer increases human wellbeing, the logical move is to drop economic growth and seek wellbeing.” Jørgen Randers, Limits to Growth co-author

What if we've been measuring progress all wrong?

An ever-growing economy isn't necessarily a healthier, happier, or more sustainable society. And on a planet with finite resources, the assumption that we can keep growing consumption indefinitely deserves serious scrutiny.

The real question isn't simply how much wealth we can generate, but whether that wealth improves people's lives, and for whom.

It's time to rethink the infinite-growth mindset and put human well-being, equity, and the health of our planet at the center of what we call progress.

Read more in our blog: Are we awakening from the infinite growth delusion? 👇

https://populationconnection.org/blog/are-we-awakening-from-the-infinite-gr