The population of the earth is approx. How many people are actually on Earth? China lies about population

16.07.2023 | children

The population of the globe is the total number of people living on Earth and continuously renewing their numbers through the process of reproduction. Today, the planet is inhabited by more than seven billion people.

According to the calculations of a statistician from the Netherlands (Center for Informatics and Mathematics), Peter Grunwald, during the course of the entire history of human development, equal to more than 162 thousand years, more than one hundred and seven and a half billion people were born on Earth. Based on his calculations, it can be assumed that approximately 6% of all people living on the planet before our time are equal to 6.7 billion people living today (2008 data). Grunwald also admits that in the 107.5 billion people born in all time on Earth, one cannot be completely sure, since practically nothing is known about the population and the percentage of births in antiquity. At the same time, the researcher considers it incorrect that some scientists claim that more people live on Earth at the present time than during the entire period of the formation of human history.

Based on estimates of the Earth's agro-natural potential, the planet is able to feed more than 80 billion people, and historically the population could not exceed 100 million people. Before the Neolithic Revolution took place, the Earth could not support more than 3 million people. The UN has set an approximate population limit of 8 billion, at the moment of reaching which, the population of each country will begin to promote the maximum possible birth control, as well as fertility equal to two births per healthy woman.

Demographic projections

The most accurate forecast regarding the population was made by D. Huxley, a biologist from England. Based on his calculations, in 1964 he made a conclusion that states that the world's population will reach 6 billion by the year 2000. The UN Foundation announced that by 1999 the number of people living on Earth had reached 6 billion, and in 2011 - seven billion. The UN predicts a significant population decline from 2015 to 2050 for the following countries: Russia, Germany, China, Poland, Romania, Thailand, Ukraine, Serbia, Japan, as well as for the countries of Western, Southeast and East Asia.

General growth trend

In the works of many scientists (H. Foerster, A.V. Korotaev, S.P. Kapitsa, M. Kremer) it is said that the increase in the earth's population over the past six thousand years followed the law of hyperbole, that is, the entire increase in human numbers was equal to proportional to its square. But, judging by the historical chronicle, the population of the planet throughout its history, not only increased dramatically, but also became smaller, which was facilitated by destructive wars, long-term conflicts, the latest developments in technology and their development. For example, the population of the Middle East over the past 4,000 years has grown at a slow pace (slower than ten times, in general, on the planet).

By the beginning of the 1960s, the main rate of increase in human numbers began to slow down gradually, and another type of population increase, logistical, appeared instead. The rate of natural increase in the number of people inhabiting the world, since 1989, began to decline, which is a consequence of a sharp jump in demographics.

The dynamics of the growth of the population of the entire globe in billions of people from 1000 to the 2000s of our era

At the beginning of our era, there were already 300 million people on the planet, by the end of the first millennium - 400 million, 500 million - 1500, one billion - 1820, 1.6 billion - 1900, three billion - 1960, 5.65 billion - 1993 . At the end of October 1999, the number of people inhabiting the globe reached 6 billion people, 6.3 - in 2003, 6.5 - in 2006, 6.8 - in 2010, at the beginning of November 2011 - 7 billion. In 2015, the population of the earth should be more than 7 billion people.

According to the UN forecast, the world population will be 8.1 billion by 2025, 9 billion by 2050, and 10 billion by 2100.

Until the seventies, the number of people inhabiting the Earth grew, according to the law of hyperbole, today the growth rate has noticeably decreased. According to demographic studies, the population is still growing rapidly, despite the fact that its growth has already become half as much as in 1963 (at which time the peak value of growth was reached).

Over the past 11 years (from 1994 to 2015), the number of elderly people has doubled, worldwide there are significantly more of them than children under the age of 5 (according to the latest data provided by the UN).

For the first time, during the formation of all human history, the number of people living in the city became equal to the number living in villages and villages, which amounted to 3.4 billion. It is also predicted that the largest part of the population living on the globe will be city dwellers, which is confirmed by the latest data.

By 2050, more of the world's population will live in Asia, ¼ in Africa, 8.2% in Latin America, 7.4% in Europe, 4.7% in North America.

The largest state in terms of population is China, but, guided by UN forecasts, India will also reach overpopulation by 2025. Until the beginning of 1991, the USSR occupied the third place in terms of population, after it collapsed, this place was taken by the USA (at the end of 2006, the population was equal to 300 million people), the fourth place was occupied by Indonesia, the fifth by Brazil, the sixth by Pakistan, seventh - Bangladesh, eighth - Nigeria, ninth - Russia.

According to CIA estimates, in mid-summer 2013, the number of people inhabiting the planet was 7,095,217,980.

The population of planet Earth in 2015

At the beginning of 2014, the UN Commission made a statement, which spoke of the achievement of the earth's population of 7.2 billion people, and in 2015 the population of the earth is planned to be about 7.3 - 7.4 billion people.

Population of the countries of the world and Russia in 2015

№	A country	population	% of total population
1	PRC	1 369 723 215	19,013%
2	India	1 263 419 215	17,537%
3	USA	319 078 215	4,429%
4	Indonesia	253 276 460	3,516%
5	Brazil	203 724 463	2,828%
6	Pakistan	188 546 242	2,617%
7	Nigeria	178 981 119	2,484%
8	Bangladesh	157 967 552	2,193%
9	Russia	146 497 215	2,033%
10	Japan	127 304 215	1,767%
11	Mexico	119 977 418	1,665%
12	Philippines	100 481 263	1,395%
13	Vietnam	89 973 115	1,249%
14	Ethiopia	88 217 206	1,225%
15	Egypt	87 528 932	1,215%
16	Germany	81 044 215	1,125%
17	Iran	77 813 220	1,080%
18	Türkiye	76 932 079	1,068%
19	DR Congo	69 624 333	0,966%
20	Thailand	65 135 215	0,904%
21	Great Britain	64 572 476	0,896%
22	France	64 192 823	0,891%
23	Italy	61 046 883	0,847%
24	South Africa	54 266 215	0,753%
25	Myanmar	53 983 173	0,749%
26	The Republic of Korea	50 268 656	0,698%
27	Colombia	48 104 215	0,668%
28	Tanzania	47 686 001	0,662%
29	Spain	46 771 975	0,649%
30	Kenya	45 810 195	0,636%
31	Ukraine	43 068 274	0,598%
32	Argentina	42 933 715	0,596%
33	Algeria	40 193 162	0,558%
34	Uganda	39 108 839	0,543%
35	Sudan	39 028 305	0,542%
36	Poland	38 759 874	0,538%
37	Iraq	35 032 976	0,486%
38	Canada	34 525 215	0,479%
39	Morocco	33 674 215	0,467%
40	Afghanistan	31 544 733	0,438%
41	Uzbekistan	30 752 815	0,427%
42	Peru	30 739 359	0,427%
43	Venezuela	30 591 215	0,425%
44	Malaysia	29 841 390	0,414%
45	Saudi Arabia	29 633 643	0,411%
46	Nepal	28 384 955	0,394%
47	Mozambique	26 737 192	0,371%
48	Ghana	26 706 393	0,371%
49	North Korea	25 290 803	0,351%
50	Yemen	25 232 723	0,350%
51	Australia	24 525 215	0,340%
52	Madagascar	23 836 177	0,331%
53	Republic of China	23 674 495	0,329%
54	Cameroon	22 982 847	0,319%
55	Angola	22 301 476	0,310%
56	Syria	22 150 830	0,307%
57	Sri Lanka	21 609 990	0,300%
58	Ivory Coast	20 968 989	0,291%
59	Romania	20 106 857	0,279%
60	Niger	18 699 017	0,260%
61	Chile	17 987 215	0,250%
62	Burkina Faso	17 583 830	0,244%
63	Kazakhstan	17 494 709	0,243%
64	Netherlands	17 076 890	0,237%
65	Malawi	16 993 359	0,236%
66	Guatemala	16 023 929	0,222%
67	Mali	15 932 442	0,221%
68	Cambodia	15 572 485	0,216%
69	Ecuador	15 245 215	0,212%
70	Zambia	15 185 217	0,211%
71	Zimbabwe	14 763 540	0,205%
72	Senegal	14 712 386	0,2042%
73	Chad	13 375 361	0,1857%
74	Guinea	12 208 113	0,1695%
75	South Sudan	11 902 933	0,1652%
76	Cuba	11 422 812	0,1586%
77	Belgium	11 368 207	0,1578%
78	Greece	11 156 804	0,1549%
79	Tunisia	11 050 715	0,1534%
80	Bolivia	11 011 879	0,1529%
81	Somalia	10 969 866	0,1523%
82	Benin	10 763 725	0,1494%
83	Rwanda	10 701 437	0,1485%
84	Dominican Republic	10 693 169	0,1484%
85	Czech	10 676 634	0,1482%
86	Burundi	10 586 967	0,1470%
87	Haiti	10 565 624	0,1467%
88	Portugal	10 531 516	0,1462%
89	Hungary	9 983 215	0,1386%
90	Sweden	9 749 079	0,1353%
91	Azerbaijan	9 581 315	0,1330%
92	Belarus	9 579 315	0,1330%
93	Serbia	9 572 593	0,1329%
94	Austria	8 612 001	0,1195%
95	Tajikistan	8 309 615	0,1153%
96	Switzerland	8 240 904	0,1144%
97	Israel	8 236 215	0,1143%
98	Papua New Guinea	7 580 323	0,1052%
99	Honduras	7 522 215	0,1044%
100	Bulgaria	7 301 892	0,1014%
101	Hong Kong (PRC)	7 192 515	0,0998%
102	Paraguay	6 728 846	0,0934%
103	Jordan	6 699 315	0,0930%
104	Eritrea	6 592 391	0,0915%
105	Salvador	6 439 967	0,0894%
106	Laos	6 405 015	0,0889%
107	Libya	6 309 667	0,0876%
108	Sierra Leone	6 261 597	0,0869%
109	Togo	6 247 370	0,0867%
110	Nicaragua	6 127 260	0,0850%
111	Kyrgyzstan	5 919 315	0,0822%
112	Denmark	5 683 450	0,0789%
113	Finland	5 528 715	0,0767%
114	Slovakia	5 468 223	0,0759%
115	Singapore	5 368 615	0,0745%
116	Turkmenistan	5 363 386	0,0744%
117	Norway	5 222 115	0,0725%
118	Lebanon	5 022 129	0,0697%
119	UAE	4 856 465	0,0674%
120	CAR	4 765 418	0,0661%
121	Ireland	4 660 244	0,0647%
122	Republic of the Congo	4 581 809	0,0636%
123	New Zealand	4 562 615	0,0633%
124	Georgia	4 513 715	0,0627%
125	State of Palestine	4 443 764	0,0617%
126	Costa Rica	4 324 927	0,0600%
127	Croatia	4 269 915	0,0593%
128	Liberia	4 213 215	0,0585%
129	Mauritania	3 913 215	0,0543%
130	Bosnia and Herzegovina	3 859 592	0,0536%
131	Puerto Rico (USA)	3 749 004	0,0520%
132	Moldova	3 580 815	0,0497%
133	Kuwait	3 502 586	0,0486%
134	Panama	3 429 028	0,0476%
135	Uruguay	3 227 007	0,0448%
136	Armenia	3 128 764	0,0434%
137	Lithuania	2 954 075	0,0410%
138	Albania	2 854 956	0,0396%
139	Oman	2 796 694	0,0388%
140	Mongolia	2 760 015	0,0383%
141	Jamaica	2 729 015	0,0379%
142	Namibia	2 371 203	0,0329%
143	Lesotho	2 120 726	0,0294%
144	Slovenia	2 098 085	0,0291%
145	Macedonia	2 088 984	0,0290%
146	Botswana	2 061 802	0,0286%
147	Latvia	2 013 515	0,0279%
148	Gambia	1 932 169	0,0268%
149	Guinea-Bissau	1 769 013	0,0246%
150	Gabon	1 720 509	0,0239%
151	Qatar	1 708 650	0,0237%
152	Trinidad and Tobago	1 326 929	0,01842%
153	Estonia	1 318 034	0,01830%
154	Mauritius	1 298 004	0,01802%
155	Swaziland	1 269 919	0,01763%
156	Bahrain	1 236 786	0,01717%
157	East Timor	1 068 624	0,01483%
158	Fiji	889 242	0,01234%
159	Djibouti	888 528	0,01233%
160	Cyprus	860 215	0,01194%
161	Reunion (France)	830 796	0,01153%
162	Equatorial Guinea	780 276	0,01083%
163	Butane	767 767	0,01066%
164	Comoros	753 653	0,01046%
165	Guyana	736 769	0,01023%
166	Montenegro	625 550	0,008683%
167	Macau (PRC)	608 715	0,008449%
168	SADR	586 861	0,008146%
169	Solomon islands	574 080	0,007969%
170	Luxembourg	550 895	0,007647%
171	Suriname	545 140	0,007567%
172	Cape Verde	504 852	0,007008%
173	Malta	426 599	0,005921%
174	Brunei	424 420	0,005891%
175	Guadeloupe (France)	405 850	0,005633%
176	Martinique (France)	393 506	0,005462%
177	Bahamas	383 786	0,005327%
178	Maldives	352 787	0,004897%
179	Iceland	326 886	0,004537%
180	Belize	323 668	0,004493%
181	Barbados	287 281	0,003988%
182	French Polynesia (France)	281 050	0,003901%
183	New Caledonia (France)	261 039	0,003623%
184	Vanuatu	259 516	0,003602%
185	Guiana (France)	238 764	0,003314%
186	Mayotte (France)	229 285	0,003183%
187	Sao Tome and Principe	199 097	0,002764%
188	Samoa	193 046	0,002680%
189	Saint Lucia	184 813	0,002565%
190	Guam (USA)	168 761	0,002343%
191	Curaçao (Nida)	150 894	0,002094%
192	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	110 586	0,001535%
193	Virgin Islands (US)	108 007	0,001499%
194	Grenada	107 518	0,001492%
195	Tonga	106 997	0,001485%
196	Kiribati	104 657	0,001453%
197	micronesia	104 618	0,001452%
198	Aruba (Nid.)	104 146	0,001446%
199	Jersey (UK)	98 572	0,001368%
200	Seychelles	94 021	0,001305%
201	Antigua and Barbuda	91 618	0,001272%
202	Isle of Man (UK)	87 190	0,001210%
203	Andorra	76 813	0,001066%
204	Dominica	73 056	0,001014%
205	Bermuda (UK)	66 176	0,000919%
206	Guernsey (UK)	63 800	0,000886%
207	Cayman Islands (UK)	59 941	0,000832%
208	Greenland (Denmark)	57 679	0,000801%
209	American Samoa (USA)	55 835	0,000775%
210	Saint Kitts and Nevis	55 304	0,000768%
211	Northern Mariana Islands (USA)	55 046	0,000764%
212	Marshall Islands	53 287	0,000740%
213	Faroe Islands (Denmark)	48 674	0,000676%
214	Monaco	38 581	0,000536%
215	Sint Maarten (Nid.)	37 944	0,000527%
216	Liechtenstein	37 644	0,000523%
217	Saint Martin (France)	36 801	0,000511%
218	Turks and Caicos (UK)	34 251	0,000475%
219	San Marino	32 152	0,000446%
220	Gibraltar (UK)	30 516	0,000424%
221	Virgin Islands (Brit.)	29 077	0,000404%
222	Aland Islands (Finland)	28 717	0,000399%
223	Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba (Nid.)	23 511	0,000326%
224	Palau	21 312	0,000296%
225	Cook Islands (New Zealand)	20 947	0,000291%
226	Anguilla (UK)	14 675	0,000204%
227	Wallis and Futuna (France)	13 421	0,000186%
228	Nauru	10 296	0,000143%
229	Tuvalu	9 989	0,000139%
230	Saint Barthelemy (France)	9 130	0,000127%
231	Saint Pierre and Miquelon (France)	6 175	0,0000857%
232	Montserrat (UK)	5 230	0,0000726%
233	Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha	4 155	0,0000577%
234	Falkland Islands (UK)	3 087	0,0000428%
235	Svalbard (Norway)	2 690	0,0000373%
236	Norfolk Island (Australia)	2 337	0,0000324%
237	Christmas Island (Australia)	2 087	0,0000290%
238	Tokelau (New Zealand)	1 426	0,0000198%
239	Niue (New Zealand)	1 317	0,0000183%
240	Vatican	803	0,0000111%
241	Cocos Islands (Australia)	560	0,0000078%
242	Pitcairn Islands (UK)	60	0,00000083%

Image copyright Thinkstock

Does the Earth have enough resources to support a rapidly growing human population? Now it is over 7 billion. What is the maximum number of inhabitants, above which the sustainable development of our planet will no longer be possible? The correspondent undertook to find out what the researchers think about this.

Overpopulation. At this word, modern politicians wince; in discussions about the future of planet Earth, he is often referred to as the "elephant in the room."

Often, a growing population is spoken of as the biggest threat to the existence of the Earth. But is it right to consider this problem in isolation from other contemporary global challenges? And is it really so threateningly many people live on our planet now?

What do giant cities suffer from?
Seva Novgorodtsev about overpopulation of the Earth
Obesity is more dangerous than overcrowding

It is clear that the Earth does not increase in size. Its space is limited, and the resources necessary to sustain life are finite. Food, water and energy may simply not be enough for everyone.

It turns out that demographic growth is a real threat to the well-being of our planet? Not at all necessary.

Image copyright Thinkstock Image caption The earth is not rubber!

"The problem is not the number of people living on the planet, but the number of consumers and the scale and nature of consumption," says David Satterthwaite, senior fellow at the London-based International Institute for Environment and Development.

In support of his thesis, he cites a consonant statement by the Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi, who believed that "there are enough [resources] in the world to satisfy the needs of every person, but not universal greed."

The global effect of a multi-billion increase in urban population could be much smaller than we think

Until recently, the number of representatives of the modern human species (Homo sapiens) living on Earth was relatively small. Just 10 thousand years ago, no more than a few million people lived on our planet.

It wasn't until the early 1800s that the human population reached a billion. And two billion - only in the 20s of the twentieth century.

Currently, the world's population is over 7.3 billion people. According to UN forecasts, by 2050 it could reach 9.7 billion, and by 2100 it is expected to exceed 11 billion.

Population has only begun to grow rapidly in the last few decades, so we do not yet have historical examples on which to base our predictions on the possible consequences of this growth in the future.

In other words, if it is true that more than 11 billion people will live on our planet by the end of the century, our current level of knowledge does not allow us to say whether sustainable development is possible with such a population - simply because there has not yet been precedents in history.

However, we can get a better picture of the future if we analyze where the most significant population growth is expected in the coming years.

The problem is not the number of people living on Earth, but the number of consumers and the scale and nature of their consumption of non-renewable resources

David Satterthwaite says that most of the demographic growth in the next two decades will occur in the megacities of those countries where the level of income of the population at the current stage is assessed as low or medium.

At first glance, an increase in the number of inhabitants of such cities, even if by several billion, should not have serious consequences on a global scale. This is due to historically low levels of urban consumption in low- and middle-income countries.

Emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases are a good indication of how high a city's consumption can be. “We know about cities in low-income countries that emissions of carbon dioxide (carbon dioxide) and its equivalents are less than a tonne per person per year,” says David Satterthwait. “In high-income countries, the values of this indicator fluctuate ranging from 6 to 30 tons".

Residents of more economically prosperous countries pollute the environment to a much greater extent than people living in poor countries.

Image copyright Thinkstock Image caption Copenhagen: high standard of living, but low greenhouse gas emissions

However, there are exceptions. Copenhagen is the capital of Denmark, a high-income country, while Porto Allegre is in Brazil, an upper-middle income country. Both cities have a high standard of living, but emissions (on a per capita basis) are relatively low in volume.

According to the scientist, if we look at the lifestyle of one single person, the difference between rich and poor categories of the population will be even more significant.

There are many low-income urban dwellers whose consumption is so low that it has little to no effect on greenhouse gas emissions.

When the Earth's population reaches 11 billion, the additional burden on its resources may be relatively small.

However, the world is changing. And it's entirely possible that low-income megacities will see carbon emissions rise soon.

Image copyright Thinkstock Image caption People living in high-income countries must do their part to keep the Earth sustainable with a growing population

There is also concern about the desire of people in poor countries to live and consume at the level that is now considered normal for high-income countries (many will say that this would be some kind of restoration of social justice).

But in this case, the growth of the urban population will bring with it a more serious burden on the environment.

Will Steffen, professor emeritus at the Fenner School of Environment and Society at the Australian State University, says this is in line with a general trend that has emerged over the past century.

According to him, the problem is not population growth, but the growth - even more rapid - of world consumption (which, of course, is unevenly distributed around the world).

If so, then humanity may find itself in an even more predicament.

People living in high-income countries must do their part to keep the Earth sustainable with a growing population.

Only if richer communities are willing to reduce their consumption levels and allow their governments to support unpopular measures can the world as a whole reduce the negative human impact on the global climate and more effectively address issues such as resource conservation and recycling.

In a 2015 study, the Journal of Industrial Ecology tried to look at environmental issues from the perspective of a household, where the focus is on consumption.

If we adopt smarter consumer habits, the state of the environment can improve dramatically

The study showed that private consumers account for more than 60% of greenhouse gas emissions, and in the use of land, water and other raw materials, their share is up to 80%.

Moreover, the researchers concluded that the pressure on the environment differs from region to region and that, per household, it is highest in economically prosperous countries.

Diana Ivanova of the University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, Norway, who developed the concept for this study, explains that it changes the traditional view of who should be responsible for industrial emissions associated with the production of consumer goods.

"We are all trying to shift the blame to someone else, to the state or to enterprises," she notes.

In the West, for example, consumers often express the opinion that China and other countries that produce consumer goods in industrial quantities should also be responsible for emissions associated with production.

Image copyright Thinkstock Image caption Modern society depends on industrial production

But Diana and her colleagues believe that an equal share of the responsibility lies with the consumers themselves: "If we begin to follow smarter consumer habits, the state of the environment can significantly improve." According to this logic, radical changes are needed in the basic values of developed countries: the emphasis should move from material wealth to a model where the most important thing is personal and social well-being.

But even if favorable changes take place in mass consumer behavior, it is unlikely that our planet will be able to sustain a population of 11 billion people for a long time.

Therefore, Will Steffen proposes to stabilize the population somewhere in the region of nine billion, and then begin to gradually reduce it by reducing the birth rate.

Stabilization of the Earth's population implies both a reduction in resource consumption and the expansion of women's rights.

In fact, there are signs that some stabilization is already underway, even if the population continues to grow statistically.

Population growth has been slowing since the 1960s, and surveys of fertility rates by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs indicate that, worldwide, the birth rate per woman has fallen from 4.7 children in 1970-75 to 2.6 in 2005-10.

However, it will take centuries for any really significant changes to take place in this area, according to Corey Bradshaw of the University of Adelaide in Australia.

The trend towards an increase in the birth rate is so deeply rooted that even a major catastrophe will not be able to radically change the situation, the scientist believes.

According to a 2014 study, Corey concluded that even if the world's population were reduced by two billion tomorrow due to increased mortality, or if governments of all countries, like China, passed unpopular laws that limit the number of children, then by 2100 the number of people on our planet would at best remain at its current level.

Therefore, it is necessary to look for alternative ways to reduce the birth rate, and look for it without delay.

If some or all of us increase our consumption, then the upper limit for sustainable (sustainable) population of the Earth will decrease

One relatively simple way is to raise the status of women, especially in terms of their educational and employment opportunities, says Will Steffen.

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) estimated that 350 million women in the poorest countries were not going to have their last child, but they had no way to prevent unwanted pregnancies.

If the basic needs of these women in terms of personal development were met, the problem of overpopulation of the Earth due to excessively high birth rates would not be so acute.

Following this logic, the stabilization of the population of our planet implies both a reduction in resource consumption and the expansion of women's rights.

But if a population of 11 billion is unsustainable, how many people - in theory - can our Earth support?

Corey Bradshaw thinks it's nearly impossible to give a specific number as it will depend on technology in areas like agriculture, energy and transportation, and how many people we're willing to condemn to a life of deprivation and limitation, including and in food.

Image copyright Thinkstock Image caption Slums in the Indian city of Mumbai (Bombay)

It is a fairly common belief that humanity has already exceeded the permissible limit, given the wasteful lifestyle that many of its representatives lead and which they are unlikely to want to give up.

As arguments in favor of this point of view, such environmental trends as global warming, the reduction of biospecies diversity and pollution of the world's oceans are given.

Social statistics also come to the rescue, according to which currently one billion people in the world are actually starving, and another billion suffer from chronic malnutrition.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the problem of population was associated equally with female fertility and soil fertility.

The most common option is 8 billion, i.e. a little more than the current level. The lowest figure is 2 billion. The highest is 1024 billion.

And since assumptions about the allowable demographic maximum depend on a number of assumptions, it is difficult to say which of the above estimates is closest to reality.

But ultimately the determining factor will be how society organizes its consumption.

If some of us - or all of us - increase our consumption, then the upper limit on the acceptable (in terms of sustainable development) population of the Earth will decrease.

If we find opportunities to consume less, ideally without giving up the benefits of civilization, then our planet will be able to support more people.

The acceptable population limit will also depend on the development of technology, an area in which it is difficult to predict anything.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the problem of population was associated equally with both female fertility and the fertility of agricultural land.

In his 1928 book The Shadow of the World to Come, George Knibbs suggested that if the world's population reaches 7.8 billion, humanity will need to be much more efficient in cultivating and using land.

Image copyright Thinkstock Image caption With the invention of chemical fertilizers began a rapid population growth

And three years later, Carl Bosch received the Nobel Prize for his contribution to the development of chemical fertilizers, the production of which was, presumably, the most important factor in the population boom that occurred in the twentieth century.

In the distant future, scientific and technological progress can significantly raise the upper limit of the permissible population of the Earth.

Ever since people first traveled into space, mankind is no longer content with observing stars from the Earth, but is seriously discussing the possibility of resettlement to other planets.

Many prominent scientists and thinkers, including the physicist Stephen Hawking, even state that the colonization of other worlds will be crucial for the survival of humans and other biological species present on Earth.

Although the NASA exoplanet program launched in 2009 discovered a large number of Earth-like planets, they are all too distant from us and little studied. (As part of this program, the US space agency created the Kepler satellite equipped with an ultrasensitive photometer to search for Earth-like planets outside the solar system, the so-called exoplanets.)

Image copyright Thinkstock Image caption The earth is our only home and we need to learn how to live in it in a sustainable way

So moving people to another planet is not yet an option. For the foreseeable future, the Earth will be our only home, and we must learn to live in it in an environmentally friendly way.

This implies, of course, a general reduction in consumption, in particular, a transition to a lifestyle with low CO2 emissions, as well as an improvement in the status of women around the world.

Only by taking some steps in this direction, we will be able to roughly calculate how much the planet Earth can support the people.

You can read it in English on the website.

Today, more than 7.5 billion people live on Earth, while 2.7 billion are citizens of just two countries - India and China. The demographic picture of the world is much more interesting than just dry numbers reflecting the population. It includes information about the national composition, age structure, migration processes, age parameters of the inhabitants of our planet.

More recently, at the beginning of the 20th century, the world's population was about 1.6 billion people. Just 60 years later, the world celebrated the birth of the 3 billionth inhabitant of the Earth. And since the mid-1960s, world leaders have seriously attended to the problem of overpopulation, the population of the planet began to grow so rapidly. According to experts, the number of inhabitants of the globe by the end of the XXI century will cross the line of 11 billion.

African children

But population growth is not observed in all parts of the world. Over the past 20-30 years, the regions with rapidly increasing rates include the countries of Southeast Asia and Africa, such as India, China, Indonesia, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Pakistan, Egypt, Congo, Thailand, and the Philippines. Slightly smaller, but also stable growth is observed in the countries of America: Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina.

This is what most trains in India look like

Despite the fact that the population of India today is less than that of China (1.348 billion Hindus and 1.412 Chinese), scientists predict that by 2020 India will rank first in the world in this indicator. This is partly due to the fact that birth control measures have been in place in China for a long time. But today, due to a sharp decline in the proportion of children and young people in Chinese society, the country's leadership has decided to lift these bans.

China

But the indigenous population of Europe, on the contrary, is rapidly decreasing, which is associated with the demographic aging of the population. This process leads to an increase in the proportion of older people compared to children and youth. This problem is familiar to most developed countries of the world. In addition to Europe, a similar process is observed in Australia, Canada, the USA and Japan. This situation is partly smoothed out by a stable number of labor migrants arriving in the developed countries of the world. Unfortunately, Russia is no exception, and in our country there is also a large number of elderly people compared to the working-age population.

In Japan, older people are very active

At the initiative of American researchers, an information project called Worldometers was created, which collects demographic and some other parameters for different countries of the world. Of course, the data displayed here is often obtained by modeling and forecasting, but in any case it is very interesting. We offer you to see how fast the population of the Earth is growing in real time.

Based on the data set out in the UN projections for the population of the world

Around 8000 BC, the world's population was approximately 5 million people. For the 8000-year period up to 1 AD. it has grown to 200 million people (300 million or even 600 million according to some estimates), with a growth rate of 0.05% per year. A huge change in population occurred with the advent of the industrial revolution:

In 1800, the world population reached one billion.
The second billion in population was reached in just 130 years in 1930.
The third billion was reached in less than 30 years in 1959.
Over the next 15 years, the fourth billion will be reached in 1974.
In just 13 years, in 1987 - the fifth billion.

During the 20th century alone, the world's population grew from 1.65 billion to 6 billion.

In 1970, the population was half what it is now. Due to declining population growth, it would take more than 200 years to double the population from today's data.

Table with population data by years and dynamics of population growth in the world by years until 2017

Pop%	World population	Growth in % compared to the previous year	Absolute annual increase number of people	Average age of the population	Population density: number of people per 1 sq. km.	Urbanization (urban population) in % of the total population	Urban population
2017	7 515 284 153	1,11%	82 620 878	29,9	58	54,7%	4 110 778 369
2016	7 432 663 275	1,13%	83 191 176	29,9	57	54,3%	4 034 193 153
2015	7 349 472 099	1,18%	83 949 411	30	57	53,8%	3 957 285 013
2010	6 929 725 043	1,23%	82 017 839	29	53	51,5%	3 571 272 167
2005	6 519 635 850	1,25%	78 602 746	27	50	49,1%	3 199 013 076
2000	6 126 622 121	1,33%	78 299 807	26	47	46,6%	2 856 131 072
1995	5 735 123 084	1,55%	85 091 077	25	44	44,8%	2 568 062 984
1990	5 309 667 699	1,82%	91 425 426	24	41	43%	2 285 030 904
1985	4 852 540 569	1,79%	82 581 621	23	37	41,3%	2 003 049 795
1980	4 439 632 465	1,8%	75 646 647	23	34	39,4%	1 749 539 272
1975	4 061 399 228	1,98%	75 782 307	22	31	37,8%	1 534 721 238
1970	3 682 487 691	2,08%	71 998 514	22	28	36,7%	1 350 280 789
1965	3 322 495 121	1,94%	60 830 259	23	21	No data	No data
1960	3 018 343 828	1,82%	52 005 861	23	23	33,8%	1 019 494 911
1955	2 758 314 525	1,78%	46 633 043	23	21	No data	No data

The world population is currently (2017) growing at a rate of about 1.11% per year (up from 1.13% in 2016).

Currently, the average population growth per year is estimated at about 80 million people. The annual growth rate peaked in the late 1960s at 2% or more. The population growth rate peaked at 2.19 percent per year in 1963.

The annual growth rate is currently declining and is projected to continue declining in the coming years. Population growth is projected to be less than 1% per year by 2020 and less than 0.5% per year by 2050. This means that the world population will continue to grow in the 21st century, but at a slower rate than in the recent past.

The world population doubled (100% increase) within 40 years from 1959 (3 billion) to 1999 (6 billion). It is currently predicted that in 39 years the world's population will increase by another 50%, to 9 billion by 2038.

Forecast of the population of the Earth (all countries of the world) and demographic data for the period up to 2050:

date	Population	Number growth a % for 1 year	Absolute growth for 1 year in the number of people	The average age of the world's population	Population density: number of people per 1 sq. km.	Percentage of urbanization	Total urban population
2020	7 758 156 792	1,09%	81 736 939	31	60	55,9%	4 338 014 924
2025	8 141 661 007	0,97%	76 700 843	32	63	57,8%	4 705 773 576
2030	8 500 766 052	0,87%	71 821 009	33	65	59,5%	5 058 158 460
2035	8 838 907 877	0,78%	67 628 365	34	68	61%	5 394 234 712
2040	9 157 233 976	0,71%	63 665 220	35	70	62,4%	5 715 413 029
2045	9 453 891 780	0,64%	59 331 561	35	73	63,8%	6 030 924 065
2050	9 725 147 994	0,57%	54 251 243	36	75	65,2%	6 338 611 492

The main stages of the growth of the world's population

10 billion (2056)

The United Nations projects a world population of 10 billion by 2056.

8 billion (2023)

The world population is expected to reach 8 billion in 2023 according to the United Nations (and in 2026 according to the US Census Bureau).

7.5 billion (2017)

The current world population is 7.5 billion as of January 2017, according to United Nations estimates.

7 billion (2011)

According to the United Nations, the world's population reached 7 billion on October 31, 2011. The US Census Bureau made a lower estimate - 7 billion was reached on March 12, 2012.

6 billion (1999)

According to the United Nations, on October 12, 1999, the world population was 6 billion. According to the US Census Bureau, this value was reached on July 22, 1999, at approximately 3:49 am GMT.