World Population Growth History Chart

History Summaries
Human Population

World Population Growth History

Here is a summary of World Population Growth history from 10,000 B.C. to the present (2012), and projected world population growth from the present (2012) to 2050 A.D.

World Population Growth - Historical Chart
Projected World Population Estimates
Time to Reach Each Billion

top of page World Population Growth History Chart
. The total number of humans that have ever lived has been estimated at 110 billion. Approximately 6% of all those people are alive today (~7 billion). .									New Data Accord. to 2011 Nation. Geogr. TV Progr.
Date		Africa plus Madagascar	Asia plus USSR / Mideast	Europe	North America Canada US Mexico Carrib.	South America plus Central America	Oceania plus Australia New Zealand Philippines	Total (millions)	New Data Accord. to 2011 Nation. Geogr. TV Progr.
10,000 B.C.	5,000 year increments							1
5,000 B.C.	5,000 year increments							5
2,000 B.C.	1,000 year increments							27
1,000 B.C.	1,000 year increments							50
0 A.D.	500 year increments							200
500 A.D.								300
1000 A.D.								400
1500 A.D.								500
1650 A.D.	50 year increments		327	103	0.5	12	2	600	500
1750 A.D.			475	144	3	11	2	750
1800 A.D.			597	192	5.3	19	2	900
1810	10 year increments				7.2			1,000
1820					9.6
1830					13				1 B
1840					17
1850			741	274	23	33	2	1,171
1860					31
1870					39
1880					50
1890					63
1900			915	423	76	63	6	1,608
1910					92
1920			997	485	105.7	92		1,834
1930			1,069	530	122.7	110		2,008	2 B
1940			1,173	579	131.7	132		2,216
1950			1,272	594	150.7	162	12	2,406
1960			1,665	641	178.5	208		2,972
1970								3,700
1980		470	2,601	484*	372	242	23	4,400
1990								5,100
1997	7 years	750	3,477	508*	464	329	29	5,852
2000	3 years	803	3,686	729	487	348	30	6,080
2005	5 years	891	3,913	729	512	371	32	6,450
. 2005 Pop. Distribution		13.8%	60.7%	11.3%	7.9%	5.7%	0.5%	99.0%
*Missing data for Russsia explains the 5% or so difference in the total. . .
top of page Projected Population Estimates
		. Africa	Asia	Europe*	N.A.	S.A.	O. +Aus.	Total	Nat. Geo.
2005	5 year increments	891	3,913	729	512	371	32	6.45
2010	5 year increments							6.8
2011	1 year increments							7.00	7 B
2012								7.05
2013								7.10
2014								7.15
2015	5 year increments							7.2
2020								7.6
2025		1,327	4,753	711	618	447	39	7.89
2030								8.2
2035								8.5
2040								8.8
2045								9.4	9 B
2050		2,050	6,109	458*	720	475	43	9.85	10.5 B
. Estimated 2050 Pop. Distribution		20.8%	62.0%	4.6%	7.3%	4.8%	0.4%	99%	-
* The data for Europe includes all of Russsia, except for 2050. .
80 - 530	50	50	50	50	50	50	50	50	50

top of page Time to Get to Each Billion
	Billions of People On Earth	Year	Time Span
	1	1830	50,000 years
	2	1930	100 years
	3	1960	30 years
	4	1975	15 years
	5	1989	14 years
	6	1999	10 years
	7	2011	12 years	The recent rate of increase has slowed due to diminishing birth rates.
	8	2025	14 years
	9	2045	20 years
	. What could intervene? 1. Starvation - Can the world feed 8 billion people? Some say no. 2. Disease Epidemic 3. Nuclear winter - nuclear war, comet, or asteroid 4. Birth rate change 5. The Earth's poles flip 6. The Apocalypse Read "The Population Bomb" by Paul - nuclear war or comet in 1968.
30	70 - 450	60	120	130

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Disclaimer: Source: US Department of Commerce, plus other research.
There are many estimates of population for various time periods.
The reporting categories change over time, introducing discrepancies that must be resolved.
I have selected the numbers which are the most consistent among experts in the demographics field.

This Vaughns World Population Growth History Table
was last updated on 2012-06-15.