World Population Day

Numbers on the legend are in people per km2, and all countries smaller than 20,000 km2 are represented by a dot.
10 January 2007, Miguel Contreras, Guatemala

World Population Day was established by the United Nations Development Programme in 1989. It is an annual event, observed on July 11 every year, which seeks to focus attention on the urgency and importance of population issues. The theme for 2015 World Population Day is Vulnerable Populations in Emergencies. The world is seeing a record number of people displaced by crises – some 60 million according to the latest UN figures. 

As the world population reached 7 billion people in 2011 (up from 2.5 billion in 1950), it is a challenge and an opportunity with implications on sustainability, urbanization, access to health services and youth empowerment.