Your Gift Matters

Rapid population growth threatens the quality of life for people everywhere. 

Global population rose to 8 billion in November of 2022.

As a supporter of Population Connection, you raise awareness and educate others on the pressing issues our world faces due to rapid population growth.

We are deeply grateful to you and appreciate your commitment to our mission!

First Quarter Updates

• We were thrilled to kick off 2025’s virtual events by hosting Nandita Bajaj, Executive Director of Population Balance! Over 110 supporters tuned in to listen to Nandita’s presentation, which examined the roles of population growth and over-consumption in our major global crises. Nandita shared insights from a paper she co-authored and published in the Journal of Population and Sustainability. She touched on the widespread dismissal of the consequences of population growth within major global agencies, particularly the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Catch the event’s highlights here!

• Population Education‘s annual World of 8 Billion student video contest has wrapped up its submission period and is now in its judging phase. The contest encourages middle and high school students to create a video with a solution to a global population challenge. While human population issues remain central to the contest, there are new topics for students to learn about each year. The 2024-2025 topics are Child Wellbeing, Rainforest Ecosystems, and Sanitation. Stay tuned for the announcement of our 2025 contest winners! 

• Our Population Connection March magazine is out and available to read online! In the wake of the Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, rates of sterilization among both men and women have increased, and wait lists for vasectomy consultations have grown to six months in some places. Read about some of the people behind the rising prevalence of people seeking permanent contraception. Take a look at the online version or download the PDF of the print version.

• With the help of volunteer trainers, the Population Education team has already presented 160 workshops (in-person and virtually) in 38 states and 3 Canadian provinces! The PopEd team traveled and presented several workshops in California, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Iowa, Illinois, West Virginia, and Ontario. The workshops include interactive, cross-curricular lesson plans that promote issue-based learning in various subjects, helping the next generation of decision-makers think critically about population issues. Learn more about Population Education workshops.

• The Trump administration is embracing increasingly worrying measures to try to increase the US birthrate. The growth of far-right pronatalism presents a major threat to reproductive health and rights. We are monitoring new developments and documenting them here. 

• An extensive new survey by Population Connection reveals that Americans have an established preference for small family sizes and do not perceive low fertility rates as a problem. Our survey also sheds light on the factors that influence the childbearing decisions of younger Americans — the top impacts being concern over the state of the world and affordability. Read more about the survey’s key findings here. 

• Our Population Education for Higher Studies Program engages with college-level students to think about human population impacts and trends by providing thought-provoking presentations and other academic materials. Presentations highlight the causes, impacts, and solutions to global population challenges. We started the year strong by presenting to more than 30 college and university classes about the connections between population, health, environment, and sustainable development! 

• Members convened for our first Page Turners book club meeting of 2025 — the book club is now in its fifth year! Attendees discussed Not the End of the World: How We Can Be the First Generation to Build a Sustainable Planet by data scientist Hannah Ritchie, a senior researcher at the University of Oxford and Deputy Editor at Our World in Data. She draws on research and data to present actionable strategies for individuals, communities, and policymakers to help create a thriving, resilient future. She also displays skepticism that a shrinking population would alleviate environmental crises, which sparked lively conversations amongst book club members.

2024 Highlights

Visit our Year at a Glance page for more program highlights from 2024! Your support makes our work possible, thank you so much!

2024 Highlights

Check out our previous Year at a Glance pages to learn more about all we accomplished in the past few years. These achievements were made possible with your support!

2023 Highlights 2022 Highlights 2021 Highlights