This publication shows how family planning and natural resource conservation improve economic development, public health and environmental sustainability. The report includes a glossary of population terms and explains how population dynamics relate to a variety of complex development issues, such as poverty reduction, food security, environmental security, climate change and migration and urbanization.

Although integrated assessment models (IAM) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) consider population, along with economic growth and technological change, as one of the root causes of greenhouse gas emissions, how population dynamics affect climate change is still under debate. While policy debates around climate change engender lively discussion on a number of factors, population is rarely mentioned. Studies in the past decade have added significantly to understanding the mechanisms and complexity of population and climate interactions.

This is a PDF of a 20-slide presentation on the importance of population issues in coastal management, based upon the Philippines situation as part of the IPOPCORM project, which combines coastal management, food and nutrition, reproductive health, and family planning in coastal communities. It serves to introduce that project, explaining its components, scope and outcomes using clear, easy to grasp text and graphics.

In 1994, the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) held in Cairo, Egypt, laid out in its Programme of Action an impressive and ambitious set of goals for improving sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) all over the world, by the target date of 2015 (International Conference on Population and Development 1994). One of these goals was the provision of universal access to a full range of safe and reliable family -planning methods.

This fact sheet describes how investments in family planning can yield demonstrated social and economic returns in food, water, health and economic development sectors. Family planning benefits include cost-effective, life-savings interventions, improvements in girls' access to education, increases in economic developemnt and improvements in natural resource management. Examples from success stories in Ethiopia and Rwanda are included.

This policy brief explores the complex relationship between population dynamics and economic development in developing countries. When populations transition from high mortality and fertility rates to longer life expectancies and smaller family size, this is known as the demographic dividend. The brief expains how, during this transition phase, possible economic benefits are significant. Finally, the authors make recommendations for policy changes to increase investments in family planning and reproductive health, girls' education and economic development for youth.

Population Action International’s mapping website shows how climate change and population dynamics will change the world over time. New features on the site include country profiles which contain maps, graphs, videos, and additional resources that offer a closer look at population, gender, and climate change trends in Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Nepal, and Peru.

This policy brief looks at the relationships between increasing world population and the ever-growing need for food and water resources and ecosystem health in the context of climate change. In order to acheive sustainable development and meet human needs today and tomorrow, the brief promotes universal access to family plannng and reproductive health services and women's empowerment initiatives.

This policy brief examines the complex challenges of reducing poverty, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and coping with a changing climate. Although rapid population growth makes it more difficult for poor countires to cope with a changing climate, the brief argues that investments in family planning and reproductive health and empowering women can help address these issues. The bottom line is that family planning is a win-win for women and the planet.

This document by Population Reference Bureau is an aggregate of data on the world population in 2010. The data on the global population is presented through a wide variety of demographic variables. Comparisons are made between population growth rates in developed and developing countries. Graphs are created on both international and U.S. age cohort comparisons. The end of the document provides raw data on populations by country.

This paper reviews extant evidence and offers a conceptual framework for the investigation of complex dynamics among human population growth, environmental degradation, poverty and climate change. Poverty is discussed in detail as both a contributing factor to and consequence of population growth and environmental change.

This paper reviews extant evidence and offers a conceptual framework for the investigation of complex dynamics among human population growth, environmental degradation, poverty, and climate change.

The world’s population has reached a transition point; the rapid growth of the second half of the 20th century has slowed. But growth is guaranteed to continue due to factors such as continuously improving mortality and slower-than-expected declines in birth rates. These declines in birth rates and increased longevity has become a concern in more developed countries and will become a concern in lesser developed countries as the proportion of the elderly population continues to rise.

This paper estimates the family planning implications of the United Nations (UN) projections of world population growth and compares them with a family planning policy scenario. The paper looks at the impact of population growth on satisfying observe levels of "unmet need" for family planning in the developing world and the US and estimates the costs of providing the levels of family planning indicated in each scenario. These population projection scenarios could be used in the analysis of how population growth contributes to global climate change.

The environmental consequences of increasing human population size are dynamic and nonlinear, not passive and linear. The role of feedbacks, thresholds, and synergies in the interaction of population size and the environment are reviewed here, with examples drawn from climate change, acid deposition, land use, soil degradation, and other global and regional environmental issues. The widely assumed notion that environmental degradation grows in proportion to population size, assuming fixed per capita consumption and fixed modes of production, is shown to be overly optimistic.

The interactions between human population dynamics and the environment have often been viewed mechanistically. This review elucidates the complexities and contextual specificities of population environment relationships in a number of domains. It explores the ways in which demographers and other social scientists have sought to understand the relationships among a full range of population dynamics (e.g., population size, growth, density, age and sex composition, migration, urbanization, vital rates) and environmental changes.

Forest conversion for agriculture expansion is the most salient signature of human occupation of the earth’s land surface. Although population growth and deforestation are significantly associated at the global and regional scales, evidence for population links to deforestation at micro-scales—where people are actually clearing forests—is scant. Much of the planet’s forest elimination is proceeding along tropical agricultural frontiers.

 

This brief summaries key population and environment issues facing Asia, including population growth, consumption patterns, energy demand, unplanned urbanization, persistent poverty, pressure on land resources, biodiversity loss, and water scarcity. Slowing down population growth will be a key component of any effort to protect Asia’s natural resources and environment. Population growth continues for many years after fertility reaches replacement level, so the sooner fertility can be brought down the sooner the process toward stabilizing population numbers can begin.

Small reserves are especially likely to lose species. Is that because the reserves are small,

Biologists have identifed 25 areas, called biodiversity hotspots, that are especially rich in endemic species and particularly threatened by human activities. The human population dynamics of these areas, however, are not well quantifed. Here we report estimates of key demographic variables for each hotspot, and for three extensive tropical forest areas1 that are less immediately threatened. We estimate that in 1995 more than 1.1 billion people, nearly 20% of world population, were living within the hotspots, an area covering about 12% of Earth's terrestrial surface.

One of the most striking features of today’s population growth is that ninety-five percent is in developing countries. The other striking thing is the shift to urbanization. This article highlights the trends in population growth and urbanization, particularly in the developing world, and its linkages with public health, the environment, and international security. Various issues are addressed and data is given.