Population Matters

About Population Matters

Population Matters is a UK-based charity working with partners, friends and stakeholders globally to achieve a better future for people and planet.

We campaign, inform, undertake research and do all we can to encourage an open, fair-minded and constructive debate about population. We aim to create a wave of public awareness and corresponding policy action on overpopulation and unsustainable consumption.

We promote positive, practical, ethical and entirely voluntary solutions – encouraging smaller families, inspiring people to consume sustainably, with the aim of enabling everyone to enjoy a decent quality of life whilst respecting and sustaining the natural ecosystems upon which all life on earth depends.

We empower choice. In a world of finite resources our reproductive and consumption choices are critical for achieving that vision of humanity in harmony with nature, prospering on a healthy planet. We believe everyone should have the freedom and ability to choose a smaller family.

We are committed to human rights, women’s empowerment and global justice. We believe action to address population must always be consistent with their principles.

Our vision is of a future in which our population co-exists in harmony with nature and prospers on a healthy planet, to the benefit of all.​

Our mission is to drive positive, large-scale action through fostering choices that help achieve a sustainable human population and regenerate our environment.

We believe that population is one of the most important, but neglected, contributors to almost all of the major problems facing us today. In particular that means the multiple environmental threats our planet faces, but an unsustainable population also contributes to poverty, conflict, resource depletion and a poorer quality of life for many people.

A growing number of scientists, activists and members of the public are recognising that action to address a global population of 7.7 billion people and growing will help people, the living things around us and the planet we live on.

That action is simple, positive, and improves people's lives: lifting people out of poverty, providing education, empowering women and girls, providing good modern family planning to all and promoting the choice to have a smaller family.

Despite that, there is still resistance among some politicians, organisations and campaigners to that positive message. Addressing population is not the only solution to the challenges we face. There is much else that needs to be done - but adding ever more people to the billions already here makes each of those other solutions harder to achieve.

The role of Population Matters is to spread that message, encourage smaller families, and ensure that positive, ethical and empowering action to achieve a sustainable population happens. That will help to create a just world, in which everyone has a decent standard of life and the opportunities they deserve, and the natural world is healthy and flourishing.