Is there an estimate of how many humans have lived in the past 200,000 years?

Question

I don't mean current population.  I would like a cumulative estimate for the past 200,000 years or the past 5,000 years.

Super Nova · Accepted Answer

40% that have lived on Earth are living today, so that would 17 billion people out of what I estimate. The population in past history has been more smaller than today's.

x__SNOFEE__x · Answer

Lots

xxx

Loren S · Answer

this is the best i can come up with hope it helps:

Estimated world population at various dates (in thousands) Year World Africa Asia Europe Latin America * Northern America* Oceania Notes

70,000 BC 2 [7]

10,000 BC 1,000

9000 BC 3,000

8000 BC 5,000 [8]

7000 BC 7,000

6000 BC 10,000

5000 BC 15,000

4000 BC 20,000

3000 BC 25,000

2000 BC 35,000

1000 BC 50,000 [8]

500 BC 100,000 [8]

1 200,000 [9]

1000 310,000

1750 791,000 106,000 502,000 163,000 16,000 2,000 2,000

1800 978,000 107,000 635,000 203,000 24,000 7,000 2,000

1850 1,262,000 111,000 809,000 276,000 38,000 26,000 2,000

1900 1,650,000 133,000 947,000 408,000 74,000 82,000 6,000

1950 2,518,629 221,214 1,398,488 547,403 167,097 171,616 12,812

1955 2,755,823 246,746 1,541,947 575,184 190,797 186,884 14,265

1960 2,981,659 277,398 1,674,336 601,401 209,303 204,152 15,888

1965 3,334,874 313,744 1,899,424 634,026 250,452 219,570 17,657

1970 3,692,492 357,283 2,143,118 655,855 284,856 231,937 19,443

1975 4,068,109 408,160 2,397,512 675,542 321,906 243,425 21,564

1980 4,434,682 469,618 2,632,335 692,431 361,401 256,068 22,828

1985 4,830,979 541,814 2,887,552 706,009 401,469 269,456 24,678

1990 5,263,593 622,443 3,167,807 721,582 441,525 283,549 26,687

1995 5,674,380 707,462 3,430,052 727,405 481,099 299,438 28,924

2000 6,070,581 795,671 3,679,737 727,986 520,229 315,915 31,043

2005 6,453,628 887,964 3,917,508 724,722 558,281 332,156 32,998**

Year World Africa Asia Europe Latin America * Northern America* Oceania Notes

* Northern America indicates the northern countries and territories of North America: Canada, the United States, Greenland, Bermuda, and St. Pierre and Miquelon. This should not be confused with the term "North America" which typically includes Mexico. The United Nations data includes Mexico as part of Latin America.

** This figure is disputed.

[edit] Rate of increase

Main article: Population growth

Population evolution in different continents. The vertical axis is logarithmic and is millions of people.

Different regions have different rates of population growth. According to the above table, the growth in population of the different regions from 2000 to 2005 was:

237.771 million in Asia

92.293 million in Africa

38.052 million in Latin America

16.241 million in Northern America

1.955 million in Oceania

-3.264 million in Europe

383.047 million in the whole world

In the unusual case of the 20th century, the world saw the biggest increase in its population in human history due to medical advances and massive increase in agricultural productivity made by the Green Revolution.

In 2000, the United Nations estimated that the world's population was then growing at the rate of 1.14% (or about 75 million people) per year,[10] down from a peak of 86 million per year in 1987. In the last few centuries, the number of people living on Earth has increased many times over. By the year 2000, there were 10 times as many people on Earth as there were 300 years ago. According to data from the CIA's 2005–2006 World Factbooks, the world human population increased by 203,800 every day.[11] The 2007 CIA factbook increased this to 211,090 people every day.

Globally, the population growth rate has been steadily declining from its peak of 2.19% in 1963, but growth remains high in the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa.[12]

In some countries there is negative population growth (i.e. net decrease in population over time), especially in Central and Eastern Europe (mainly due to low fertility rates) and Southern Africa (due to the high number of HIV-related deaths). Within the next decade, Japan and some countries in Western Europe are also expected to encounter negative population growth due to sub-replacement fertility rates.

Population growth which exceeds the carrying capacity of an area or environment results in overpopulation. Conversely, such areas may be considered "underpopulated" if the population is not large enough to maintain an economic system; however, many who do not view overpopulation as a serious problem fail to consider the sustainability of economic systems, the environmental degradation caused, and the ecological footprint of the existing population.

The United Nations states that population growth is rapidly declining due to the demographic transition. The world population is expected to peak at 9200 million in 2075. [2]

Population (est.) 10,000 BC – 2000 AD.

Population (est.) in log y scale

World population 1950–2000

Increase rate 1950–2000

[edit] Milestones

World population estimates milestones . Population (in billions) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Year 1804 1927 1961 1974 1987 1999 2011 2024 2042

Years elapsed 123 34 13 13 12 12 13 18

These numbers show that the world's population has tripled in 72 years, and doubled in 38 years up to the year 1999. Including some more estimates, the world population has been doubled or will double in the following years (with two different starting points). Note how, during the 2nd millennium, each doubling has taken roughly half as long as the previous doubling.

Starting at 250 millions Starting at 375 millions

Population

(in billions) 0.25 0.5 1 2 4 8 0.375 0.75 1.5 3 6

Year 950 1600 1804 1927 1974 2024 1420 1720 1875 1961 1999

Years elapsed 650 204 123 47 50 300 155 86 38

[edit] Population distribution

Population density map of the world in 1994, when the world's population was at 5600 million; Observe the high densities in the Indo-Gangetic and North China Plains, the Sichuan Basin, the Nile river delta, Southern Japan, Western Europe, the Indonesian island of Java, Central America (especially El Salvador, the Americas' most densely populated nation), and the United States' BosWash megalopolis.

Asia accounts for over 60% of the world population with almost 3800 million people. The People's Republic of China and India alone comprise 20% and 17% respectively. Africa follows with 840 million people, 12% of the world population. Europe's 710 million people make up 11% of the world's population. North America is home to 514 million (8%), South America to 371 million (5.3%), and Australia 21 million.

[edit] The 15 most populous nations

The 15 most populous nations

Approximately 4300 million people live in these 15 countries, representing roughly two-thirds of the world's population. If added together, all nations in the European Union, with 494 million people – about 7.3% of world's population in 2006 – would be third in the list below.

Country[13] Population

(millions) Percentage

(of world)

China 1,321 19.84%

India 1,132 16.96%

United States 304 4.56%

Indonesia 232 3.47%

Brazil 187 2.80%

Pakistan 163 2.44%

Bangladesh 159 2.38%

Nigeria 148 2.22%

Russia 142 2.13%

Japan 128 1.92%

Mexico 107 1.60%

Philippines 89 1.33%

Vietnam 84 1.31%

Germany 82 1.23%

Egypt 81 1.13%

Total 4,356 65.32%

Population by region, 2007

[edit] Ethnicity

Main article: List of ethnic groups

The world is made up of hundreds of thousands of ethnic groups, and due to mass migration across the planet over millennia, it is impossible to tell how many people belonging to a certain ethnic group inhabit the earth. The single largest ethnic group on the planet by far is Han Chinese, which represents 19.73% of the global population. For comparison 6.06% of the planet's population is of full or partial Spanish ancestry, and on a wider scale 14.2% of earth's population is of Sub-Saharan descent (those identifying as 'Black').

[edit] Demographics of youth

According to the 2006 CIA World Factbook, around 27% of the world's population is below 15 years of age.[14]

Before adding mortality rates, the 1990s saw the greatest number of raw births worldwide, especially in the years after 1995, despite the fact that the birth rate was not as high as in the 1960s. In fact, because of the 160 million-per-year raw births after 1995, the time it took to reach the next 109 reached its fastest pace (only 12 years), as world population reached 6000 million people in 1999, when at the beginning of the decade, the reaching was designated for the year 2000, by most demographers. People aged 7 through 17 make up these births, today.

1985–1990 marked the period with the fastest yearly population change in world history. Even though the early 1960s had a greater growth rate than in the mid and late 1980s, the population change hovered around 83 million people in the five-year period, with an all-time growth change of nearly 88 million in 1990. The reason is because the world's population was greater in the mid and late 1980s (around 5 billion) than in the early 1960s (around 3 billion), which meant that the growth rate in the 1980s was no factor on the dramatic population change. People aged 17 to 22 make up these births, today.

[edit] Forecast of world population

Main article: World population estimates

See also: Overpopulation

U.S. Census Bureau estimates[15] Year Population

(in billions)

2010 6.9

2020 7.7

2030 8.4

2040 9.0

2050 9.5

In the long run, the future population growth of the world is difficult to predict. Birth rates are declining slightly on average, but vary greatly between developed countries (where birth rates are often at or below replacement levels), developing countries, and different ethnicities. Death rates can change unexpectedly due to disease, wars and catastrophes, or advances in medicine. The UN itself has issued multiple projections of future world population, based on different assumptions. Over the last 10 years, the UN had consistently revised these projections downward, until the 2006 revision issued March 14, 2007 revised the 2050 mid range estimate upwards by 273 million.

Alternately, the United States Census Bureau issued a revised forecast for world population that increased its projection for the year 2050 to above 9.4 billion people (which was the UN's 1996 projection for 2050), up from 9.1 billion people. A new United States Census bureau revision from June 18, 2008 has increased its projections further, to beyond 9.5 billion in 2050.

Other projections of population growth predict that the world's population will eventually crest, though it is uncertain exactly when or how. In some scenarios, the population will crest as early as the mid-21st century at under 9 billion, due to gradually decreasing birth rates, (the "low variant" of [3]), The "high variant" from the same source gives a population between 10 and 11 billion in 2050.

In other scenarios, disasters triggered by the growing population's demand for scarce resources will eventually lead to a sudden population crash, or even a Malthusian catastrophe (also see overpopulation and food security).

UN estimates (in thousands).[3][16][5] Year World Africa Asia Europe Latin America US and Canada Oceania

2010 6,830,283 984,225 (14.4%) 4,148,948 (60.7%) 719,714 (10.5%) 594,436 (8.7%) 348,139 (5.1%) 34,821 (0.5%)

2015 7,197,247 1,084,540 (15.1%) 4,370,522 (60.7%) 713,402 (9.9%) 628,260 (8.7%) 363,953 (5.1%) 36,569 (0.5%)

2020 7,540,237 1,187,584 (15.7%) 4,570,131 (60.6%) 705,410 (9.4%) 659,248 (8.7%) 379,589 (5.0%) 38,275 (0.5%)

2025 7,851,455 1,292,085 (16.5%) 4,742,232 (60.4%) 696,036 (8.9%) 686,857 (8.7%) 394,312 (5.0%) 39,933 (0.5%)

2030 8,130,149 1,398,004 (17.2%) 4,886,647 (60.1%) 685,440 (8.4%) 711,058 (8.7%) 407,532 (5.0%) 41,468 (0.5%)

2035 8,378,184 1,504,179 (18.0%) 5,006,700 (59.8%) 673,638 (8.0%) 731,591 (8.7%) 419,273 (5.0%) 42,803 (0.5%)

2040 8,593,591 1,608,329 (18.7%) 5,103,021 (59.4%) 660,645 (8.0%) 747,953 (8.7%) 429,706 (5.0%) 43,938 (0.5%)

2045 8,774,394 1,708,407 (19.5%) 5,175,311 (59.0%) 646,630 (7.4%) 759,955 (8.7%) 439,163 (5.0%) 44,929 (0.5%)

2050 8,918,724 1,803,298 (20.2%) 5,217,202 (58.5%) 653,323 (7.3%) 767,685 (8.6%) 447,931 (5.0%) 45,815 (0.5%)

[edit] Predictions based on our growing population

In 1798 Thomas Malthus incorrectly predicted that population growth would outrun food supply by the middle of the 19th century. In 1968 Paul R. Ehrlich reprised this argument in The Population Bomb, predicting famine in the 1970s and 1980s. The dire predictions of Ehrlich and other neo-Malthusians were vigorously challenged by a number of economists, notably Julian Simon. Agricultural research, already under way such as the green revolution, led to dramatic improvements in crop yields. Food production has kept pace with population growth, but Malthusians point out the green revolution relies heavily on petroleum-based fertilizers, and that many crops have become so genetically uniform a crop failure would be very widespread. Food prices in the early 21st century are rising sharply on a global scale with serious malnutrition spreading widely in step.[17]

On the opposite end of the spectrum there are a number of people who argue that today's low fertility rates in Europe, North America, Japan and Australia, combined with mass immigration, will have severe negative consequences for these countries.[18]

Child poverty has been linked to people having children before they have the means to care for them.[19] More recently, some scholars have put forward the Doomsday argument applying Bayesian probability to world population to argue that the end of humanity will come sooner than we usually think.[20]

It should be noted that between 1950 and 1984, as the Green Revolution transformed agriculture around the globe, world grain production increased by 250%. The energy for the Green Revolution was provided by fossil fuels in the form of fertilizers (natural gas), pesticides (oil), and hydrocarbon fueled irrigation.[21] The peaking of world hydrocarbon production (Peak oil) may test Malthus and Ehrlich critics.[22][23] As of May 2008, increased farming for use in biofuels,[24] world oil prices at over $140 a barrel,[25] global population growth,[26] climate change,[27] loss of agricultural land to residential and industrial development,[28][29] and growing consumer demand in China and India[30] have pushed up the price of grain.[31] Food riots have recently taken place in many countries across the world.[32][33][34]

The world population has grown by about four billion since the beginning of the Green Revolution and most believe that, without the Revolution, there would be greater famine and malnutrition than the UN presently documents (approximately 850 million people suffering from chronic malnutrition in 2005).[35]

[edit] Number of humans who have ever lived

An estimate of the total number of people who have ever lived was prepared by Carl Haub of the Population Reference Bureau in 1995 and subsequently updated in 2002; the updated figure was approximately 106 billion.[36][37] Haub characterized this figure as a "guesstimate" which required "selecting population sizes for different points from antiquity to the present and applying assumed birth rates to each period".[37] Given an estimated global population of 6.2 billion in 2002, it could be inferred that about 6% of all people who had ever existed were alive in 2002.[36]

Other estimates of the total number of people who have ever lived range approximately from 45 billion to 125 billion, with the more robust of these falling in the 90–110 billion range.[citation needed]. It is difficult to estimate for the following reasons:[citation needed]

* The set of specific characteristics which define a human being and distinguish early Homo sapiens from earlier or related species continues to be a subject of intense research and debate. It is thus not possible to know when to begin the count, nor which hominids to include.

* Even if the scientific community reached wide consensus regarding which characteristics distinguished human beings, it would be nearly impossible to pinpoint the time of their first appearance to even the nearest millennium because the fossil record is simply too sparse. Only a few thousand fossils of early humans have been found, most no bigger than a tooth or a knucklebone. These bone fragments are used to extrapolate the population distribution of millions of early human beings spread across the continents.

* Robust statistical data only exist for the last two or three centuries. Until the late 18th century, few nations, kingdoms, or empires had ever performed an accurate census. In many early attempts, the focus was on counting merely a subset of the people for purposes of taxation or military service[citation needed]. Even with the advent of agencies such as the United States Bureau of the Census, reliable census methods and technologies continue to evolve. All estimates of population sizes preceding the 18th century are estimates, and thus the margin of error for the total number of humans who have ever lived should be in the billions, or even tens of billions of people.

[edit] Further resources

* There is a map that is rescaled in order to display every country according to its population size. It is available at the University of Sheffield 'Worldmapper'[3] site.[38]

* Population patterns and trends can be explored on the GeoHive interactive world atlas.[39]

[edit] References

1. ^ World Population Clock - Worldometers

2. ^ International Data Base (IDB) - World Population

3. ^ a b c World population prospects: the 2004 revision population database

4. ^ The World at un.org

5. ^ a b Population Growth over Human History

6. ^ UN report 2004 data

7. ^ Humans lived in tiny, separate bands for 100,000 years

8. ^ a b c an average of figures from different sources as listed at the US Census Bureau's Historical Estimates of World Population; see also *Kremer, Michael. 1993. "Population Growth and Technological Change: One Million B.C. to 1990," The Quarterly Journal of Economics 108(3): 681-716.

9. ^ The range of figures from different sources as listed at the US Census Bureau's Historical Estimates of World Population put the population at 1 AD between 170 million to 400 million.

10. ^ census.gov

11. ^ Current world population (ranked)

12. ^ Ron Nielsen, The little green handbook, Picador, New York (2006) ISBN 0-312-42581-3

13. ^ From DSW-Datareport 2006 ("Deutsche Stiftung WeltbevÃ¶lkerung")

14. ^ Age structure of the world – 2006 CIA World Factbook

15. ^ U.S. Census Bureau - International Data Base (IDB)

16. ^ The World at Six Billion

17. ^ BBC NEWS | World | Assessing the global food crisis

18. ^ The Death of the West: How Dying Populations and Immigrant Invasions Imperil Our Country and Civilization (ISBN 0-312-30259-3), by Patrick Buchanan, The Empty Cradle: How Falling Birthrates Threaten World Prosperity (ISBN 0-465-05050-6), by Longman, and Fewer: How the New Demography of Depopulation Will Shape Our Future (ISBN 1-56663-606-X), by Wattenberg

19. ^ Population bomb still ticking away - 20 Mar 2007 - NZ Herald

20. ^ DIE OFF - a population crash resource page

21. ^ Eating Fossil Fuels |EnergyBulletin.net

22. ^ Peak Oil: the threat to our food security

23. ^ Peak Oil And Famine:Four Billion Deaths

24. ^ 2008: The year of global food crisis

25. ^ The global grain bubble

26. ^ Food crisis will take hold before climate change, warns chief scientist

27. ^ Global food crisis looms as climate change and fuel shortages bite

28. ^ Experts: Global Food Shortages Could ‘Continue for Decades'

29. ^ Has Urbanization Caused a Loss to Agricultural Land?

30. ^ The World's Growing Food-Price Crisis

31. ^ The cost of food: Facts and figures

32. ^ Riots and hunger feared as demand for grain sends food costs soaring

33. ^ Already we have riots, hoarding, panic: the sign of things to come?

34. ^ Feed the world? We are fighting a losing battle, UN admits

35. ^ The limits of a Green Revolution?

36. ^ a b Curtin, Ciara (2007-03-01), "Fact or Fiction?: Living People Outnumber the Dead", Scientific American (Scientific American, Inc.) 297(3): 126, September 2007, <http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=fact-or-fictio... Retrieved on 4 August 2008 Note: text of paper publication slightly different than text of on-line publication

37. ^ a b Haub, Carl (November/December 2002), "How Many People Have Ever Lived on Earth?", Population Today (Population Reference Bureau) 30(8): 3–4, <http://www.prb.org/pdf/PT_novdec02.pdf%3E. Retrieved on 4 August 2008

38. ^ [1], University of Sheffield 'Worldmapper' site

39. ^ Global Statistics interactive atlas, www.GeoHive.com

[edit] See also

* Birth control

* Depopulation

* Doomsday argument

* End of civilization

* Family planning

* Food security

* Green Revolution

* Life expectancy

* List of religious populations

* List of countries by population

* List of countries by population density

* List of countries by population growth rate

* List of countries by fertility rate

* Literacy (correlated with population growth)

* List of famines

* Medieval demography

* Megacity

* One child policy

* Overpopulation

* Population control

* Population growth

* Population Reference Bureau

* The Day of Six Billion

* World largest cities

* World population estimates

* 2007–2008 world food price crisis

[edit] External links

* Year-by-Year World Population Estimates: 10,000 B.C. to 2007 A.D.

* World Population

* The Population Project

* Optimum Population Trust

* State of World Population 2007 report 27 June, 2007 - United Nations Population Fund

* World Population Day United Nations: 11 July

* The Day of 6 Billion official homepage

* World Population Prospects. URL accessed on April 7, 2005.

* World Population Counter

* Trend of growth rate with total global population

* The World in Balance Transcript of two-part PBS' Nova on World Population

* BBC (1999). UN chief welcomes six billionth baby. URL accessed on March 7, 2005.

* Central Intelligence Agency (2004). CIA The World Factbook 2004. URL accessed on February 13, 2005.

* United Nations (2001). United Nations Population Information Network. URL accessed on February 13, 2005.

* United States Census Bureau (2004). Historical Estimates of World Population. URL accessed on February 13, 2005.

* PopulationData.net (2005). PopulationData.net - Information and maps about populations around the world.

* GeoHive GeoHive.com - World Statistics including population and future predictions.

* Population Reference Bureau www.prb.org - News and issues related to population.

* (French) World Population Clock (2005). WorldPopClock.com - World population clock.

* Population Counter. Real time counter..

* Population Information on population, population growth, population problems, population statistics, and population figures.

* World maps, including maps of population from Year 1 to Year 2300

* Live World Population

* World Population from the US Census Bureau in an interactive Excel dashboard

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Topics on human expansion and overpopulation

Major articles

World population Â· Family planning Â· Green revolution Â· Over-consumption (water crisis) Â· Reproductive rights Â· Sustainable development

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Literary works

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Is there an estimate of how many humans have lived in the past 200,000 years?

3 Answers