How many people have lived on earth in the history of mankind

In 2022, the world's population will exceed8 billion people. Humans multiply so actively due to numerous advances in medicine and health care. Thanks to the methods of diagnosing diseases and their treatment, men and women today live more than 70 years, and give birth to many healthy children. This was not always the case, because even about 100 years ago, medicine was poorly developed, because of which people died earlier and did not give birth to so many children. Perhaps, at least once in your head, the question arose: how many people have lived on Earth, for the entire time of the existence of mankind? It is impossible to say the exact number, but scientists managed to name at least the approximate number of the Earth's population for all time.

Scientists managed to calculate the total number of people on Earth throughout history - the result is not accurate, but interesting

Content

• 1 How to count the number of people on Earth
• 2 When did modern humans appear?
• 3 How the population of the Earth has changed
• 4 In the future, there will be fewer people on Earth

How to count the number of people on earth

For the first time scientists tried to calculate the totalthe number of people on Earth for all time in 1995. This was done by specialists from the non-profit organization BRB - the Earth Population Data Bureau. This organization is engaged in the fact that it collects and provides statistical data necessary for research.

The video clearly shows how the population of the Earth has changed over time

To find out how many people lived on Earth for the entirehistory of mankind, scientists have combined data on the lifestyle of ancient people, mortality rates in different time periods and official information on the population in more recent times.

See also: The largest family tree has shown where humanity originated

When did modern humans appear?

As a starting point, the authors of the studyused the moment of the appearance of the Homo sapiens species - they arose approximately 190,000 BC. In the first few thousand years, the population of the Earth changed slowly because our ancestors had a short lifespan: they often died from disease, lack of food, animal attacks, and a variety of other reasons.

According to scientists, humanity has existed for more than 200,000 years.

How has the world population changed?

Calculations showed that after several hundredthousand years since the appearance of the first homo sapiens, 5 million people appeared on Earth - this happened in 8000 BC. In the first year of our era, there were about 300 million people on our planet, and we crossed the one billion mark only in the 1800s. Between 1200 and 1650, very few people were born on Earth - this was due to the plague epidemic.

The bubonic plague claimed the lives of millions of people and literally stopped the development of mankind

See also: Bubonic plague - the deadliest infection in human history?

Since about the 1900s, the populationThe earth is growing faster and is unlikely to stop - the population explosion occurred after the industrial revolution. Thanks to the creation of drugs and vaccines against deadly diseases, life expectancy has greatly increased in the world. If during the Middle Ages people died on average at 30 years old, today men and women often live up to 70 years and even more.

After the industrial revolution on Earth there was a population explosion

After scientists determined how muchApproximately people lived on Earth in different time periods, they added up all this data. It turned out that for all time in the world there were 117 billion people. If we consider that today the world's population is more than 8 billion people, it turns out that we make up almost 7% of the total number of people who have ever lived.

The population of the Earth in different time periods

It is important to note that 117 billion isan approximate number based largely on hypothetical data. Representatives of the Bureau of Data on Population of the Earth immediately emphasized that counting the number of people who have ever lived is part science and part art. Modern data on the population of the Earth are accurate due to the fact that governments regularly conduct a census, as well as record data on every newborn person. In more ancient times, especially tens of thousands of years ago, such calculations were not made, so we will never know the exact data about those times.

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In the future, there will be fewer people on Earth

It is important to note that some scientists tend tothat in the future the population of the Earth will begin to decline. Humanity can reach its peak in the next decades, and by 2100 the population will be reduced to 6 billion. There will be fewer people on Earth for several reasons: the development of now poor countries, the destruction of natural resources and the abuse of the environment.

It is possible that in the future there will be fewer people on Earth

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On our site there is another article "How toWill global warming affect the world's population? It says that in the future there may be fewer people due to climate change - due to high air temperatures, children are more likely to die in the womb.