What is the world population?
Historic growth of world population
1000 years BCE the world population was 50 million people. 500 years BCE it was 100 million, and in the year 0 around 200 million people were estimated to live on Earth. After the Great Famine of 1315–17 and the Black Death in 1350, the world population was around 370 million people and around 1800 it reached 1 billion.
World population by the billions
The modern human has existed for over 300,000 years. But it took just 200 years to go from 1 to 7 billion people. Going from 7 to 10 billion is expected to take another 45 years. You are one in a hundred billion
Ever wondered how many humans have lived on Earth? The answer can only be a rough approximation of course but according to most estimates around 100 billion people have existed since the first modern Homo sapiens in Africa about 315,000 years ago.
Population growth scenarios
The United Nations works with three different scenarios for population growth: Low, medium, and high. The most likely scenario (medium variant) predicts that world population will grow to 8.5 billion in 2030, 9.7 billion in 2050 and 10.9 billion by 2100. TheWorldCounts uses the medium variant unless specified otherwise.You are one in a hundred billion
Ever wondered how many humans have lived on Earth? The answer can only be a rough approximation of course but according to most estimates around 100 billion people have existed since the first modern Homo sapiens in Africa about 315,000 years ago.
Population growth scenarios
The United Nations works with three different scenarios for population growth: Low, medium, and high. The most likely scenario (medium variant) predicts that world population will grow to 8.5 billion in 2030, 9.7 billion in 2050 and 10.9 billion by 2100. TheWorldCounts uses the medium variant unless specified otherwise.
Less likely (but possible) growth scenarios
In the high-growth scenarium world population is projected to reach over 15 billion in 2100 while in the low-growth scenarium world population will start decreasing around 2055 with an estimated global population of 7.3 billion in 2100. Currently, the world population is growing by about 80 million people each year.
Uneven regional growth
The projected population growth is very unevenly distributed between world regions with most of the growth taking place in Africa and Asia. The population of Africa is expected to double between 2016 and 2050 making it by far the region with the fastest growing population in the world. Asia is expected to add another 800 million people to its population between 2016 and 2050 while the population of Europe will remain constant while North and South America will see moderate increases.
Lifespan of the human population
Between 2005 and 2015 the global average life expectancy rose 3.6 years and is now 70.8 years. Life expectancy went up in all regions with the biggest increase in Africa of 6.6 years. However, with 60.2 years, Africa still has a low life expectancy compared to 71.8 in Asia, 74.6 in Latin America, 77.2 in Europe, 77.9 in Oceania and 79.2 in North America.
Historical life expectancy
- In prehistoric times and even as late as 1900, the average life expectancy was around 30 years. The “boom” in the human lifespan has contributed significantly to the explosive growth of the world population.
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