Population Institute

Does your state suck at reproductive rights? Find out

If you live in Mississippi, the answer is yes. A new report card grades states on availability of birth control, teen pregnancy rates, and more.

7 billion? It’s time to talk

People go out of their way to avoid talking about population, just as they do with sex, politics, and religion. But it’s time to get over the squeamishness.

Yo, Congress, you need to pony up $1B for global family planning

We’re surging toward a world population of 7 billion this year — and we still haven’t even made contraception available to everyone who wants it. The new “Million for a Billion” campaign aims to bridge that gap. Here’s a video to set the scene: Right now, 215 million women who want to avoid getting pregnant […]

Population media awards go to me and other, more worthy journalists

The winners of the Population Institute's Global Media Awards for Excellence in Population Reporting do impressive work publicizing population issues.

Is the U.S. the most overpopulated country on the planet? [VIDEO]

Does it really make a difference to global sustainability if Americans have fewer kids? Damn straight, says William Ryerson of Population Institute.

Population contrarian Fred Pearce on 'The Daily Show' [VIDEO]

Environmental journalist Fred Pearce has pissed off many by arguing that we don?t need to worry about population. Watch him chat with Jon Stewart.

Is the population bomb ever going to explode? [AUDIO]

Environmentalists and human-rights advocates regularly point to a growing world population as a potential source of strife. But one environmental journalist doesn’t agree. Fred Pearce, author of The Coming Population Crash, argues that fears of a population explosion are overblown. His recent post on Grist sparked a sharp rebuttal from Robert Walker, executive vice president […]

Of course population is still a problem

There are already 6.8 billion of us …Photo courtesy James Cridland via FlickrFred Pearce keeps on saying that population growth is no longer a problem. He said it again yesterday as part of his World Population Day message. In Fred’s view, it’s very simple. Fertility rates have come down sharply over the past half century. […]

A family-planning advocate and U.N. supporter answers questions

What work do you do? I’m a 62-year-old retired French teacher and tennis coach who has been spending six to eight hours a day for the last 20 months trying to get 34 million Americans to donate at least one dollar to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). I do this because the Bush administration […]