UNFPA Celebrates World Population Day & Launches 2023 State of the World Population Report

This year, the World Population Day will be used to highlight the need to advance gender equality to help realise the dreams of all the 8 billion people on our planet.  This year, the United Nations system in Ghana, UNFPA Ghana Country Office, together with the National Population Council, the Regional Institute for Population Studies (RIPS), University of Ghana and the Planned Parenthood Association of Ghana (PPAG), will be commemorating the World Population Day under the theme: “Unleashing the power of gender equality to spur national development”

As part of this year’s commemoration, there will also be the launch of UNFPA’s flagship 2023 State of theWorld Population (SWOP) Report. The SWOP Report guides policy-making, advocacy, programming, research, monitoring and evaluation of our world's development agenda. The 2023 SWOP report is entitled "8 billion lives, infinite possibilities, the case for rights and choices" and it provides an in-depth analysis of the demographic trends affecting sustainable development worldwide. The report explores the possibilities the 8 billion people offer the world and examines the challenges that must be overcome to achieve this demographic dividend, including the need for holistic sexual and reproductive health services, investments in education, job training, and gender equality. It stresses that investments in these areas are critical for sustainable development, human rights, and social justice.

The growth of the global population has also been in sync with the increase in Ghana’s population growth from about 24 million people in 2010 to about 32 million people following the first digital population census by the Ghana Statistical Service which UNFPA supported in 2021. Young people and adolescents account for more than 56% of Ghana’s population and the population of women and girls are far more than 50% of the total population. As a situation, it calls for the Government to invest in their health and education, while providing them opportunities for decent work so that they can contribute to economic growth and overall social development.

Key Facts and Figures from the 2023 State of World Population:

● Twenty-four per cent of partnered women and girls are unable to say no to sex and 11 percent are unable to make decisions specifically about contraception, according to data from 68 reporting countries.

● A survey showed that people who had been exposed to media or conversations about the world’s population were more likely to view the global population as being too high.

● Global demographics are changing rapidly: two thirds of people are living in low fertility contexts, while eight countries will account for half of the projected growth in global population by 2050 (the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines and the United Republic of Tanzania), dramatically reordering the world’s ranking of most populous countries.

● Blaming fertility for climate change will not hold the greatest carbon emitters to account. Out of 8 billion people, around 5.5 billion do not make enough money, about $10 a day, to contribute significantly to carbon emissions.

● A recent UN study stipulates that greater gender parity in the labour force would do more to sustain economies in ageing, low-fertility societies than setting targets for women to have more children.

About UNFPA

UNFPA is the UN Sexual and Reproductive Health agency, working to deliver a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe, and every young person's potential is fulfilled. The organisation works in over 150 countries and territories to advance SRHR, promote gender equality, and support population data for development.

Media contact(s)

Cynthia Prah, UNIC Accra | prah@un.org

Jean-Philip Lawson, UNFPA Ghana | jlawson@unfpa.org