International Francophonie Day 2018

The International Francophonie Day is a worldwide celebration of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF) taking place on March 20th of each year. The Organisation internationale de la Francophonie brings together 84 member and associate countries and territories. There are approximately 520 million French speakers worldwide, including more than 300 million whose mother tongue…

With rising number of girls at risk, world in ‘race against time’ to end female genital mutilation

Female genital mutilation is a violent act that, among other things, causes infection, disease, childbirth complications and death, said the Executive Directors of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in a joint statement for the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). Describing FGM as “a cruel…

48 million children through wars, natural disasters and emergencies

Children are the most vulnerable when conflict or disaster causes the collapse of essential services such as healthcare and unless the international community takes urgent action to protect and provide life-saving assistance to them, “they face an increasingly bleak future,” the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned Tuesday, launching a $3.6 billion emergency appeal. According to…

France: 67.2 million inhabitants

France is seeing its population continue to grow, and now exceeds 67 million inhabitants on 1 January 2018. The country has a total population of 67,186,638 inhabitants, that is to say by counting the overseas departments and regions of France (Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Mayotte, Martinique, Reunion), but excluding territories (New Caledonia, French Polynesia, St. Barthelemy,…

1.32 billion tourists worldwide in 2017

According to the annual Barometer of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), international tourist arrivals jumped 7% in 2017, reaching 1.322 billion. This momentum is expected to continue in 2018 at a rate of between 4% and 5%. The 2017 growth rate was significantly higher than the annual average since 2010, which is 4%. This is…

78 million more people in 2017

Despite the global aging and the relative slowdown in population growth, humanity has added 78,521,283 people in 2017. This represents a growth of + 1.07% over one year. Africa and Asia are the fastest growing regions, while Europe is aging and some countries are moving backward. An ever greater challenge for the world, with on…

Arctic is warming twice as fast as the global average

The Arctic continued in 2017 to warm at double the rate of the global temperature increase, resulting in the second warmest air temperatures, above average ocean temperatures, loss of sea ice, and a range of human, ocean and ecosystem effects, according to the United Nations weather agency. “While 2017 saw fewer records shattered than in…

Canada: population growth is accelerating

Statistics Canada has released its quarterly population update for the provinces and territories of the country. It now has almost 36.9 million inhabitants. Despite an aging population, Canada’s population growth has accelerated in recent quarters. Its annual growth rate has gone from 1.2% to 1.3% since the third quarter. A slight acceleration that follows others…