World Population Day 2015

January 11th is World Population Day each year (as it has been officially since 1989), although of course every day is world population day in the sense that we add more than 200,000 people to the world's total each day, and that complicates life everywhere on the globe. The theme this year 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. UNFPA works in emergency settings around the globe to respond to the rights and needs of women and girls, helping them maintain their dignity, securing their safety, and restoring their access to sexual and reproductive health care.

Remember that you can visualize the vulnerable population displacements in the maps created by the Humanitarian Information Unit at the U.S. State Department.

From a more personal perspective, today is also the fifth anniversary of this blog. Thanks to all of you who have sent me links to good ideas to talk about, have commented directly, or have just read and thought about the momentous and transformative issues wrought by population growth and change. The more we know, the better we can cope.