World population as of this post: 6,527,742,659. And rising quickly.

This year, the World Population Day focus is on yoots. Factoids from the U.N. Population Fund:

  • Half of the world’s people are under the age of 25. Some 3 billion children and young people are, or will soon be, of reproductive age.
  • In 57 developing countries, over 40 percent of the population is under 15.
  • The number of youth in the world surviving on less than a dollar a day in 2000 was an estimated 238 million, almost a quarter (22.5 per cent) of the world’s total youth population.
  • Despite a shift toward later marriage in many parts of the world, 82 million girls in developing countries who are now aged 10 to 17 will be married before their 18th birthday.
  • Universal access to reproductive health, including family planning, is the starting point for a better future for the 1.5 billion young people (ages 10 to 24) who live in developing countries.

Meanwhile, the Bushies push abstinence-only-until-marriage programs. Egad.