[MartinSE]

The population has come up in a few posts lately, and I recalled having a few stats from research I have been doing for a book I am writing.

I thought these might be interesting to some.

There is NO point, there is NO agenda. Just some information. And it will be interesting to see how long before this gets locked - LOL!

Population

* It took from 300,000 BC until 1800 AD for the world population to reach one billion

* The second billion took 130 years (1930)

* The third billion in 30 years (1960)

* The fourth billion in 15 years (1974)

* The fifth billion in 13 years (1987)

* The sixth billion in 12 years (1999)

* The seventh billion in 12 years (2011)

* During the 20th century, the population of the world grew from 1.65 billion to 6 billion

* In 1970, there were roughly half as many people in the world as there are now


(note, this is two years out of date - for my purposes, that is unimportant.)

[Stu from NYC]

Originally Posted by MartinSE

The population has come up in a few posts lately, and I recalled having a few stats from research I have been doing for a book I am writing.

I thought these might be interesting to some.

There is NO point, there is NO agenda. Just some information. And it will be interesting to see how long before this gets locked - LOL!

Population

* It took from 300,000 BC until 1800 AD for the world population to reach one billion

* The second billion took 130 years (1930)

* The third billion in 30 years (1960)

* The fourth billion in 15 years (1974)

* The fifth billion in 13 years (1987)

* The sixth billion in 12 years (1999)

* The seventh billion in 12 years (2011)

* During the 20th century, the population of the world grew from 1.65 billion to 6 billion

* In 1970, there were roughly half as many people in the world as there are now


(note, this is two years out of date - for my purposes, that is unimportant.)

Interesting. When people realize that they do not need to have a dozen kids in order to have just a couple survive to adult hood they will stop having so many. When everyone does this population will grow but only from longevity.

[npwalters]

Yes, those of us that can remember the 70s have noticed this when we try to use/visit things that are fixed in number such as a national park, a famous museum, or a historic site in Europe.

The population increases at a close to exponential rate. I feel bad for my great-great (to be) grandchildren. Quality of life will probably suffer as better technology tries to stave off the increase in population.

[ThirdOfFive]

Originally Posted by npwalters

Yes, those of us that can remember the 70s have noticed this when we try to use/visit things that are fixed in number such as a national park, a famous museum, or a historic site in Europe.

The population increases at a close to exponential rate. I feel bad for my great-great (to be) grandchildren. Quality of life will probably suffer as better technology tries to stave off the increase in population.

Humans have always been prolific breeders. But the things keeping the population in check during times past are definitely NOT the same things keeping it in check today.

The OP has that it took 300,000 years for the population of the globe to reach 1 billion, but only about 200 or so years to go from 1 billion to nearly eight billion. Those numbers are generally accepted as accurate. The seminal event in this growth rate is the Industrial Revolution. Prior to that, natural events (the Black Plague, weather events that were not forecast, other epidemics) as well as some not-so-natural events (The Mongol ravaging of Most of Asia and parts of Europe, for example, killed some tens of millions of people back when the earth had a total population of maybe 360 million) kept the population down.

The industrial revolution and accompanying scientific advances changed all that. better disease control, more enlightened farming techniques, etc. made life on the planet much more secure for the people than previously.

Pew Research has some interesting numbers on that. For example, the rate of births has been falling as better medicine and living conditions have reduced child mortality, with some industrialized nations even experiencing negative population growth. "The global fertility rate is expected to be 1.9 births per woman by 2100, down from 2.5 today. The rate is projected to fall below the replacement fertility rate (2.1 births per woman) by 2070. The replacement fertility rate is the number of births per woman needed to maintain a population’s size." (By Anthony Cilluffo and Neil G. Ruiz, Pew Research Center, 6/17/19). The upshot is that the growth of the human race will level off at about 10.0 billion people and remain more or less constant after that.

I don't think we have too much to worry about.

[Stu from NYC]

Originally Posted by ThirdOfFive

Humans have always been prolific breeders. But the things keeping the population in check during times past are definitely NOT the same things keeping it in check today.

The OP has that it took 300,000 years for the population of the globe to reach 1 billion, but only about 200 or so years to go from 1 billion to nearly eight billion. Those numbers are generally accepted as accurate. The seminal event in this growth rate is the Industrial Revolution. Prior to that, natural events (the Black Plague, weather events that were not forecast, other epidemics) as well as some not-so-natural events (The Mongol ravaging of Most of Asia and parts of Europe, for example, killed some tens of millions of people back when the earth had a total population of maybe 360 million) kept the population down.

The industrial revolution and accompanying scientific advances changed all that. better disease control, more enlightened farming techniques, etc. made life on the planet much more secure for the people than previously.

Pew Research has some interesting numbers on that. For example, the rate of births has been falling as better medicine and living conditions have reduced child mortality, with some industrialized nations even experiencing negative population growth. "The global fertility rate is expected to be 1.9 births per woman by 2100, down from 2.5 today. The rate is projected to fall below the replacement fertility rate (2.1 births per woman) by 2070. The replacement fertility rate is the number of births per woman needed to maintain a population’s size." (By Anthony Cilluffo and Neil G. Ruiz, Pew Research Center, 6/17/19). The upshot is that the growth of the human race will level off at about 10.0 billion people and remain more or less constant after that.

I don't think we have too much to worry about.

Thank you, your explanation was much better than mine.