Fact Sheets

Get the facts

Key facts and figures on a variety of issues relevant to UNFPA’s mandate have been compiled for your use. Each Fact Sheet outlines the issue, provides data to back up key points, presents recent research, offers recommendations for action, and presents examples of progress in the field. Sources for the facts and dates of last revision are provided. Feel free to use these Fact Sheets for background research, advocacy or communications. They are organized here by thematic areas to help you find what you need.

AIDS epidemic

Women account for half of all people living with HIV worldwide. In sub-Saharan Africa, nearly 60 per cent of people living with HIV are women, and three out of four infected young people are female. Young women comprise two-thirds of those under 25 who are HIV-positive.

Environmental issues

About half the earth’s biological production capacity has already been diverted to human use. Life-supporting ecosystems are affected everywhere by the planet’s 6.7 billion people, which is projected to reach at least 9.2 billion by 2050.

Family planning

Of the 186 million pregnancies in developing countries in 2008, 75 million were unintended and 35 million ended in abortions.

Gender equality

The loss of women’s income usually has greater negative implications for the welfare of poor households than an equivalent loss of men’s income. In Bangladesh, Brazil, Kenya and South Africa, evidence shows that children’s welfare in poor households improves more when income is handled by women rather than men.

Humanitarian emergencies

Women are disproportionately affected by crises. It is they who typically care for the young, the injured and the infirm, and who keep the frayed social fabric from falling apart. Nevertheless, their needs are often neglected and their strengths ignored

Maternal health

Every day, more than 1,000 women die from preventable or treatable pregnancy related causes and 10-15 million women suffer severe or longlasting illnesses or disabilities.

Poverty

Studies attribute about one-quarter of the ‘miracle growth’ in East Asia after 1960 and one-third of the increase in per capita income to a demographic ‘bonus’: a larger percentage of workers compared to dependents, resulting from fertility declines.[3] In many countries of Africa, where fertility remains high, the dependency ratio has not yet begun to decline.

Young people

Girls between the ages of 10 and 14 are five times more likely to die in pregnancy or childbirth than women aged 20 to 24. Girls aged 15 to 19 are twice as likely to die. The vast majority of these deaths take place within marriage.

Millenium Development Goals

Other issues

The number of older persons is expected to triple in the first half of the 21st century, due in large part to longer life expectancy. By 2050, the world will have more older people than children for the first time in history, if fertility continues to decline.

Additional resources

• Statistical resources