World Population Day 2025

SWA takes pride in its record of ‘learning through doing,’ and we like to build our knowledge base partly through undertaking project work with a clear research agenda. This chapter will explore our approach to two different projects, one a completed building and one a research project, both focused on inclusive and accessible design for people with neurodiversities.

"This chapter presents examples of inclusive architecture for atypical people, designed by Allen Kong Architects (AKA). The design philosophy of AKA is that the quality of life of the individual is first and foremost within their community, and that this requires addressing their individual needs in a way that also recognizes their social, economic and environmental context.

During the past 20 years, more and more autistic people have been reaching out and forming connections, creating community, and discovering our own styles of autistic togetherness.

Effective decision support systems are more essential as smart cities continue to develop. Decision-makers can use the suggested framework as a flexible platform for integrating, analyzing and visualizing complex data streams to help with resource management, policy formation, and urban planning.

This chapter provides new evidence on educational inequality and reviews the literature on the causes and consequences of unequal education.

This study explored talent in adolescents with intellectual disability (ID) by comparing those with and without drawing ability, examining both specific artistic skills and broader cognitive abilities. Results showed that adolescents with ID who have drawing talent also demonstrated higher fluid intelligence, cognitive flexibility, and creative thinking, with participation in art classes further enhancing their artistic performance. The findings support a global view of talent and suggest that giftedness models, such as Renzulli�s three-ring model, may be relevant for individuals with ID.

This study explores how teacher educators in Turkey, the United States, and Hong Kong prepare teachers to support immigrant students, using humanising pedagogy as a framework. Findings reveal the influence of personal and professional contexts, teaching practices, and the supports or barriers to implementing change. The study offers important insights for improving teacher education to better address the needs of immigrant students.

This study used a critical discourse analysis to examine how 12 major US school districts present student demographics for their dual language bilingual education (DLBE) programs, focusing on race, socioeconomics, ability, and English-learner status.

This study examines the social adaptation of Ukrainian refugee students in Czech schools through interviews with students, parents, teachers, and headteachers. Using Berry's acculturation model, it identifies three adaptation types�openness to friendship, utilitarian friendships, and (self-)isolation�shaped by ethnicity, language acquisition, and peer interactions.

This study examines the impact of science outreach programs on university researchers working with vulnerable populations.

This study analyses predictors of school dropouts in Uganda using 2014 census data, focusing on rural areas, Kampala, and other urban regions. Logistic regression revealed that socioeconomic status, household size, composition, and child�s age are key dropout factors, with variations depending on location due to differences in geography, population, economic activity, education supply, and local government commitment.

This study leverages crowdsourced urban climate data to provide more inclusive and granular insights into urban heat dynamics, addressing gaps in traditional monitoring that often overlook marginalized communities. By harnessing freely available citizen science observations, the method supports the World Population Day theme of "To Leave No One Behind, Count Everyone," enabling more equitable and comprehensive data to inform sustainable urban development and climate resilience.

This study employs high-resolution UAV thermal imagery and machine learning to analyze microscale urban heat patterns in a vulnerable residential neighborhood in Daejeon, South Korea, identifying key factors such as alley width and proximity to rivers that influence thermal vulnerability. By informing targeted heat mitigation strategies in urban regeneration areas, the research supports SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities) and SDG 13 (Climate Action), advancing the World Population Day goal to �Leave No One Behind� by addressing localized climate risks in densely populated, marginalized urban settings.

The article discusses the impacts of climate change on the Torres Strait Islands in Australia and the culturally appropriate responses identified by the Torres Strait Islander community.�

The article discusses the integration of justice enablers, including recognitional, procedural, and distributive justice, into climate-health adaptation planning in South America.

A systematic review and meta-analysis on the prevalence and risk factors of frailty in people experiencing homelessness (PEH).�

This article discusses the challenges and lessons learned from conducting an inclusive randomized controlled trial (AFRI-c) in 91 care homes across England.�

This study examines the physical functioning and activities of daily living (ADL) of Japanese centenarians over time, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.�

Cancer remains a major public health concern worldwide, with a mix of developed and developing country cancer profiles. Sustained prevention and control efforts have led to reductions in historically high-incidence cancers like esophageal, stomach, and liver cancers.

This paper reviews and compares four leading healthy diet metrics: GDQS, GDR score, MDD-W, and Nova UPF score, for their accuracy, ease of use, and global applicability in monitoring dietary quality. The findings highlight that the Minimum Dietary Diversity for Women (MDD-W) offers the strongest predictive accuracy for nutrient adequacy using a simple, scalable method, while also emphasizing the need for further research on metrics assessing moderation and cross-country comparability.

This study compared nutrient-based dietary patterns among U.S. Hispanic/Latino adults across two major national surveys and found that diet�disease relationships, particularly regarding diabetes and hypertension risk, varied significantly depending on the population and sampling strategy. These findings highlight the importance of considering the diversity within Hispanic/Latino communities when designing nutrition and health interventions, as one-size-fits-all approaches may not be effective.

The World Health Organization reports that cervical cancer ranks as the eighth most common cancer worldwide and is the ninth leading cause of cancer-related deaths. Cervical cancer is a significant global health challenge, with high incidence and mortality rates, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. While immunotherapy has emerged as a promising strategy, its efficacy is variable among patients. Predictive biomarkers are essential for identifying patients most likely to benefit from immunotherapy.

This research communication presents a robust framework for assessing urban social vulnerability (USoV) and associated risk assessment criteria, and underscores its policy implications. The framework integrates exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity dimensions to construct the USoVI. Applied to 146 urban centers in West Bengal, utilizing diverse indicators and advanced GIS mapping, the framework reveals elevated vulnerability levels and socio-economic disparities. Better understanding of vulnerabilities and guidance in addressing them is imperative so that effective and context-specific interventions to enhance urban resilience and alleviate vulnerability can be developed.

This article explores the role of community proactivity in advancing sustainable futures and its impact on community development, with a focus on the sustainability planning process in Vytina County, Greece. The authors employ a bottom-up planning process and a mixed-methods approach to assess proactivity and resistance to change, highlighting the significance of proactivity in achieving sustainable development and its role in shaping communities' futures.

This study examined racial/ethnic disparities in the surgical management of endometriosis using data from the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) 2017-2019 cycle.�

This article investigates factors contributing to longer wait times in the Emergency Department for Non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic patients.

This study analyzes how healthcare, health, and social factors contribute to high out-of-pocket health expenditures (OOPE) among informally employed Cambodian households without prepayment schemes, finding that healthcare-related factors are the largest drivers of financial hardship. The authors recommend expanding prepayment schemes focused on comprehensive outpatient care, essential medications, and higher-level services, while also addressing noncommunicable diseases and injuries to improve financial protection.

The study found that premature mortality risk is highest among individuals with both low income and high-risk health behaviors, with a clear income gradient observed across all risk factor levels. These results emphasize the importance of targeted public health strategies and resource allocation to lower-income groups to reduce health inequities and prevent premature deaths.

This study developed an Older Persons' Index of Multiple Deprivation (OPIMD) specifically for New Zealanders aged 65 and over by combining 22 indicators across six deprivation domains to create an individual-level measure. Validated using smoking data and mapped geographically, the OPIMD offers a tailored tool to better inform resource allocation and policy decisions for the older population, with further research needed to explore its links to health and social outcomes.

SAIRUS presents a novel approach to identifying risky social media users by integrating textual, relational, and spatial data, enhancing the detection of borderline cases and promoting safer online environments. It highlights the importance of comprehensive, multi-perspective data analysis for inclusive digital safety efforts.

This study introduces a novel approach to detecting and managing non-cooperative behaviors in large-scale group decision-making by incorporating decision makers' personal attributes, such as confidence and trust, to improve consensus-building processes. The proposed framework aims to foster more effective collaboration and decision quality in diverse groups.

This paper introduces a semantic technology-based framework for secure, interoperable, and trustworthy IoT data sharing in smart city environments, supporting real-time decisions while ensuring data quality, privacy, and compliance with GDPR. Its low resource footprint makes it suitable for deployment on edge devices like Raspberry Pi, enabling accurate and efficient data exchange.

This study highlights that infertility in Southern Ghana often leads women to face stigma and cultural barriers when considering adoption, underscoring the need for community engagement to support their decision-making process.

Despite global progress, maternal mortality remains high, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, highlighting the urgent need for strong leadership, increased investment in well-trained midwives, and equitable, culturally sensitive maternity care to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal of reducing maternal deaths to less than 70 per 100,000 live births by 2030.

Women with Hyperemesis Gravidarum often feel disempowered, dependent, and unable to meet personal and societal expectations, with healthcare professionals� neglectful attitudes potentially exacerbating self-stigma and social isolation. Addressing these issues requires healthcare providers to offer validating, empowering support to improve women's well-being and self-concept.

This review aims to identify optimal strategies for the long-term sustainable development of Bangladesh in the realm of occupational chemical safety and management. The review critically evaluates the current state of Bangladesh's national chemical management and proposes a policy trajectory for consideration.

The aims of this study were: (1) to examine BLLs in the Canadian general population and vulnerable sub-populations between 2007 and 2013 using data from the Canadian Health Measures Survey (CHMS); and (2) to assess factors that are associated with elevated BLLs in these populations.

This study produces a large dataset of pesticide concentrations in Italian women.

This analysis showed differences in serum EDC concentrations by R/E, sex, and age group in a military sample.

This review highlights the widespread prevalence of exposure to certain phthalates used in industrial practices, sheds light on exposure trends over time, and identifies significant gaps in biomonitoring data across various regions, particularly in areas with limited research infrastructure.