More than 11 million children under the age of five die every year in the developing world, many due to births that come too close together, too early or too late in a woman s life. Family planning could prevent 25 percent of these deaths about three million children a year by helping women to space births at least two years apart, and to bear children during their healthiest reproductive years. Slower population growth can help alleviate environmental stress . Access to fresh water, the conservation of forests, and the preservation of species-rich habitats can all benefit from slower population growth. While these figures are many times more than the 500 million people currently living in such conditions, they are still lower than projections made in the early 1990s thanks to population growth that was slower than expected during the past decade.
Family planning is an important arena of international cooperation .
Responding to requests from developing countries in the 1960s, the United States and Sweden were the first wealthy countries to provide family planning assistance.