The Asia-Pacific region is home to 60 per cent of the world’s population. It is undergoing a momentous transition from younger, more rural populations to older, more urban ones. While sharing some general trends, other population levels and trends differ across subregions and countries. For example, some are already experiencing population decline, whereas others continue to grow, albeit at a declining rate. The size, structure and dynamics of regional populations influence and are influenced by economic and social development, climate change, natural disasters and conflicts. In order to ensure sustainable development, it is important to fully understand the interactions between these factors.
In this context, and pursuant to ESCAP resolution 74 (XXIII) of 17 April 1967 and Commission on Population and Development decision 2022/101, ESCAP, in collaboration with UNFPA, will organize the Seventh Asian and Pacific Population Conference from 15 to 17 November 2023 at the United Nations Conference Centre in Bangkok, Thailand. The Population Conference is a statutory organ of ESCAP and convenes every ten years.
The intergovernmental meeting and its preparatory process will coincide with other important events and developments: the 60-year commemoration of the first Asian Population Conference, held in December 1963 in New Delhi, India and the 10-year anniversary of the adoption of the 2013 Asian and Pacific Ministerial Declaration on Population and Development. It will also mark the half-way point toward achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in Asia and the Pacific. It will also be held one year prior to the assessment of the status of implementationof the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development during the fifty-seventh session of the Commission on Population and Development in 2024.
For additional information, see:
2013 Asian and Pacific Ministerial Declaration on Population and Development;
Midterm Review of the Asian and Pacific Declaration on Population and Development;
2020 Report of the Committee on Social Development on its sixth session, containing the Asia-Pacific indicator framework;
Summary report prepared in follow-up to the Midterm Review of the Asian and Pacific Ministerial Declaration on Population and Development in 2018; and
2021 ESCAP Population Data Sheet.