On 15 November 2022, the world’s population is projected to reach 8 billion people, a milestone in human development. This unprecedented growth is due to the gradual increase in human lifespan owing to improvements in public health, nutrition, personal hygiene and medicine. It is also the result of high and persistent levels of fertility in some countries.
At World Population Day 2021, which is observed on 11 July each year, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on fertility will take center stage as the main theme for the commemoration.
The Population Division of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs is organizing an expert meeting on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on fertility at the United Nations Headquarters in New York on 10 and 11 May 2021.
The past four decades have witnessed tremendous changes in fertility levels in developing countries. Many countries have recorded dramatic declines in total fertility rates and in many others fertility has started to decline. Despite those trends, there remain 48 countries that have fertility levels above 5 children per woman. In Africa alone, the countries that have not yet embarked on their fertility transition account for over a fifth of the population of the continent.
The Population Division of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) organized an expert group meeting on completing the fertility transition. The meeting took place at the United Nations in New York from 11 to 14 March 2002.
The Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations is organizing an Expert Group Meeting on Recent and Future Trends in Fertility that will be held in New York from 2 to 4 December 2009. The purpose of the meeting is to bring together experts to examine recent trends in fertility and discuss future prospects in order to inform the preparation of the 2010 Revision of the World Population Prospects.
This expert group meeting addresses key questions about fertility patterns and trends, implications for age structure changes and other population trends and effective policy responses. The meeting results will inform preparations for the forty-seventh session of the Commission on Population and Development in 2014, the theme of which is the assessment of the status of implementation of the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development.
The world population is experiencing a historical shift in its age distribution, from the mostly young age structures of the past, towards larger proportions of middle-aged and older persons in the present and future decades. This shift is driven by the demographic transition from high to lower levels of both fertility and mortality. The social and economic consequences of these changes vary greatly across regions and countries.
