2 Answers

  1. Scientists from the non-profit organization “Bureau of Population” (Washington, DC), set out to calculate the number of people who lived on our planet for the entire history. According to representatives of the bureau, their help center is often called with this question.

    Demographers of the organization presented, in their words, a “semi-scientific” method of calculation. The results of the study are approximate for the banal reason that ” there is a complete lack of demographic data for the period of 99% of human existence.” For the calculation, the researchers needed to take into account how long people live on Earth, as well as determine the average size of the world's population at different times. Although there is no exact data on when the first Homo Sapiens appeared, the starting point was taken approximately 50,000 BC, as is customary for UN experts. Then, based on birth rates and life expectancy at different time periods, it was roughly calculated how many people lived on the planet at any given time. When determining the constant level of population growth was taken into account, which completely excludes the influence of factors such as famine, climate change, etc.So, experts believe that in 5000 BC on Earth lived 5 million people, in 1 AD – 300 million, while the number of births was 80 per 1000 people. Since that time, the birth rate began to fall, but the population grew due to the increase in life expectancy. In 1650, the number of people reached 0.5 billion, and 200 years later it was already 1.265 billion. At the beginning of the 20th century, the world's population was 1.656 billion, in 1950-2.516 billion, in 1995-5.76 billion, and recently a 7-millard resident was born. Interestingly, by 1 BC, almost 46 billion people were born and died on our planet, according to demographers of the organization. In general, over the entire history of mankind, more than 107 billion representatives of Homo Sapiens were born. Thus, today 6.5% of all people born in the history of mankind live on Earth.

    The original news is available in the online magazine “iScience” (iScience.ru): http://iscience.ru/2012/02/09/za-vse-vremya-bylo-rozhdeno-bolee-107-milliardov-chelovek/

  2. You won't find the exact figure, of course.
    In Oleg Ivik's book “The History of the Afterlife” in the chapter “General demographic and historical overview” there is an approximate figure for 2009-from 60 to 100 billion people.
    The book, by the way, is cool, I advise you to buy it.

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