Image copyright Thinkstock
Does the Earth have enough resources to support a rapidly growing human population? Now it is over 7 billion. What is the maximum number of inhabitants, above which the sustainable development of our planet will no longer be possible? The correspondent undertook to find out what the researchers think about this.
Overpopulation. At this word, modern politicians wince; in discussions about the future of planet Earth, he is often referred to as the "elephant in the room."
Often, a growing population is spoken of as the biggest threat to the existence of the Earth. But is it right to consider this problem in isolation from other contemporary global challenges? And is it really so threateningly many people live on our planet now?
- What do giant cities suffer from?
- Seva Novgorodtsev about overpopulation of the Earth
- Obesity is more dangerous than overcrowding
It is clear that the Earth does not increase in size. Its space is limited, and the resources necessary to sustain life are finite. Food, water and energy may simply not be enough for everyone.
It turns out that demographic growth is a real threat to the well-being of our planet? Not at all necessary.
Image copyright Thinkstock Image caption The earth is not rubber!"The problem is not the number of people living on the planet, but the number of consumers and the scale and nature of consumption," says David Satterthwaite, senior fellow at the London-based International Institute for Environment and Development.
In support of his thesis, he cites a consonant statement by the Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi, who believed that "there are enough [resources] in the world to satisfy the needs of every person, but not universal greed."
The global effect of a multi-billion increase in urban population could be much smaller than we think
Until recently, the number of representatives of the modern human species (Homo sapiens) living on Earth was relatively small. Just 10 thousand years ago, no more than a few million people lived on our planet.
It wasn't until the early 1800s that the human population reached a billion. And two billion - only in the 20s of the twentieth century.
Currently, the world's population is over 7.3 billion people. According to UN forecasts, by 2050 it could reach 9.7 billion, and by 2100 it is expected to exceed 11 billion.
Population has only begun to grow rapidly in the last few decades, so we do not yet have historical examples on which to base our predictions on the possible consequences of this growth in the future.
In other words, if it is true that more than 11 billion people will live on our planet by the end of the century, our current level of knowledge does not allow us to say whether sustainable development is possible with such a population - simply because there has not yet been precedents in history.
However, we can get a better picture of the future if we analyze where the most significant population growth is expected in the coming years.
The problem is not the number of people living on Earth, but the number of consumers and the scale and nature of their consumption of non-renewable resources
David Satterthwaite says that most of the demographic growth in the next two decades will occur in the megacities of those countries where the level of income of the population at the current stage is assessed as low or medium.
At first glance, an increase in the number of inhabitants of such cities, even if by several billion, should not have serious consequences on a global scale. This is due to historically low levels of urban consumption in low- and middle-income countries.
Emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases are a good indication of how high a city's consumption can be. “We know about cities in low-income countries that emissions of carbon dioxide (carbon dioxide) and its equivalents are less than a tonne per person per year,” says David Satterthwaite. “In high-income countries, the values of this indicator fluctuate ranging from 6 to 30 tons".
Residents of more economically prosperous countries pollute the environment to a much greater extent than people living in poor countries.
Image copyright Thinkstock Image caption Copenhagen: high standard of living, but low greenhouse gas emissionsHowever, there are exceptions. Copenhagen is the capital of Denmark, a high-income country, while Porto Allegre is in Brazil, an upper-middle income country. Both cities have a high standard of living, but emissions (on a per capita basis) are relatively low in volume.
According to the scientist, if we look at the lifestyle of one single person, the difference between rich and poor categories of the population will be even more significant.
There are many low-income urban dwellers whose consumption is so low that it has little to no effect on greenhouse gas emissions.
When the Earth's population reaches 11 billion, the additional burden on its resources may be relatively small.
However, the world is changing. And it's entirely possible that low-income megacities will see carbon emissions rise soon.
Image copyright Thinkstock Image caption People living in high-income countries must do their part to keep the Earth sustainable with a growing populationThere is also concern about the desire of people in poor countries to live and consume at levels that are now considered normal for high-income countries (many would say that this would be some kind of restoration of social justice).
But in this case, the growth of the urban population will bring with it a more serious burden on the environment.
Will Steffen, professor emeritus at the Fenner School of Environment and Society at the Australian State University, says this is in line with a general trend that has emerged over the past century.
According to him, the problem is not population growth, but the growth - even more rapid - of world consumption (which, of course, is unevenly distributed around the world).
If so, then humanity may find itself in an even more predicament.
People living in high-income countries must do their part to keep the Earth sustainable with a growing population.
Only if richer communities are willing to reduce their consumption levels and allow their governments to support unpopular measures can the world as a whole reduce the negative human impact on the global climate and more effectively address issues such as resource conservation and recycling.
In a 2015 study, the Journal of Industrial Ecology tried to look at environmental issues from the perspective of a household, where the focus is on consumption.
If we adopt smarter consumer habits, the state of the environment can improve dramatically
The study showed that private consumers account for more than 60% of greenhouse gas emissions, and in the use of land, water and other raw materials, their share is up to 80%.
Moreover, the researchers concluded that the pressure on the environment differs from region to region and that, per household, it is highest in economically prosperous countries.
Diana Ivanova of the University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, Norway, who developed the concept for this study, explains that it changes the traditional view of who should be responsible for industrial emissions associated with the production of consumer goods.
"We are all trying to shift the blame to someone else, to the state or to enterprises," she notes.
In the West, for example, consumers often express the opinion that China and other countries that produce consumer goods in industrial quantities should also be responsible for emissions associated with production.
Image copyright Thinkstock Image caption Modern society depends on industrial productionBut Diana and her colleagues believe that an equal share of the responsibility lies with the consumers themselves: "If we begin to follow smarter consumer habits, the state of the environment can significantly improve." According to this logic, radical changes are needed in the basic values of developed countries: the emphasis should move from material wealth to a model where the most important thing is personal and social well-being.
But even if favorable changes take place in mass consumer behavior, it is unlikely that our planet will be able to sustain a population of 11 billion people for a long time.
Therefore, Will Steffen proposes to stabilize the population somewhere in the region of nine billion, and then begin to gradually reduce it by reducing the birth rate.
Stabilization of the Earth's population implies both a reduction in resource consumption and the expansion of women's rights.
In fact, there are signs that some stabilization is already underway, even if the population continues to grow statistically.
Population growth has been slowing since the 1960s, and surveys of fertility rates by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs indicate that, worldwide, the birth rate per woman has fallen from 4.7 children in 1970-75 to 2.6 in 2005-10.
However, it will take centuries for any really significant changes to take place in this area, according to Corey Bradshaw of the University of Adelaide in Australia.
The trend towards an increase in the birth rate is so deeply rooted that even a major catastrophe will not be able to radically change the situation, the scientist believes.
According to a 2014 study, Corey concluded that even if the world's population were reduced by two billion tomorrow due to increased mortality, or if governments of all countries, like China, passed unpopular laws that limit the number of children, then by 2100 the number of people on our planet would at best remain at its current level.
Therefore, it is necessary to look for alternative ways to reduce the birth rate, and look for it without delay.
If some or all of us increase our consumption, then the upper limit for sustainable (sustainable) population of the Earth will decrease
One relatively simple way is to raise the status of women, especially in terms of their educational and employment opportunities, says Will Steffen.
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) estimated that 350 million women in the poorest countries were not going to have their last child, but they had no way to prevent unwanted pregnancies.
If the basic needs of these women in terms of personal development were met, the problem of overpopulation of the Earth due to excessively high birth rates would not be so acute.
Following this logic, the stabilization of the population of our planet implies both a reduction in resource consumption and the expansion of women's rights.
But if a population of 11 billion is unsustainable, how many people - in theory - can our Earth support?
Corey Bradshaw thinks it's nearly impossible to give a specific number as it will depend on technology in areas like agriculture, energy and transportation, and how many people we're willing to condemn to a life of deprivation and limitation, including and in food.
Image copyright Thinkstock Image caption Slums in the Indian city of Mumbai (Bombay)It is a fairly common belief that humanity has already exceeded the permissible limit, given the wasteful lifestyle that many of its representatives lead and which they are unlikely to want to give up.
As arguments in favor of this point of view, such environmental trends as global warming, the reduction of biospecies diversity and pollution of the world's oceans are given.
Social statistics also come to the rescue, according to which currently one billion people in the world are actually starving, and another billion suffer from chronic malnutrition.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the problem of population was associated equally with female fertility and soil fertility.
The most common option is 8 billion, i.e. a little more than the current level. The lowest figure is 2 billion. The highest is 1024 billion.
And since assumptions about the allowable demographic maximum depend on a number of assumptions, it is difficult to say which of the above estimates is closest to reality.
But ultimately the determining factor will be how society organizes its consumption.
If some of us - or all of us - increase our consumption, then the upper limit on the acceptable (in terms of sustainable development) population of the Earth will decrease.
If we find opportunities to consume less, ideally without giving up the benefits of civilization, then our planet will be able to support more people.
The acceptable population limit will also depend on the development of technology, an area in which it is difficult to predict anything.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the problem of population was associated equally with both female fertility and the fertility of agricultural land.
In his 1928 book The Shadow of the World to Come, George Knibbs suggested that if the world's population reaches 7.8 billion, humanity will need to be much more efficient in cultivating and using land.
Image copyright Thinkstock Image caption With the invention of chemical fertilizers began a rapid population growthAnd three years later, Carl Bosch received the Nobel Prize for his contribution to the development of chemical fertilizers, the production of which was, presumably, the most important factor in the population boom that occurred in the twentieth century.
In the distant future, scientific and technological progress can significantly raise the upper limit of the permissible population of the Earth.
Ever since people first traveled into space, mankind is no longer content with observing stars from the Earth, but is seriously discussing the possibility of resettlement to other planets.
Many prominent scientists and thinkers, including the physicist Stephen Hawking, even state that the colonization of other worlds will be crucial for the survival of humans and other biological species present on Earth.
Although the NASA exoplanet program launched in 2009 discovered a large number of Earth-like planets, they are all too distant from us and little studied. (As part of this program, the US space agency created the Kepler satellite equipped with an ultra-sensitive photometer to search for Earth-like planets outside the solar system, the so-called exoplanets.)
Image copyright Thinkstock Image caption The earth is our only home and we need to learn how to live in it in a sustainable waySo moving people to another planet is not yet an option. For the foreseeable future, the Earth will be our only home, and we must learn to live in it in an environmentally friendly way.
This implies, of course, an overall reduction in consumption, in particular a transition to a lifestyle with low CO2 emissions, as well as an improvement in the status of women around the world.
Only by taking some steps in this direction, we will be able to roughly calculate how much the planet Earth can support the people.
- You can read it in English on the website.
The world population is over 7 billion people. According toThe US Census Bureau's world population surpassed 7 billion on March 12, 2012. The world population reached 7 billion on October 31, 2011, according to the United Nations. In June 2013, the UN estimated the world population at about 7.2 billion people. world population is the total number of people living on earth.Selective translation (Wikipedia article, internal ss pins omitted). The world's population has been continuously growing since the end of the Great Famine of 1315-1317 and the Black Death. (plague epidemic) in the 1350s, when the population was about 370 million people. The highest population growth rates (above 1.8% per year) were seen briefly in the 1950s, and for a longer period during the 1960s and 1970s. The growth rate peaked at 2.2% in 1963, then declined to below 1.1% by 2012. Total annual births peaked at the end of 1980 at about 138,000,000, and currently remains largely constant at 134,000,000 in 2011, while the death rate was 56,000,000 per year and is expected to rise to 80 million per year by 2040.
Current UN projections show a further increase in population in the near future (with a steady decline in population growth), the world's population will be from 8.3 to 10.9 billion by 2050. Some analysts question the sustainability of further world population growth, noting growing pressures on the environment, global food supplies and energy resources.
The population of the Earth by region
Six of the Earth's Seven Continentspermanently populated in large numbers. Asia is the most populated continent, with 4.2 billion inhabitants - more than 60% of the world's population. The population of the two most populous countries in the world is China and India Together they make up about 37% of the world's population. Africa is the second largest continent in terms of the number of inhabitants, with a population of about 1 billion people, or 15% of the world's population. Europe with a population of 733,000,000 people makes up 11% of the world's population, while in Latin America and Caribbean the region is home to about 600,000,000 (9%). INNorth America, mainly inUnited States and Canada about 352,000,000 (5%) live, and Oceania - the least populated region, has about 35 million inhabitants (0.5%).
Continent | Density (person / km 2) | Population 2011 | most populated country | Most populated city |
Asia | 86,7 | 4 140 336 501 | China (1341 403 687) | Tokyo (35,676,000) |
Africa | 32,7 | 994 527 534 | Nigeria (152 217 341) | Cairo (19 439 541) |
Europe | 70 | 738 523 843 | Russia (143,300,000) (about 110 million in Europe) |
Moscow (14 837 510) |
North America | 22,9 | 528 720 588 | USA (313 485 438) | Mexico City / Metropolis (8 851 080/21 163 226) |
South America | 21,4 | 385 742 554 | Brazil (190,732,694) | Sao Paulo (19 672 582) |
Oceania | 4,25 | 36 102 071 | Australia (22612355) | Sydney (4 575 532) |
Antarctica | 0.0003 (varies) | 4 490 (changing) |
n/a | n/a |
Population in the countries of the world in our time
During the European agricultural and industrial revolutions, the life expectancy of children increased dramatically. From 1700 to 1900, the population of Europe increased from 100 million to 400 million. In general, in 1900, 36% of the world's population lived in Europe.
Population growth in Western countries accelerated after the introduction of compulsory vaccination and improvements in medicine and sanitation. After a qualitative change in living conditions and improved health care during the 19th century, the population of Great Britain began to double every fifty years. by 1801, population of Englandgrew to 8.3 million, and by 1901 it reached 30.5 million, the population of the United Kingdom reached 60 million in 2006.In the US, the population will increase from 5.3 million in 1800 to 106 million in 1920, and will exceed 307 million in 2010.
First half of the 20th century in Russia and the Soviet Union was marked by a series of wars, famines and other disasters, each accompanied by large-scale population losses. Stephen J. Lee believes that by the end of World War II in 1945, Russia's population was 90 million fewer than it might have been. Russia's population has declined significantly in recent decades, from 148 million in 1991 to 143 million in 2012, but as of 2013, that decline appears to have stopped.
Many countries in the developing world have experienced rapid population growth over the past century. China's population grew from about 430 million in 1850 to 580 million in 1953 and is now over 1.3 billion. The population of the Indian subcontinent, which was about 125 million in 1750, reached 389,000,000 in 1941. Today, about 1.6 billion people live in India and adjacent countries. The population of Java has increased from five million in 1815 to over 130 million at the beginning of the 21st century. The population of Mexico has grown from 13.6 million in 1900 to 112 million in 2010. During the 1920s-2000s, Kenya's population grew from 2.9 million to 37 million.
Cities ("urban areas") with at least one million inhabitants as of 2006. Only 3% of the world's population lived in cities in 1800, this share increased to 47% by 2000 and was 50.5% in 2010. By 2050, the share could reach 70%.Image Source,
Contents: I. Statistics: 1) The number of inhabitants of the Earth in general and Europe in particular; 2) Population density; 3) Placement of the population; 4) The composition of the population: a) by sex, b) by age, c) by sex and age, d) by sex, age and marital status; ... ... Encyclopedic Dictionary F.A. Brockhaus and I.A. Efron
Population- (population) in demography, the totality of people living on Earth (population of the Earth) or within a specific territory of a continent, country, region, etc. Population is continuously renewed during reproduction ... Wikipedia
Population of Germany- The population of the Federal Republic of Germany is 81,802,000 (2009). Germany is the most populated country in the European Union. On May 9, 2011, for the first time since German reunification, a general population census was carried out. Contents 1 ... ... Wikipedia
Lands of the Loire- Pays de la Loire ... Wikipedia
Population of the Pskov region- The population of the districts of the Pskov region ... Wikipedia
Population of Udmurtia- The population of the Udmurt Republic, as of October 14, 2010, was 1,521,420 people. Udmurtia ranks 29th in terms of population among the subjects of the Russian Federation. According to preliminary results, for the first time in ... ... Wikipedia
Lands of the Loire- (Western Loire, Loire District, Pays de la Loire, fr. Pays de la Loire) a region in western France (see France), includes the departments of Mayenne, Sarthe, Maine and Loire, Atlantic Loire and Vendée. The region is located in the lower reaches of the Loire and on the coast ... ... Geographic Encyclopedia
Population of Trinidad and Tobago- very diverse in composition, which reflects the history of the country's development. As of July 2008, the state's population was estimated at 1,231,323. Contents 1 Demographic history ... Wikipedia
Population. Economically active population- The economically active population of Latin American countries includes all employed, unemployed and job seekers for the first time (the working-age population, in accordance with conventionally established age limits, in Latin America ... ...
Population. Urbanization- Cities created before European colonization were destroyed in the process. The cities founded by the Spaniards and the Portuguese had mainly administrative, military, commercial and religious functions. By 1900 in Latin America in cities ... ... Encyclopedic reference book "Latin America"
Books
- The population of the steppe interfluve between the Danube and the Dniester at the end of the 8th - beginning of the 11th centuries A.D. e. Balkan-Danubian culture, V. I. Kozlov. The book summarizes information about the Balkan-Danubian archaeological culture in the steppe interfluve of the Danube and the Dniester, the carriers of which are directly connected with the history of the early medieval Bulgarian ... Buy for 1555 rubles
- The population of rural communities and the amount of arable allotment land they have,. The population of rural communities and the amount of arable allotment land they have according to an 1893 survey of rural communities in 46 provinces of European Russia. Temporary of the Central Statistical…
Planet Earth is home to many living beings, the main of which is man.
How many people inhabit the planet
The world population today is almost seven and a half billion people. The peak value of its growth was noted in 1963. Currently, the governments of some countries are pursuing a restrictive demographic policy, while others are trying to stimulate an increase in the number of people within their borders. However, the general population of the Earth is aging. Young people do not seek to reproduce offspring. The population of planet Earth today has an unnatural bias towards the elderly. This feature will complicate the financial support of pensioners.
According to scientists, by the end of the twenty-first century, the world's population will exchange the eleventh billion.
Where do most people live
In 2009, a wake-up call sounded. The population of the world living in cities has become equal in size to the number of people in villages and rural areas. The reasons for this movement of labor are simple. The people of the world strive for convenience and wealth. Wages in cities are higher and life is easier. Everything will change when the urban population of the world experiences food shortages. Many will be forced to relocate to the provinces, closer to the land.
The world population table is presented as follows: in fifteen countries there are almost five billion people. In total, there are more than two hundred states on our planet.
Most populous countries
The world population can be presented in the form of a table. In this case, the most densely populated countries will be indicated.
Population |
||
Indonesia | ||
Brazil | ||
Pakistan | ||
Bangladesh | ||
Russian Federation | ||
Philippines | ||
Most populous cities
The world population map today already has three cities, the population of which has exceeded twenty million people. Shanghai is one of the largest cities in China, which stands on the Yangtze River. Karachi is a port city in Pakistan. Closes the top three of the Chinese capital - Beijing.
In terms of population density, the main city of the Philippines, Manila, holds the palm. The world population map reports that in some areas this figure reaches seventy thousand people per square kilometer! The infrastructure does not cope well with such an influx of residents. For example: in Moscow, this figure does not exceed five thousand people per square kilometer.
Also, the list of cities with a very high population density includes Indian Mumbai (this settlement was previously called Bombay), the capital of France - Paris, the Chinese autonomy of Macau, the dwarf state of Monaco, the heart of Catalonia - Barcelona, and also Dhaka (Bangladesh), the city-state of Singapore , Tokyo (Japan), and the previously mentioned Shanghai.
Population growth statistics by period
Despite the fact that humanity appeared more than three hundred years ago, for a long time its development was extremely slow. Short life expectancy and extremely difficult conditions affected.
Mankind exchanged the first billion only at the beginning of the nineteenth century, in 1820. A little more than a hundred years passed, and in 1927 the newspapers trumpeted the good news about the second billion earthlings. Just 33 years later, in 1960, they talked about a third.
From this period, scientists began to seriously worry about the boom in the growth of the world's population. But this did not prevent the four billionth inhabitant of the planet from joyfully announcing his appearance in 1974. In 1987, the account went to five billion. The six billionth earthling was born closer to the millennium, at the end of 1999. In less than twelve years, we have become a billion more. At current birth rates, no later than the end of the first quarter of this century, the name of the eight billionth person will appear in the newspapers.
Such impressive successes have been achieved primarily due to a significant reduction in bloody wars that claim millions of lives. Many dangerous diseases were defeated, medicine has learned to significantly prolong the life of people.
Consequences
Until the nineteenth century, people had little interest in the population of the world. The term "demography" was introduced only in 1855.
At the moment, the problem is becoming more and more threatening.
In the seventeenth century, it was believed that four billion people could live comfortably on our planet. As real life shows, this figure is significantly underestimated. The current seven and a half billion, with a reasonable distribution of resources, feel relatively comfortable.
Potential settlement opportunities are possible in Australia, Canada, in desert areas. This will require certain forces for improvement, but theoretically it is real.
If we take into account exclusively territorial possibilities, then up to one and a half quadrillion people can be settled on the planet! This is a huge number, which contains fifteen zeros!
But the use of resources and the rapid heating of the atmosphere will very quickly change the climate so much that the planet will become lifeless.
The maximum number of inhabitants on Earth (with moderate requests) should not exceed twelve billion. This figure is taken from food supply calculations. As the population grows, more resources need to be obtained. To do this, we should use more areas for sowing, increase the number of livestock, and save water resources.
But if food problems can be solved relatively quickly, thanks to genetic technologies, then organizing the consumption of clean drinking water is a much more complex and costly undertaking.
In addition, humanity must move to the use of renewable energy sources - wind, sun, earth and water energy.
Forecasts
The Chinese authorities have been trying to solve the problem of overpopulation for decades. For a long time there was a program allowing the appearance of no more than one child in the family. In addition, a powerful information campaign was carried out among the population.
Today we can say that the Chinese succeeded in everything. Population growth has stabilized and is projected to decrease. Not the last role was played by the growth factor in the well-being of the inhabitants of the PRC.
As for the poor in India, Indonesia, Nigeria, the prospects are far from rosy. In thirty years, China may lose the "palm" in the demographic issue. The population of India by 2050 may exceed one and a half billion people!
Population growth will only worsen the economic problems of poor nations.
Conducted programs
For a long time people were forced to have a large number of children. Housekeeping required huge forces, and it was impossible to cope alone.
Pension security can help solve the problem of overpopulation.
Also, a well-thought-out social policy and reasonable family planning, as well as an increase in the economic and social status of the beautiful half of humanity, and an increase in the level of education in general, become possible ways to solve the demographic issue.
Conclusion
It is very important to love yourself and your loved ones. But do not forget that the planet on which we live is our common home, which must be treated with respect.
Already today it is worth moderating your needs and thinking about planning so that our descendants can live on the planet as comfortably as we do.
In the spring of this year, American demographers calculated the growth rate of the earth's population, starting with the first representative of Homo sapiens. The figure turned out to be impressive: 108 billion.
Journalist and director Paul Ratner shot a short video about the study and described its results in a portal "Big Think ".
Many take it for granted that we live in a unique time - at the cutting edge of history. But one has only to think how many people have already lived on the planet, and there is no trace of our arrogance. And the main question is not even how many people lived, but how many died.
As of 2015, demographers from the Population Data Bureau, a Washington-based NGO, estimate the total human population of the earth at 108.2 billion. If we subtract the roughly 7.4 billion who trample the planet today, we get 100.8 billion earthlings who died before us.
So, the dead are almost 14 times more than the living! It would be an impressive army of zombies, ghosts or White Walkers from the Game of Thrones. If you consider yourself an optimist, then you can consider that your contemporaries are about 6.8% of all who have ever lived in the world. For the sake of simplicity (and to account for people born in the last year), let's round the figure up to 7%. We are 7%. Let's not lose face!
How did scientists get this result? There is a demographic report on the Washington Bureau website. It says that the starting point was the fifty-thousandth year before the birth of Christ. It is then that modern Homo sapiens are believed to have appeared. The dating can be disputed: early hominins walked the Earth already millions of years ago. But 50,000 BC is the date the United Nations uses to calculate population trends.
Of course, no one knows exactly how many people have been born since then. The estimate is based on "informed speculation". Experts take into account many factors, such as high mortality in the early stages of the evolution of our species (during the Iron Age, the average life expectancy was 10 years), the lack of medicines and food, climate change, and much more. When all this is taken into account, it is not surprising that the population of the planet has grown so slowly. In our ancestors, infant mortality could reach 500 cases per 1000 births.
The organization's specialists have collected all their data on population growth rates in one table.
Population growth rate from 50,000 BC to 2011; also shows the number of births per thousand people and the total number of births between each two marks
Interestingly, the rate of growth slows down between the beginning of our era and 1650. In the Middle Ages, a plague epidemic raged in Europe - the Black Death. Also noticeable is the population explosion after the industrial revolution. For a century and a half since 1850, the world's population has increased by about 6 times!