In 2009, world population is close on 6.8 billion humans and rising, with total
births outstripping deaths.

For most of history, we lived as hunter-gatherers, and population probably
stayed under about 10 million.

When we discovered agriculture, numbers started to climb, but slowly and
steadily. With the agricultural revolution in the 1700s and the industrial
revolution in the 1800s, increased production of food and other basic
necessities allowed population growth to pick up pace. By 1800 we were at
1 billion humans.

The 20th century saw medical advances and better food production bring down
the death rate, with further population acceleration. The really dramatic surge in numbers occurred after about 1945, when population began doubling every few decades: we entered the 20th century with 1.6 billion people and left it with
6.1 billion.

The growth rate peaked in latter decades of the 20th century, and now birth rates
are dropping again.

This means world population will continue to grow (albeit more slowly) for most
of the 21st century - by its final decades we could be levelling off at over 10 billion.

Read more:
Closing in on 6.8 billion

Advertisement

 

Print this article

Rate this article Poor 1 2 3 4 5 Excellent