Sustainable development is social and economic development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Traditionally, countries have relied on heavy natural resource extraction and fossil fuel use to grow their economies, which has precipitated the environmental crises we grapple with today.
As the middle class grows in much of the world, lifting people out of abject poverty and into a more acceptable quality of life, the number of people on the planet becomes an even more important determinant of the toll humans take on the environment. We are already consuming resources at a level that would require 1.7 planet Earths to keep consumption sustainable year over year, according to the Global Footprint Network. Of course, we only have the one. And if everyone consumed like the typical American, we’d need five Earths to support our resource demands. As you can see in the graphic below, if everyone in the world consumed like the average Indian person, we’d be living within our planet’s means.
If humanity hopes to have a safe, healthy, and fulfilling future on this planet, we must accelerate progress toward the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs are a set of 17 ambitious goals—which the member states of the United Nations agreed upon in 2015—that aim to improve lives and protect the environment. They have a target date of 2030 but, so far, the world is falling terribly short of meeting them. The goals range from ending hunger and poverty to achieving global gender equality to halting the climate and extinction crises.
Rapid population growth stymies sustainable development initiatives in low-income settings. High fertility is positively correlated with extreme poverty—many of the fastest growing countries are also the poorest. Achieving the SDGs hinges on extending access to infrastructure and public services such as clean water, sanitation, electrification, schools, and jobs. With populations growing rapidly—in some countries doubling in fewer than 30 years—governments find themselves running just to keep up with population growth and aren’t able to improve the quality of services or their reach to the most disadvantaged populations.
In the face of rising incomes in low consumption settings (a good thing!), and with a population in 2025 of 8.2 billion that’s projected to reach 9 billion in 2037 and 10 billion in 2061 (UN medium projection), it’s more important than ever to eliminate the unmet need for modern contraception that 257 million women around the world experience.
Addressing unmet need and reducing unintended pregnancies and unwanted births is the most effective and most cost-effective way to reduce population growth. Expanding access to reproductive health care and voluntary family planning services are targets embedded within the SDGs that help women realize their fundamental human right to control whether, when, and with whom to have children. Empowering women also helps advance all of the other SDGs, and in fact represents a precondition for achieving many of them.
When women gain access to high-quality reproductive health care, education, and employment prospects, they generally enjoy enhanced social, economic, and political power. Women’s participation in economic and civic life has positive returns for communities and entire countries, as evidenced by the development indicators of the countries with the highest gender equality scores.
At Population Connection, we advocate tirelessly for universal access to voluntary family planning services for people in the United States and in countries around the world that receive our foreign assistance (until Donald Trump froze foreign aid for reproductive health soon after taking office in 2025). We support women’s right to manage their own fertility and exercise bodily autonomy and reproductive freedom. And we serve as one of the only remaining messengers in the United States on the critical importance of population stabilization.
Women who have reproductive autonomy generally choose to have smaller families. This slows population growth and creates opportunities for social, economic, and environmental improvements. Slower population growth reduces pressures on natural resources, habitats, and food systems. Within the context of climate change, slowing population growth is key to achieving greenhouse gas emissions targets, and the health, education, and economic benefits afforded through family planning help reduce climate vulnerability and increase resilience for communities around the world.
When women and couples have access to the resources necessary to freely and intentionally choose the number, timing, and spacing of their births, a wide variety of health benefits ensue also, including reductions in maternal mortality and morbidity, infant and child mortality, and unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortions.
Read more about how empowering women and girls to take charge of their bodies and lives is key to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals in this blog post.
This one action could save the world—so why does no one talk about it?
Ensuring access to quality, comprehensive reproductive health care is an essential component of sustainable development initiatives worldwide. This info brief takes an in-depth look into the ways in which voluntary family planning services aid development, support women’s empowerment, and increase climate resilience at the individual, community, national, and global levels.
View info briefThis slide deck investigates the role of increased access to voluntary family planning services in global efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change, facilitate sustainable development, and increase health outcomes for women and their families.
View slide deckBrowse literature on family planning interventions for sustainable development, climate mitigation and adaptation, women’s empowerment, and state stability. This resource includes academic sources, reports from NGOs and international organizations, and relevant news articles.
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