Understanding and Comparing Population Projections in Sub-Saharan Africa

The expanding pool of population projections is an exciting development for data consumers but reminds us that all projections must be critically assessed prior to use.

As low- and middle-income countries transition from paper to digital systems, family planning programs can benefit from unprecedented opportunities to improve services. Investments in digital health tools have expanded exponentially, but information on what works—and what does not— remains limited a…

This new data center helps inform efforts to encourage healthier choices by youth and reduce the odds that they will develop noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) later in life.

The 2020 World Population Data Sheet identifies 22 key demographic findings around the world by country in cluding for Total Fertility Rate and Population over 65.

When the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic on March 11, 2020, few sub-Saharan African countries had reported a single case of the disease, caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. Since then, it has spread at an alarming rate, with more than half of countries in the region no…

The world is better equipped to fight a pandemic today than it was in 1918, when influenza swept the globe and infected up to one-third of the world’s population.1 While science and medical advances have given us new advantages in fighting disease, some demographic trends since 1918 may increase the…

While we have much to learn yet about the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV2, commonly known as COVID-19, evidence to date suggests that deaths among people who have tested positive for the coronavirus are highest at older ages and near zero for young children.

Older Americans on average have a higher level of age-related health problems than their counterparts in Europe and many other countries (see table). That’s according to a recent Lancet study that shows the United States ranked 53rd out of 195 countries.

"Modern" Homo sapiens (that is, people who were roughly like we are now) first walked the Earth about 50,000 years ago. Since then, we estimate that more than 108 billion members of our species have ever been born.

PRB’s 2019 Family Planning Data Sheet provides the latest estimates of family planning indicators for approximately 160 countries around the world. Featured indicators include the percentage of married women using modern and traditional family planning methods, unmet need for family planning, use of…

Our widely referenced World Population Data Sheet has been produced annually since 1962. With more than 50 countries, including the United States, scheduled to conduct a census in the coming year, this year’s Data Sheet focuses on censuses around the world—from the first known census by the Babyl…

Europe and Asia Aging Rapidly, While Africa Is Home to the World’s Largest Youth Population Fertility rates in the United States dropped to their lowest level in recorded history, with women having an average of 1.7 births in their lifetime. That’s one of the key findings in PRB’s 2019 World Populat…