UNFPA Celebrates World Population Day & Launches 2023 State of the World Population Report Accra, GHANA —

Annually, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) commemorates World Population Day with
Governments, Civil Society, NGOs and Youth groups to bring attention to pertinent issues faced by
people in the world.
This year, the World Population Day will be used to highlight the need to advance gender equality to
help realise the dreams of all the 8 billion people on our planet.
This year, the United Nations system in Ghana, UNFPA Ghana Country Office, together with the National
Population Council, the Regional Institute for Population Studies (RIPS), University of Ghana and the
Planned Parenthood Association of Ghana (PPAG), will be commemorating the World Population Day
under the theme: “Unleashing the power of gender equality to spur national development” As part of
this year’s commemoration, there will also be the launch of UNFPA’s flagship 2023 State of the World
Population (SWOP) Report.
The SWOP Report guides policy-making, advocacy, programming, research, monitoring and evaluation of
our world's development agenda. The 2023 SWOP report is entitled "8 billion lives, infinite possibilities,
the case for rights and choices" and it provides an in-depth analysis of the demographic trends affecting
sustainable development worldwide.
The report explores the possibilities the 8 billion people offer the world and examines the challenges
that must be overcome to achieve this demographic dividend, including the need for holistic sexual and
reproductive health services, investments in education, job training, and gender equality. It stresses that
investments in these areas are critical for sustainable development, human rights, and social justice.
The growth of the global population has also been in sync with the increase in Ghana’s population
growth from about 24 million people in 2010 to about 32 million people following the first digital
population census by the Ghana Statistical Service which UNFPA supported in 2021. Young people and
adolescents account for more than 56% of Ghana’s population and the population of women and girls
are far more than 50% of the total population.
As a situation, it calls for the Government to invest in their health and education, while providing them
opportunities for decent work so that they can contribute to economic growth and overall social
development. Key Facts and Figures from the 2023 State of World Population:
● Twenty-four per cent of partnered women and girls are unable to say no to sex and 11 percent are
unable to make decisions specifically about contraception, according to data from 68 reporting
countries.
● A survey showed that people who had been exposed to media or conversations about the world’s
population were more likely to view the global population as being too high.
● Global demographics are changing rapidly: two thirds of people are living in low fertility contexts,
while eight countries will account for half of the projected growth in global population by 2050 (the
Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines and the
United Republic of Tanzania), dramatically reordering the world’s ranking of most populous countries.
● Blaming fertility for climate change will not hold the greatest carbon emitters to account. Out of 8
billion people, around 5.5 billion do not make enough money, about $10 a day, to contribute
significantly to carbon emissions.
● A recent UN study stipulates that greater gender parity in the labor force would do more to sustain
economies in aging, low-fertility societies than setting targets for women to have more children.