2016 PRB Annual Report

Building the Evidence Base For Sound Decisionmaking

Population Reference Bureau informs people about population, health, and the environment. We also empower others to use that information to advance the well-being of current and future generations.

PRB president and CEO Jeff Jordan talks about how PRB provides data and evidence, and strengthens capacities for engagement, to enrich social policy discussions and actions.

PRB in Figures

Our Work

PRB’s core thematic areas are aging, children and families, family planning and reproductive health, gender, global health, inequality and poverty, migration and urbanization, population and the environment, and youth.

Below are examples of our work this year in some of these areas:

AgingPreparing for Aging U.S. Baby Boomers

Children and FamiliesSpotlight on Latino Children

Family Planning and Reproductive HealthEngaging Men in Family Planning

GenderWomen’s Media Training for All

Population and the EnvironmentMeasuring Resilience in Africa

YouthYouth Speak Out on the Demographic Dividend

Communicating DataStriving for Sustainability at 10 Billion

News and Insights

See how PRB staff shared evidence-based knowledge and PRB’s work informed policy discussions.

U.S. Teenagers at Risk

Alicia VanOrman and Beth Jarosz of PRB’s U.S. Programs analyzed data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to show that suicides have surpassed homicides to become the second-leading cause of death for U.S. teenagers. MORE

Influencing the Debate in Nigeria

In November 2015, Nigerian parliamentarian Babatunde Gabriel Kolawale cited PRB population projections as he implored his fellow lawmakers to “curb the population explosion in Nigeria.” MORE

China Changes Course

When China abandoned its one-child policy in October 2015, PRB published an article with a graphic from Kristin Bietsch showing the likely effects of the policy change over time. Her graphic was adapted by the New York Times for their coverage of the event. MORE

Closing the Research-to-Policy Gap

PRB’s Marlene Lee and Diana Warira of the African Institute for Development Policy summarized key lessons from a session on communicating research to policymakers during a conference at the University of Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso. MORE

DRC and the Demographic Dividend

PRB partnered with the University of Kinshasa on a French-language wall chart to use as an advocacy tool illustrating how the country can accelerate its development by taking the necessary steps to achieve a demographic dividend. Nicole LaGrone wrote a “Stories From the Field” post from Kinshasa about the realities of DRC’s high fertility rates. MORE

Population and Gender in the MENA Region

Farzaneh Roudi retired in 2016 after nearly three decades at PRB. She started our Middle East and North Africa program in 2001 with support from the Ford Foundation office in Cairo. In a Q&A she reflected on her work and the regional outlook on population and gender issues. MORE

U.S. Population Growth Not Spread Evenly

Mark Mather looked at U.S. Census Bureau data and found that California, Florida, and Texas accounted for nearly half of U.S. population growth between 2014 and 2015, even though these three states made up only 28 percent of the total population in 2015. MORE

Policy Fellows Alum Receives Gates Grant

Funmi OlaOlorun, an alumna of PRB’s Policy Communication Fellows Program, and her research partner were awarded a Grand Challenges in Global Health grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in April 2016 for their project on empowering Nigerian women. OlaOlorun explained how skills she gained as a Policy Fellow have helped her. MORE

2016Annual Report