Human activity is altering the planet on an unprecedented scale, the report points out. More people are using more resources with more intensity and leaving a bigger "footprint" on the earth than ever before. The report examines the close links between environmental conditions, population trends, and prospects for alleviating poverty in developing countries. It finds that expanding women's opportunities and ensuring their reproductive health and rights are critically important, both to improve the well-being of growing human populations and to protect the natural world.
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The Power of Choice: Reproductive rights and the demographic transition
Not so long ago, most people had large families: five children, on average.
Where once there was one global fertility rate, today there are many, with differences wider than at any point in human history. Family size,...
State of World Population 2019
Fifty years ago, it was hard for women to obtain contraception and relatively easy to die giving birth. Many women were unable to decide whom and when to marry, and when or whether to have children.