Today, people around the world will observe the 19th World Population Day in different ways. This event hopes to build an awareness of the importance of family planning with regard to many development issues, including gender equality, poverty, maternal health and human rights.

The total population in 2007 stood at 410,290 persons as on 31st December, of which 50.3 per cent were females. The largest proportion of persons - 7.5 per cent - were aged 25-29, while there were 7.3 per cent of persons falling into each of the 45-49 and 55-59 age brackets. According to projections based on 2007 population figures, the total population will increase to 424,028 persons in 2025, following which it will start decreasing again, reaching 400,763 in 2050.

There was a total of 3,871 live births in 2007, a slight decrease of 0.4 per cent over 2006, bringing the crude birth rate to 9.46. Just over half of these births were boys. The majority of mothers were aged 25-34, with 33.6 per cent falling into the age bracket 25-29 and 30.7 per cent into 30-34. For fathers, the majority were again aged 25-34, though in this case 32.2 per cent were aged 30-34 and 24.5 per cent 25-29. Fathers generally tend to be slightly older than mothers, with the third most common age group being 35-39 for males and 20-24 for females.

The number of deaths in 2007 stood at 3,111 - 1,610 males and 1,501 females. This is a decrease of 3.3 per cent over the 3,216 deaths in the previous year. As can be expected, the majority of deaths involved persons aged 75 and over, followed by the 65-74 and 55- 64 age groups.

There were 2,479 marriages which took place in 2007, a decrease of 2.3 per cent over 2006. Of these, 153 were held in Gozo. When looking at the nationality of brides and grooms, the most common pairings for Maltese persons (aside from with another Maltese person) are Maltese brides with Libyan and British grooms, and Maltese grooms with brides from another European (not EU) country. There were also a large number of marriages where both persons were British.

In 2007, a total of 637 separations were registered in Malta, of which 569 (89 per cent) concerned two Maltese persons. Further to this, there were 167 registered annulments in this same year; 34 religious and 133 civil. The majority of these annulments were involving marriages of 10-19 years, followed by 5-9 years. There were also 35 divorces, obtained abroad and recognised by the Maltese authorities, registered in 2007.

In 1968, world leaders proclaimed that individuals have a basic human right to determine freely and responsibly the number and timing of their children. Forty years later, modern contraception remains out of reach for hundreds of millions of women, men and young people.

This year's World Population Day reaffirms the right of people to plan their families. It encourages activities, events and information that will help make this right real - especially for those who often have the hardest time getting the information and services they need to plan their families, such as marginalized populations and young people.

When people can plan their families, they can plan their lives. They can plan to beat poverty. They can plan on healthier mothers and children. They can plan to gain equality for women. Plan to support World Population Day this year! Plan to beat poverty.

Plan to gain equality. Plan to beat maternal death.