For nearly seven decades, the UN has been collecting and analysing population data from countries or areas around the world to estimate the number of humans inhabiting planet Earth today and in the future. What do these numbers tell us? And why is it so important to be counted? As UN DESA prepares to launch the 2019 revision of World Population Prospects on 17 June 2019, we ask Thomas Spoorenberg, Population Affairs Officer at UN DESA’s Population Division.

World Population Prospects is considered the most accurate and trusted estimate of the human population.

The heads of the eight United Nations organizations constituting the Executive Committee of the United Nations Network on Migration have established the Start-up Fund for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, the first financing instrument of its kind, to support international cooperation on migration.

UN Member States today reaffirmed their commitment to implementing the goals and objectives of the Programme of Action, adopted at the landmark International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) held in Cairo in 1994. In a declaration, countries agreed that the full implementation of the Programme of Action is crucial for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals contained in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The 52nd session of the United Nations Commission on Population and Development opened on 1 April at UN Headquarters and is continuing until 5 April.

Migration and sustainable development are “deeply interconnected” and the 2030 Agenda, the UN’s blueprint for a sustainable future for all, will not be achieved if we do not “comprehensively include migrants,” the President of the General Assembly said on Wednesday.



Mariá Fernanda Espinosa, was speaking to delegates at a meeting on migration held at UN headquarters in New York, anchoring her address to the seventh target of Sustainable Development 

Today, 258 million people are international migrants, living outside their country of birth. They make important contributions to both their host and home countries. For example, in 2017 alone, they sent an estimated $466 billion in remittances to low- and middle-income countries. International migration makes a critical contribution to sustainable development by raising the productivity of migrant workers and thus increasing the global economic output.

Blowing out the birthday candles, a newly minted sexagenarian will often think: “But I don’t feel 60.” And demographers back that sentiment with data that documents the remarkable revolution in longevity, which is redefining the meaning of turning 60. In a very real, demographic sense, 60 is the new 50.

According to statistics from UN DESA’s World Population Prospects, new 60-year-olds in high-income countries can expect to live at least another 25 years.

The United Nations General Assembly officially endorsed the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration on Wednesday, a non-binding agreement adopted in Marrakech on 10 December by 164 Member States, and described by UN chief António Guterres as a “roadmap to prevent suffering and chaos”.

The UN Secretary-General explained in a statement released after the vote that the document “reaffirms the foundational prin

The Global Compact for Migration was adopted on Monday by leading representatives from 164 Governments at an international conference in Marrakesh, Morocco, in an historic move described by UN Chief António Guterres as the creation of a “roadmap to prevent suffering and chaos”.

Close to 190 countries are set to adopt the groundbreaking UN Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration. Among its many features, the Compact recognizes the contributions of migrants to the development of their host and origin countries. Migrant workers fill gaps in the labour market in host countries. The money that they send back home helps their families to achieve their own sustainable development goals.

Greg Balmes Jr. was punching the steering wheel and wiping off his tears on the way to the airport.

Close to three in five cities worldwide with at least 500,000 inhabitants are at high risk of a natural disaster, cautions UN DESA in its latest data booklet, The World’s Cities in 2018.