World Population Day will be observed around the globe on 11 JulyMarcos Brindicci/Reuters
The United Nations (UN) marks World Population Day on 11 July, and this year the theme is 'Vulnerable populations in emergencies.'
The annual event is observed to raise awareness on human rights, planning pregnancies, and preventing gender inequality.
On the occasion, IBTimes UK has compiled the top ten quotes from famous personalities to mark World Population Day 2015.
"Once it was necessary that the people should multiply and be fruitful if the race was to survive. But now to preserve the race it is necessary that people hold back the power of propagation." - Helen Keller
"Our population and our use of the finite resources of planet Earth are growing exponentially, along with our technical ability to change the environment for good or ill." - Stephen Hawking
"Unlike plagues of the dark ages or contemporary diseases we do not understand, the modern plague of overpopulation is soluble by means we have discovered and with resources we possess. What is lacking is not sufficient knowledge of the solution but universal consciousness of the gravity of the problem and education of the billions who are its victim." - Dr Martin Luther King Jr.
"The hungry world cannot be fed until and unless the growth of its resources and the growth of its population come into balance. Each man and woman - and each nation - must make decisions of conscience and policy in the face of this great problem." - Lyndon B Johnson
"We have been God-like in our planned breeding of our domesticated plants and animals, but we have been rabbit-like in our unplanned breeding of ourselves." - Arnold Joseph Toynbee
"Almost half of the population of the world lives in rural regions and mostly in a state of poverty. Such inequalities in human development have been one of the primary reasons for unrest and, in some parts of the world, even violence." - Dr A P J Abdul Kalam
"As a woman leader, I thought I brought a different kind of leadership. I was interested in women's issues, in bringing down the population growth rate... as a woman, I entered politics with an additional dimension - that of a mother." - Benazir Bhutto
"By improving health, empowering women, population growth comes down." - Bill Gates
"If we don't halt population growth with justice and compassion, it will be done for us by nature, brutally and without pity- and will leave a ravaged world". - Nobel Laureate Dr Henry W Kendall
"Population growth is straining the Earth's resources to the breaking point, and educating girls is the single most important factor in stabilizing that. That, plus helping women gain political and economic power and safeguarding their reproductive rights". - Al Gore
