UNFPA’s vision is to create a world where every young person can make their own choices and enjoy their rights.

• Today’s adolescents and youth, 1.8 billion strong, are a quarter of the global population. 
• Countries with large shares of young people have an opportunity to accelerate development if strategic investments are made, this is known as the demographic dividend.
• Sustainable development can only be achieved through investing in adolescents and youth to guarantee their rights and choices.
• Some of the most consequential choices we make occur early in life. They include affirming sexual orientation and gender identity; choosing whether, when and whom to marry; determining whether and when to have children and how many, and deciding when and with whom to have sex.
• Adolescents and youth need access to comprehensive sexuality education and sexual and reproductive health services, safe and supportive families and peers, and safe and supportive schools and spaces dedicated to adolescents, particularly girls.