Together, we are tackling one of our planet’s greatest challenges: global population growth. We’re deeply grateful for your dedication to protecting reproductive freedom and valuing education for the greater good of our one small, shared planet!
Find the latest updates on our work below, all made possible thanks to YOUR generous gift.
2025 Updates
Population Education Summer Leadership Institute
The 2025 summer Population Education (PopEd) Leadership Institute took place in Los Angeles on the UCLA campus. Thirty-three educators from across the United States and Canada attended the three-day Institute, preparing to become teacher-training workshop facilitators in their own regions.
To present more than 600 workshops a year, we rely on an extensive network of professional educators like these to present more than two-thirds of our teacher training workshops each year.
While most of the attendees were professors at colleges and universities, participants included current K-12 teachers, as well! The weekend offered a welcome respite of positive engagement from likeminded educators who understand how population growth affects so many of our world’s issues!
Participants take part in the K-2 classroom activity “Crowding Can Be Seedy”, which helps young learners understand carrying capacity and population density.
We received stellar reviews from participants, including Ardavan Eizadirad, Ph.D., Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at Wilfrid Laurier University in Toronto, Ontario, who said on LinkedIn:
“It was an incredible weekend gathering […] to engage with a group of educators […] to be trained in delivering [the] Population Education curriculum. Their holistic curriculum is very hands-on!
We got to experience many of the activities as participants and trainees. It covers various timely and relevant social issues impacting countries globally as well as local communities.
The hospitality was on point and the cultivation of relationships with care, authenticity, and attention to detail was rewarding and spiritually nourishing! Thanks to the entire team at Population Education for your kindness and leading with such humility […].
For folks not familiar with Population Education, take a moment to check out their wonderful website which is full of activities and resources to teach multiple subjects through an interdisciplinary perspective. It is very applicable to K to 12 educators and preservice teachers.
One example is their world population video timeline (approx. 6 minutes) looking at population growth historically leading to more than 8 billion people now: www.worldof8billion.org. A great video to debrief with your class from so many angles.
Looking forward to sharing these activities with my network in Canada with various school boards, community organizations, and within our teacher education program Wilfrid Laurier University!”
Another attendee, Laura Wendling, Ph.D., of California State University – San Marcos, wrote:
“I feel so honored to have been a participant in this past weekend’s Top Notch, First Class, Super Organized, Very Informative, Most Awesome training! Thank you for all you did to make our days together a joyous, collegial, and highly educational event. Having the opportunity to learn meaningful content alongside other educators in such an inviting environment (spacious classroom, delicious food, comfy accommodations) made this experience truly exceptional. I am excited to share the excellent lessons and resources with my teacher candidates next spring!”
Truly, this is a testament to what YOU make possible. For more than 50 years, supporters like you have invested in Population Education’s work to ensure that young people grow to understand the impacts of global population growth on people and our environment. Through critical thinking, these young people draw their own conclusions that we can—and must!—reduce human impacts on the environment to foster a safer, healthier, more sustainable future. See some photos from the institute here!
Population Education and Education for Higher Studies
Our Population Education (PopEd) team is preparing for a busy fall of teacher workshops! Our standardized materials and classroom activities inspire K-12 students to grapple with real-world problems in connection with population trends and dynamics. From January through May, we presented 290 workshops (in-person and virtual) in 38 states and three Canadian provinces! Learn more about our Population Education workshops here!
Our Population Education for Higher Studies Programengages 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. Since the start of the year, we have presented to more than 50 college and university classes about the connections between population, health, environment, and sustainable development!
National Science Teaching Association Convention
In late March, members of our PopEd team traveled to Philadelphia to participate in the National Science Teaching Association’s annual convention—one of the country’s largest gatherings of science educators.
Over three action-packed days, we hosted a PopEd exhibit, led three interactive workshops, and connected with educators from across the country. We also had the opportunity to engage directly with elementary school teachers and informal educators at two special networking events. It was an inspiring few days of sharing ideas, resources, and strategies to bring population and sustainability topics into classrooms nationwide.
The winners of this season’s World of 8 Billion student video contest have been announced! This year, students in 6th through 12th grades were tasked with finding creative solutions for one of these population-related topics: Child Wellbeing, Rainforest Ecosystems, and Sanitation.
Our contest encourages students to find new ways to tackle modern problems, show off their filmmaking skills, and win prizes! We had over 4,600 students work on the submitted videos, with more than 2,600 videos submitted.
We’ve launched a new monthly Population Education newsletter on LinkedIn! Over the past few months, we’ve shared thoughtful insights, timely updates, and standout classroom resources. Our Communications Team is also keeping our social media feeds fresh with engaging content—be sure to follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook to stay connected!
Our Communications Manager, Olivia Nater, recently had a letter to the editor published in The Guardian—one of the UK’s leading newspapers! The letter was written in response to Jonathan Kennedy’s recent opinion article, “Are there billions more people on Earth than we thought? If so, it’s no bad thing.” Our response offered a more comprehensive perspective on our growing population and the availability of natural resources. Read all of our submitted LTE’s and Op-Eds here.
We celebrated Earth Day with a virtual event featuring John Seager, President & CEO of Population Connection! John discussed how overpopulation remains largely absent from mainstream sustainability discussions. He also encouraged our community to fight back against the Trump Administration’s egregious attacks on programs aimed at improving reproductive health, family planning options, and our environment. View the recording of John’s talk!
We’re pleased to announce our fourth annual Population Connection Summer Photo Contest! As a supporter of Population Connection, you are uniquely dedicated to enhancing the welfare of individuals and safeguarding the planet and its inhabitants. We invite you to share your enthusiasm for preserving the harmony between humanity and the living world by sending us your captivating photos of natural landscapes, diverse cultures, and fascinating wildlife. Learn more about the contest, explore past submissions, and find photo guidelines here.
58th Session of the United Nations Commission on Population and Development
Our staff member, Florence Blondel, attended all five days of the 58th Session of the United Nations Commission on Population and Development, which was hosted in New York this spring.
Our Population Connection June magazine is out and available to read online! Our Global Partner in Nepal, the Rural Women’s Development and Unity Center (RUWDUC), helps girls stay in school and avoid child marriage, empowers women to become community leaders, and provides family planning education and outreach.
Also featured is a summary of the results of the focus group and survey research we conducted about people’s fertility desires and outcomes, as well as their thoughts about low fertility and population growth.
This year’s international climate conference, COP30, wrapped up in Belém, Brazil, last weekend. Following the failure of previous COPs to deliver the ambition and action needed to avert catastrophic climate…
Population Connection at ICFP2025: Reflections from Bogotá
Population Connection, alongside thousands of global advocates, researchers, and policymakers, actively participated in the 7th International Conference on Family Planning (ICFP), held in Bogotá, Colombia, from November 3–6, 2025, with…
Virtual events are an easy and accessible way for you to learn more about population issues, connect with Population Connection staff, and meet others interested in working together for a more sustainable future for our planet.
Since 2020, we’ve engaged with our supporters by hosting a variety of virtual events to stay up-to-date on issues relating to our work. We’ve heard presentations from speakers working in the fields of conservation, reproductive rights, public health, demography, and more! Visit our event archive to view recordings, presentation slides, and speaker bios from some of our recent events.
Conservative pronatalists’ push for more births is all kinds of wrong
The Trump administration claims it is “pro-family,” but its actions only hurt families. The true motivation of the conservative movement pushing for higher birthrates is to deepen the systemic inequalities…
The world is still far from achieving gender equality, with some countries doing a lot better than others. Here we take a look at which nations have the highest gender…
Population Connection Action Fund mobilized thousands of activists through petitions, volunteer meetings, partner-led events, and #Fight4HER summits.
10,000+ Educators
Population Education hosted workshops for more than 10,000 K-12 educators throughout the U.S. and Canada, providing them with the materials and resources they need to teach PopEd in their classrooms.
800+ Supporters
Membership Relations engaged with our supporter base through 15 virtual events this year, including book club discussions and webinars featuring our Global Partners, guest speakers, and PopConnect staff.
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!
