Earth’s Human Population (in billions)
1800: 1.0
1900: 1.7
2000: 6.1
2100: a range of possible scenarios:
a) with one-child families: 1.4
b) with two-child families: 8.7
c) at year 2001 growth rate: 22.2
Note: 1 billion = 1,000 million = 1,000,000,000
In 2001, the growth rate (birth rate minus death rate) of the world population was 1.3 percent per year. If this rate of growth remains constant into the future, there will be 22.2 billion people on Earth in the year 2100. Just in time for the oceans to rise and wipe out hundreds of the world’s largest cities.
Thanks to http://www.rprogress.org/newprojects/ecolFoot/faq/index.shtml for the information. Original data derived from: UN Population Division, http://esa.un.org/unpp, “World Population Prospects” (World population database, 2000) and Population Resources Bureau, http://www.prb.org.
