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Population Matters Impact Report 2025-26

Population Matters' Impact Report 2025-26 highlights the charity's impact, key achievements and future plans as it works towards a sustainable world where people and nature thrive together.

Report snapshot
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About

Population Matters is a UK charity campaigning to achieve a sustainable human population that protects the natural world, through empowerment, education and advocacy.

Key Metrics

Empower to Plan reach More than 5,000 people reached to date through the Empower to Plan initiative in Kenya, Uganda, Sierra Leone, South Sudan and Albania.
Online reach Over 1.3 million views across social media platforms and website in 2025-26, with half a million unique users directly reached.
Social engagement Over 38,000 interactions with Population Matters' social media content in 2025-26.

Key Outcomes

  • Population, human rights and environmental issues gained traction across media and social platforms, expanding public engagement with sustainable population solutions.

Geography

UK-Wide

Impact Snapshot
Key Metric 1
5,999 active volunteers contributed 776,242 hours in 2025/26
Key Metric 2
137 winter maintenance projects across 45 canals; 109 lock gates replaced
Key Metric 3
101,640 children participated in Explorers/STEM outdoor learning, including 67,896 water-safety participants
Over 80% of the network kept fully open despite drought.
Impact Snapshot
Key Metric 1
The Eco-Schools programme reached over 1.4 million pupils, with 2,162 schools awarded the Eco-Schools Green Flag in 2024/25
Key Metric 2
326,000 volunteers pledged to the Great British Spring Clean, picking up 425,626 bags of rubbish, supported by 288 local authorities and parish councils
Key Metric 3
2,227 Green Flag Awards given to parks and green spaces in the UK; 151 beaches given a Blue Flag and/or Seaside Award
98.3% of educators felt the Eco-Schools programme significantly supports young people's development of 'green skills'
Impact Snapshot
Key Metric 1
First known breeding success of spoonbills in the Norfolk Broads in around 400 years, recorded at Hickling Broads and Marshes
Key Metric 2
Over 60 nature reserves managed across Norfolk, with land owned or managed for wildlife exceeding 5,000 hectares
Key Metric 3
1,500 volunteers helped protect wildlife across the county during the year
New urban nature reserve co-designed with the local community, expanding accessible green space in Norfolk
Impact Snapshot
Key Metric 1
61,819 native oysters deployed across UK restoration projects in 2024/25
Key Metric 2
15,064 people participated in the Beachwatch beach clean programme, submitting 1,256 litter surveys — the highest in the programme's 31-year history
Key Metric 3
17,613 young people engaged through in-person or online youth programme sessions
£11.5 billion Ofwat investment package secured for storm overflow cuts in England and Wales following sustained MCS advocacy