The history of the holiday is connected with the day when the world's population was 5 billion inhabitants - this event took place on July 11, 1987. Two years later, at the initiative of the United Nations, this date was officially declared World Population Day.
The establishment of such a holiday is an attempt to draw the attention of the world community to the most pressing population issues, various programs of social development, as well as the search for solutions to problems common to all mankind.
The rapid population growth began in the 60s of the last century. From 1960 to 1999, the number of people on Earth more than doubled, surpassing the 6 billion mark in October 1999. The absolute population growth is now almost 77 million annually, with 95% of this number accounted for by developing countries. In practice, this means that almost 67 million children cannot get an education, and 925 million people on Earth live with chronic hunger.
According to UN data, today the world's population has already exceeded 7 billion, by 2023 this figure will exceed 8 billion people. The largest country in terms of population will be India (1.6 billion people), which will overtake the modern leader - China.
At the same time, the population of European states, a number of developed countries and the Russian Federation will steadily decline. According to authoritative UN experts, Russia is on the verge of an imminent natural loss of citizens of working age. In the period from 1992 to 2007, the natural decline of Russians was 12, 3 million people. However, this figure was partially offset by migration. According to demographers, the low birth rate in Russia is due to a whole range of reasons: changes in the reproductive behavior of the population; the presence of crisis phenomena in the country's economy, the evolution of marriage and family institutions. In the near future, the number of births will also be affected by a sharp decline in the number of women of active reproductive age (20-29 years).
The United Nations is trying to draw the attention of the world community to the key problems affecting the number of inhabitants of the earth: the formation and development of the civil institution of the family, issues of childbearing and emancipation. Traditionally, every Population Day is dedicated to a specific theme: 2006 became the year of young people, in 2008 the central theme was declared "Family planning", and 2010 was held under the slogan "Everyone counts."
On July 11, many countries hold various celebrations dedicated to this holiday: mass rallies and processions, sports competitions and marathons, creative contests for the best literary or artistic work that draws public attention to population problems.
