World Population Day: Theme, history, significance, quotes to share on July 11

World Population Day 2023: The World Population Day is celebrated on July 11 every year. The day is aimed at spreading awareness about issues related to population, including their relations to the environment and development. On the World Population Day, government organisations and agencies conduct interaction programmes with the public to raise awareness on a host of topics related to the severity of rising population in the world.

Many NGOs use this opportunity to spread awareness on crucial aspects such as reproductive health, gender equality, poverty eradication and sustainable development.

World Population day 2023: History

The United Nations Development Programme’s Governing Council established World Population Day in 1989, inspired by the Day of Five Billion observed on July 11, 1987.

In 1990, the United Nations General Assembly, through Resolution 45/216, decided to continue celebrating World Population Day to raise awareness about population issues.

World Population Day 2023: Theme

The theme for World Population Day this year is ‘Unleashing the power of gender equality: Uplifting the voices of women and girls to unlock our world’s infinite possibilities', according to the UN website.

World Population Day: Quotes

The biggest obstacle was mixing abortion with overpopulation. These are two things that have nothing to do with each other. - Jacques Yves Cousteau, French naval officer, oceanographer, author and filmmaker

Democracy cannot survive overpopulation. Human dignity cannot survive it. Convenience and decency cannot survive it. As you put more and more people into the world, the value of life not only declines, but it disappears. It doesn’t matter if someone dies. Isaac Asimov, American writer, professor of biochemistry.

The strongest witness is the vast population of the Earth to which we are a burden and she scarcely can provide for our needs. - Tertullian, writer and theologian

Food is something that is taken for granted by most world leaders despite the fact that more than half of the population of the world is hungry.” - Norman Borlaug, American agronomist

Almost half of the population of the world lives in rural regions and mostly in a state of poverty. Such inequalities in human development have been one of the primary reasons for unrest and, in some parts of the world, even violence. - APJ Abdul Kalam, Former President of India

If we don’t halt population growth with justice and compassion, it will be done for us by nature, brutally and without pity- and will leave a ravaged world. - Nobel Laureate Henry W Kendall