Press Releases

World Population Surpasses 7 Billion
World population has surpassed 7 billion, and we are in the midst of history's most rapid population expansion. The sixth billion and the seventh billion were added in record time—taking only 12 years to reach each milestone. (October 2011)

PRB Releases 2011 World Population Data Sheet: "World Adding Another Billion People Every 12 Years"
Global population will reach 7 billion later in 2011, just 12 years after reaching 6 billion in 1999. Today's world population is double the population in 1967. But while the overall growth rate has slowed, the population is still growing, and growth rates in some countries show little if any decline. (July 2011)

Wendy Baldwin Selected as President of PRB
Wendy Baldwin, vice president and director, Poverty, Gender, and Youth Program at the Population Council, has been selected as president and CEO of the Population Reference Bureau, in Washington, D.C. She begins her duties on June 27. (April 25, 2011)

PRB Conducts Search for President and CEO
William P. Butz, president and CEO of the Population Reference Bureau, has resigned effective Feb. 11, 2011, after seven years to join the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) as a senior research scholar, and the Wittgenstein Centre for Population and Global Human Capital as director of coordination and outreach. Both organizations are based in Vienna, Austria. The firm Russell Reynolds Associates is conducting the search for Butz's successor. (February 2011)

PRB Receives Funding for Raising the Visibility of Malnutrition
The Population Reference Bureau has received a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for RENEW: Reenergizing Nutrition—Expanding Worldwide. This global initiative will help raise the visibility of malnutrition in mothers and children. (December 2010)

PRB Awarded Funding From USAID for Informing Decisionmakers to Act
The Population Reference Bureau has been awarded a five-year, $15 million project from the United States Agency for International Development. IDEA—Informing Decisionmakers to Act—increases support among policy audiences for effective health and population programs around the world. (December 2010)

PRB's 2010 World Population Data Sheet
The Population Reference Bureau's 2010 World Population Data Sheet and a companion report offer detailed information about world population and the elderly support ratio. (July 2010)

PRB Report Examines U.S. Economic and Social Trends Since 2000
PRB's Population Bulletin, "U.S. Economic and Social Trends Since 2000," by Linda A. Jacobsen and Mark Mather, is a wide-ranging analysis of how the U.S. population has changed since 2000. (March 2010)

PRB's 2009 World Population Data Sheet
The Population Reference Bureau's 2009 World Population Data Sheet and a companion report offer detailed information about world population and the growth in the world's youth population. (August 2009)

Family Planning Saves Lives of Millions of Women and Children Every Year
Family planning is a lifesaver for millions of women and children in developing countries according to a new report by the private, nonprofit Population Reference Bureau (PRB), released March 16, 2009, in Washington, D.C. (March 2009)