Estimates of historical world population

Last updated
Comparison of humans living today with all previous generations Illustration of contemporary and past human populations Our World in Data.png
Comparison of humans living today with all previous generations

This article lists current estimates of the world population in history. In summary, estimates for the progression of world population since the Late Middle Ages are in the following ranges:

Contents

Year14001500160017001800190020002100
population
(in billions)
0.35–0.400.43–0.500.50–0.580.60–0.680.89–0.981.56–1.716.06–6.15c. 10–13
growth p.a. [1] >0%<0.12%0.15–0.3%0.1–0.15%0.3–0.5%0.5–0.6%1.3–1.4%0.7–0.8%

Estimates for pre-modern times are necessarily fraught with great uncertainties, and few of the published estimates have confidence intervals; in the absence of a straightforward means to assess the error of such estimates, a rough idea of expert consensus can be gained by comparing the values given in independent publications. Population estimates cannot be considered accurate to more than two decimal digits; for example, the world population for the year 2012 was estimated at 7.02, 7.06, and 7.08 billion by the United States Census Bureau, the Population Reference Bureau, and the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, respectively, corresponding to a spread of estimates of the order of 0.8%.

Deep prehistory

Graph of world population over the past 12,000 years (Holocene) Population curve.svg
Graph of world population over the past 12,000  years (Holocene)

As a general rule, the confidence of estimates on historical world population decreases for the more distant past. Robust population data exist only for the last two or three centuries. Until the late 18th century, few governments had ever performed an accurate census. In many early attempts, such as in Ancient Egypt and the Persian Empire, the focus was on counting merely a subset of the population for purposes of taxation or military service. [2] Published estimates for the 1st century ("AD 1") suggest uncertainty of the order of 50% (estimates range between 150 and 330  million). Some estimates extend their timeline into deep prehistory, to "10,000  BC", i.e., the early Holocene, when world population estimates range roughly between 1 and 10  million (with an uncertainty of up to an order of magnitude). [3] [4]

Estimates for yet deeper prehistory, into the Paleolithic, are of a different nature. At this time, human populations consisted entirely of non-sedentary hunter-gatherer populations, with anatomically modern humans existing alongside archaic human varieties, some of which are still ancestral to the modern human population due to interbreeding with modern humans during the Upper Paleolithic. Estimates of the size of these populations are a topic of paleoanthropology. A late human population bottleneck is postulated by some scholars at approximately 70,000 years ago, during the Toba catastrophe, when Homo sapiens population may have dropped to as low as between 1,000 and 10,000  individuals. [5] [6] For the time of speciation of Homo sapiens , some 200,000 years ago, an effective population size of the order of 10,000 to 30,000  individuals has been estimated, with an actual "census population" of early Homo sapiens of roughly 100,000 to 300,000 individuals. [7]

Estimates regarding the questions of "how many people have ever lived?" or "what percentage of people who have ever lived are alive today?" can be traced to the 1970s. [8] The more dramatic phrasing of "the living outnumber the dead" also dates to the 1970s, a time of population explosion and growing fears of human overpopulation in the wake of decolonization and before the adoption of China's one-child policy. The claim that "the living outnumber the dead" was never accurate. Arthur C. Clarke in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) has the claim that "Behind every man, now alive stand 30  ghosts, for that is the ratio by which the dead outnumber the living", which was roughly accurate at the time of writing. [9] [10]

Recent estimates of the "total number of people who have ever lived" are in the order of 100 billion. [10] [11] The answer depends on the definition of "people", i.e., whether only Homo sapiens are to be counted, or all of the genus Homo; due to the small population sizes in the Lower Paleolithic, however, the order of magnitude of the estimate is not affected by the choice of cut-off date substantially more than by the uncertainty of estimates throughout the Neolithic to Iron Age. [12] Importantly, the estimate is also affected by the estimate of infant mortalities vs. stillborn infants, due to the very high rate of infant mortality throughout the pre-modern period. An estimate on the "total number of people who have ever lived" as of 1995 was calculated by Haub (1995) at "about 105 billion births since the dawn of the human race" with a cut-off date at 50,000 BC (beginning of the Upper Paleolithic), and inclusion of a high infant mortality rate throughout pre-modern history. [13]

Historical population

Before 1950

The following table uses astronomical year numbering for dates, negative numbers corresponding roughly to the corresponding year BC (for example, −10,000 = 8,000 BC, etc.). The table starts counting approximately 10,000 years before present, or around 8,000 BC, during the middle Greenlandian, about 1,700 years after the end of the Younger Dryas and 1,800 years before the 8.2-kiloyear event.

From the beginning of the early modern period until the 20th century, world population has been characterized by a faster-than-exponential growth. For the period of Classical antiquity to the Middle Ages, roughly 500 BC to AD 1500, there was also a general tendency of growth (estimated at a factor 4 to 5 over the 2,000-year period), but not strictly monotonic: A noticeable dip in world population is assumed due to the Black Death in the mid-14th century. [14]

Year PRB
(1973–2016) [15]
UN
(2015) [16]
Maddison
(2008) [17]
HYDE
(2010) [18]
Tanton
(1994) [19]
Biraben
(1980) [20]
McEvedy &
Jones (1978) [21]
Thomlinson
(1975) [22]
Durand
(1974) [23]
Clark
(1967) [24]
Gapminder
−100002M [25] 4M1–10M4M
−90004M
−80005M5M5–10M
−70007M8M
−600014M11M
−500027M18M [25] 5M5–20M5M
−400050M28M7M7M
−3000100M45M14M14M
−200072M27M27M
−1000100M115M50M50M
−500150M
−200227M150M150M
1300M [26] 300M231M [27] 188M [25] 150M255M170M200M270–330M256M [28] 170M
100195M
200202M256M190M190M
300205M
350254M
400209M206M190M190M
500280M210M [25] 206M190M190M
600213M206M200M237M200M
700226M207M210M207M
800240M224M220M261M224M
900269M226M240M226M
1000400M310M267M295M [25] 254M265M275–345M280M254M
1100450M353M301M320M301M
1200500M393M400M360M384M400M
1250400M416M416M
1300500M392M300M432M360M400M432M
1340443M378M443M
1400500M390M374M350M374M
1500600M500M438M461M [25] 460M425M440–540M427M460M
1600600M556M554M [25] 579M545M498M579M
1650(<700M) [14] 545M500M516M579M
1700660M1000M603M [25] 1000M1079M1000M1041M1079M
1750791M814M700M770M
18001,000M978M989M [25] 900M900M985M
18201,042M1,093M
18501,265M1,262M1,263M1,241M1,200M1,200M1,278M
18701,276M1,347M
18751,325M1,383M
19001,656M1,650M1,563M1,654M [25] 1,600M1,633M1,625M1,600M1,650–1,710M1,668M1,645M
19101,750M1,777M1,790M
19131,793M1,829M
19201,860M1,863M1,912M1,968M1,924M
19252,000M2,000M2,007M
19302,070M2,092M2,145M2,100M
19402,300M2,299M2,307M2,340M2,324M

1950 to 2016

After World War  II, demographic data of some accuracy becomes available for a significant number of countries, and population estimates are often given as grand totals of numbers (typically given by country) of widely diverging accuracies. Some sources give these numbers rounded to the nearest million or the nearest thousand, while others give them without any rounding.

Taking these numbers at face value would be false precision; in spite of being stated to four, seven, or even ten digits, they should not be interpreted as accurate to more than three digits at best (estimates by the United States Census Bureau and by the United Nations differ by about 0.5–1.5%).

Year United States Census Bureau (2017) [29] Population Reference Bureau (1973–2016) [15] United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (2015) [16] Maddison (2008) [17] HYDE (2007) [25] Tanton (1994) [19] Biraben (1980) [20] McEvedy & Jones (1978) [21] Thomlinson (1975) [22] Durand (1974) [23] Clark (1967) [24]
19502,557,628,6542,516,000,0002,525,149,0002,544,000,0002,527,960,0002,400,000,0002,527,000,0002,500,000,0002,400,000,0002,486,000,000
19512,594,939,8772,572,850,9172,571,663,000
19522,636,772,3062,619,292,0682,617,949,000
19532,682,053,3892,665,865,3922,665,959,000
19542,730,228,1042,713,172,0272,716,927,000
19552,782,098,9432,761,650,9812,769,074,000
19562,835,299,6732,811,572,0312,822,502,000
19572,891,349,7172,863,042,7952,879,934,000
19582,948,137,2482,916,030,1672,939,254,000
19593,000,716,5932,970,395,8142,995,909,000
19603,043,001,5083,026,002,9423,041,507,0003,042,000,000
19613,083,966,9293,082,830,2663,082,161,000
19623,140,093,2173,141,071,5313,135,787,0003,036,000,000
19633,209,827,8823,201,178,2773,201,354,000
19643,281,201,3063,263,738,8323,266,477,000
19653,350,425,7933,329,122,4793,333,138,000
19663,420,677,9233,397,475,2473,402,224,0003,288,000,000
19673,490,333,7153,468,521,7243,471,464,000
19683,562,313,8223,541,674,8913,543,086,000
19693,637,159,0503,616,108,7493,615,743,000
19703,712,697,7423,691,172,6163,691,157,0003,710,000,0003,637,000,0003,600,000,0003,600,000,000– 3,700,000,0003,632,000,000
19713,790,326,9483,766,754,3453,769,818,000
19723,866,568,6533,842,873,6113,846,499,000
19733,942,096,4423,919,182,3323,922,793,0003,923,000,0003,860,000,000
19744,016,608,8133,995,304,9223,997,677,000
19754,089,083,2334,071,020,4344,070,671,0003,900,000,0004,000,000,000
19764,160,185,0104,146,135,8504,141,445,000
19774,232,084,5784,220,816,7374,213,539,000
19784,304,105,7534,295,664,8254,286,317,000
19794,379,013,9424,371,527,8714,363,144,000
19804,451,362,7354,449,048,7984,439,529,0004,461,000,000
19814,534,410,1254,528,234,6344,514,838,000
19824,614,566,5614,608,962,4184,587,307,000
19834,695,736,7434,691,559,8404,676,388,000
19844,774,569,3914,776,392,8284,756,521,000
19854,856,462,6994,863,601,5174,837,719,0005,000,000,000
19864,940,571,2324,953,376,7104,920,968,000
19875,027,200,4925,045,315,8715,006,672,000
19885,114,557,1675,138,214,6885,093,306,000
19895,201,440,1105,230,000,0005,180,540,000
19905,288,955,9345,320,816,6675,269,029,0005,308,000,000
19915,371,585,9225,408,908,7245,351,922,000
19925,456,136,2785,494,899,5705,435,722,000
19935,538,268,3165,578,865,1095,518,127,000
19945,618,682,1325,661,086,3465,599,396,000
19955,699,202,9855,760,000,0005,741,822,4125,681,575,000
19965,779,440,5935,821,016,7505,762,212,000
19975,857,972,5435,840,000,0005,898,688,3375,842,122,000
19985,935,213,2485,975,303,6575,921,366,000
19996,012,074,9226,051,478,0105,999,622,000
20006,088,571,3836,067,000,0006,127,700,4286,076,558,0006,145,000,0005,750,000,000
20016,165,219,2476,137,000,0006,204,147,0266,154,791,000
20026,242,016,3486,215,000,0006,280,853,8176,231,704,000
20036,318,590,9566,314,000,0006,357,991,7496,308,364,000
20046,395,699,5096,396,000,0006,435,705,5956,374,056,000
20056,473,044,7326,477,000,0006,514,094,6056,462,987,000
20066,551,263,5346,555,000,0006,593,227,9776,540,214,000
20076,629,913,7596,625,000,0006,673,105,9376,616,689,000
20086,709,049,7806,705,000,0006,753,649,2286,694,832,000
20096,788,214,3946,809,972,0006,834,721,9336,764,086,000
20106,858,584,7556,892,319,0006,916,183,482
20116,935,999,4916,986,951,0006,997,998,760
20127,013,871,3137,057,075,0007,080,072,417
20137,092,128,0947,136,796,0007,162,119,434
20147,169,968,1857,238,184,0007,243,784,000
20157,247,892,7887,336,435,0007,349,472,000
20167,325,996,7097,418,151,841

By world region

UN estimates (as of 2017) for world population by continent in 2000 and in 2050 (pie chart size to scale)
Asia Africa Europe Central/South America North America Oceania Pop continents 2000 2050.png
UN estimates (as of 2017) for world population by continent in 2000 and in 2050 (pie chart size to scale)
     Asia     Africa     Europe     Central/South America     North America     Oceania

Population estimates for world regions based on Maddison (2007), [30] in millions. The row showing total world population includes the average growth rate per year over the period separating each column from the preceding one.

Year110001500160017001820191320002030
Asia 168
(74%)
183
(69%)
284
(65%)
379
(68%)
402
(67%)
710
(68%)
978
(55%)
3,605
(59%)
4,790
(59%)
East Asia/Southeast Asia 74
(33%)
88
(33%)
166
(38%)
223
(40%)
216
(36%)
469
(45%)
613
(34%)
1,996
(33%)
2,417
(30%)
South Asia 75
(33%)
75
(28%)
110
(25%)
135
(24%)
165
(27%)
216
(21%)
326
(18%)
1,372
(23%)
2,003
(25%)
Europe [31] 34
(15%)
40
(15%)
78
(18%)
112
(20%)
127
(21%)
224
(21%)
498
(28%)
742
(13%)
829
(11%)
West Asia 19
(8%)
20
(7%)
18
(3%)
21
(3%)
21
(3%)
25
(2%)
39
(2%)
237
(4%)
370
(5%)
Africa 17
(8%)
32
(12%)
47
(11%)
55
(10%)
61
(10%)
74
(7%)
125
(7%)
798
(13%)
1,449
(18%)
Central/South America 6
(3%)
11
(4%)
18
(4%)
9
(2%)
12
(2%)
22
(2%)
81
(5%)
520
(9%)
702
(9%)
North America 1
(0%)
1
(0%)
2
(0%)
2
(0%)
1
(0%)
11
(1%)
105
(6%)
314
(5%)
413
(5%)
Oceania 0.40.40.60.60.60.4523
(0%)
28
(0%)
World2262674385566031,0411,7916,0628,175
World growth p.a.+0.0%+0.1%+0.2%+0.1%+0.5%+0.6%+1.4%+1.0%

World Population Estimates, 20 Countries and Regional Totals, 0–2000 AD (in thousands)

[32]

Year11000150016001700182018701900195019731998 [32]
Austria5007002,0002,5002,5003,3694,5206,7676,9357,5868,078
Belgium3004001,4001,6002,0003,4245,0967,6668,6409,73810,197
Denmark2503606006507001,1551,8882,9834,2695,0225,303
Finland2502503004004001,1691,7543,0274,0094,6665,153
France5,0006,50015,00018,50021,47131,24638,44041,46341,83652,11858,805
Germany3,0003,50012,00016,00015,00024,90539,23165,05868,37178,95682,029
Italy7,0006,00010,50013,10013,30020,17627,88837,24847,10554,75157,592
Netherlands2003009501,5001,9002,3553,6156,16410,11413,43815,700
Norway2504003004005009701,7352,4473,2653,9614,432
Sweden2503507001,0001,2602,5854,1645,6217,0158,1378,851
Switzerland1503006501,0001,2001,8292,6643,8644,6946,4417,130
United Kingdom1,5002,0003,9426,1708,56521,22631,39345,64950,36356,22359,237
12 Countries Total18,00024,70048,19262,58068,796114,419162,388227,957256,616301,037322,507
Portugal8009001,0001,1002,0003,2974,3536,0048,5128,6349,968
Spain4,5004,0006,8008,2408,77012,20316,20120,26327,86834,81039,371
Other2,1001,1131,2761,8581,8942,9694,5906,78312,06413,90916,553
Total Western Europe25,55030,41357,26873,77881,460132,888187,532261,007305,060358,390388,399
Eastern Europe7,9009,00018,00018,00018,80036,41552,18279,60487,289110,490121,006
Former USSR18,00018,00018,00020,70026,55054,76588,672156,192180,050249,748290,866
United States6801,3002,0001,5001,0009,98140,24197,606152,271212,909270,561
Other Western Offshoots4906608008007501,2495,89213,79523,82339,03652,859
Total Western Offshoots1,1701,9602,8002,3001,75011,23046,133111,401176,094250,945323,420
Mexico10,00010,00010,0002,5004,5006,5879,21914,97028,48557,64398,553
Other Latin America10,00020,00030,0006,1007,55014,63330,75465,545137,352250,807409,070
Total Latin America20,00030,00040,0008,60012,05021,22039,97380,515165,837308,450507,623
Japan3,0007,50015,40018,50027,00031,00034,43751,67283,563108,660126,469
China50,00059,000103,000160,000138,000381,000358,000437,140546,815881,9401,242,700
India60,00075,000110,000135,000165,000209,000253,000303,700359,000580,000975,000
Other Asia66,00041,40055,40065,00071,80089,366119,619185,092392,481677,2141,172,243
Total Asia179,000175,400268,400360,000374,800679,366730,619925,9321,298,2962,139,1543,389,943
Africa35,00033,00046,00055,00061,00074,20890,466124,697228,342387,645759,954
World300,000268,273437,818555,828603,4101,041,0921,270,0141,791,0202,524,5313,913,4825,907,680

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Economy of Chile</span>

The economy of Chile is a market economy and high-income economy as ranked by the World Bank. The country is considered one of South America's most prosperous nations, leading the region in competitiveness, income per capita, globalization, economic freedom, and low perception of corruption. Although Chile has high economic inequality, as measured by the Gini index, it is close to the regional mean.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Economy of the Czech Republic</span>

The economy of the Czech Republic is a developed export-oriented social market economy based in services, manufacturing, and innovation that maintains a high-income welfare state and the European social model. The Czech Republic participates in the European Single Market as a member of the European Union, and is therefore a part of the economy of the European Union. It uses its own currency, the Czech koruna, instead of the euro. It is a member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The Czech Republic ranks 16th in inequality-adjusted human development and 24th in World Bank Human Capital Index, ahead of countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom or France. It was described by The Guardian as "one of Europe's most flourishing economies".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gross domestic product</span> Market value of goods and services produced within a country

Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the market value of all the final goods and services produced in a specific time period by a country or countries. GDP is more often used by the government of a single country to measure its economic health. Due to its complex and subjective nature, this measure is often revised before being considered a reliable indicator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Demographics of India</span>

India is the most populous country in the world with one-sixth of the world's population. According to UN estimates, India overtook China in having the largest population in the world with a population of 1,425,775,850 at the end of April 2023.

Population is the term typically used to refer to the number of people in a single area. Governments conduct a census to quantify the size of a resident population within a given jurisdiction. The term is also applied to non-human animals, microorganisms, and plants, and has specific uses within such fields as ecology and genetics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1900s</span> Decade of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1909)

The 1900s was a decade that began on January 1, 1900, and ended on December 31, 1909. The Edwardian era (1901–1910) covers a similar span of time. The term "nineteen-hundreds" is sometimes also used to mean the entire century from January 1, 1900, to December 31, 1999.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Economy of France</span>

The economy of France is a highly developed social market economy with notable state participation in strategic sectors. It is the world's seventh-largest economy by nominal GDP and the ninth-largest economy by PPP, constituting around 4% of world GDP. Due to a volatile currency exchange rate, France's GDP as measured in dollars fluctuates sharply. France has a diversified economy, that is dominated by the service sector, whilst the industrial sector accounted for 19.5% of its GDP and the primary sector accounted for the remaining 1.7%. In 2020, France was the largest Foreign Direct Investment recipient in Europe, and Europe's second largest spender in research and development. It was ranked among the 10 most innovative countries in the world by the 2020 Bloomberg Innovation Index, as well as the 15th most competitive nation globally according to the 2019 Global Competitiveness Report. It was the fifth-largest trading nation in the world. France is also the most visited destination in the world, as well as the European Union's leading agricultural power.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">World economy</span> Economy of the world

The world economy or global economy is the economy of all humans in the world, referring to the global economic system, which includes all economic activities conducted both within and between nations, including production, consumption, economic management, work in general, financial transactions and trade of goods and services. In some contexts, the two terms are distinct: the "international" or "global economy" is measured separately and distinguished from national economies, while the "world economy" is simply an aggregate of the separate countries' measurements. Beyond the minimum standard concerning value in production, use and exchange, the definitions, representations, models and valuations of the world economy vary widely. It is inseparable from the geography and ecology of planet Earth.

The economies of Canada and the United States are similar because both are developed countries. While both countries feature in the top ten economies in the world in 2022, the U.S. is the largest economy in the world, with US$24.8 trillion, with Canada ranking ninth at US$2.2 trillion.

Population decline, also known as depopulation, is a reduction in a human population size. Throughout history, Earth's total human population has continued to grow; however, current projections suggest that this long-term trend of steady population growth may be coming to an end.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Population growth</span> Increase in the number of individuals in a population

Population growth is the increase in the number of people in a population or dispersed group. Actual global human population growth amounts to around 83 million annually, or 1.1% per year. The global population has grown from 1 billion in 1800 to 7.9 billion in 2020. The UN projected population to keep growing, and estimates have put the total population at 8.6 billion by mid-2030, 9.8 billion by mid-2050 and 11.2 billion by 2100. However, some academics outside the UN have increasingly developed human population models that account for additional downward pressures on population growth; in such a scenario population would peak before 2100. Others have challenged many recent population projections as having underestimated population growth.

This is the Economic history of the Indian subcontinent. It includes the economic timeline of the region, from the ancient era to the present, and briefly summarizes the data presented in the Economic history of India and List of regions by past GDP (PPP) articles.

Angus Maddison was a distinguished British economist specialising in quantitative macro economic history, including the measurement and analysis of economic growth and development.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Demographic history</span>

Demographic history is the reconstructed record of human population in the past. Given the lack of population records prior to the 1950s, there are many gaps in our record of demographic history. Historical demographers must make do with estimates, models and extrapolations. For the demographic methodology, see historical demography.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Demographics of Asia</span>

The continent of Asia covers 29.4% of the Earth's land area and has a population of around 4.75 billion, accounting for about 60% of the world population. The combined population of both China and India is estimated to be over 2.8 billion people as of 2022. Asia's population is projected to grow to 5.25 billion by 2055, or about 54% of projected world population at that time. Population growth in Asia was close to 0.55% p.a. as of 2022, with highly disparate rates. Many Western Asian and South Asian countries have growth rates above world average, notably Pakistan at 2% p.a., while China had a small decrease of –0.06% and India had a 0.6% increase in 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">World population</span> Total number of living humans on Earth

In world demographics, the world population is the total number of humans currently living. It was estimated by the United Nations to have exceeded eight billion in mid-November 2022. It took around 300,000 years of human prehistory and history for the human population to reach a billion and only 222 years more to reach 8 billion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Demographics of the world</span> Global human population statistics

Earth has a human population of over 8 billion as of 2024, with an overall population density of 50 people per km2. Nearly 60% of the world's population lives in Asia, with almost 2.8 billion in the countries of China and India combined. The percentage shares of China, India and rest of South Asia of the world population have remained at similar levels for the last few thousand years of recorded history. The world's literacy rate has increased dramatically in the last 40 years, from 66.7% in 1979 to 86.3% today. Lower literacy levels are mostly attributable to poverty. Lower literacy rates are found mostly in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">0s</span> First 9 years of the Common Era

The 0s began on January 1, AD 1 and ended on December 31, AD 9, covering the first nine years of the Common Era. It is one of two "0-to-9" decade-like timespans that contain nine years, along with the 0s BC.

References

  1. range of estimates for average growth rates over the preceding century according to the data cited under #Historical population; The average growth rate for the 14th century is low as a consequence of the Black Death.
  2. Kurt, A. (1995). The Ancient Near East, c. 3000–330 BCE. Vol. 2. London: Routledge. p. 695.
  3. Thomlinson (1975): "one to ten million".
  4. Pala, M; Olivieri, A; Achilli, A; Accetturo, M; Metspalu, E; Reidla, M; Tamm, E; Karmin, M; Reisberg, T; Hooshiar Kashani, B; Perego, UA; Carossa, V; Gandini, F; Pereira, JB; Soares, P; Angerhofer, N; Rychkov, S; Al-Zahery, N; Carelli, V; Sanati, MH; Houshmand, M; Hatina, J; Macaulay, V; Pereira, L; Woodward, SR; Davies, W; Gamble, C; Baird, D; Semino, O; Villems, R; Torroni, A; Richards, MB (2012). "Mitochondrial DNA signals of late glacial recolonization of Europe from near eastern refugia". Am. J. Hum. Genet. 90 (5): 915–24. doi:10.1016/j.ajhg.2012.04.003. PMC   3376494 . PMID   22560092.
  5. Stanley H. Ambrose (1998). "Late Pleistocene human population bottlenecks, volcanic winter, and differentiation of modern humans". Journal of Human Evolution . 34 (6): 623–651. doi:10.1006/jhev.1998.0219. PMID   9650103. S2CID   33122717.Ambrose, Stanley H. (2005). "Volcanic Winter, and Differentiation of Modern Humans". Bradshaw Foundation. Retrieved 2006-04-08.
  6. Robock, A., C.M. Ammann, L. Oman, D. Shindell, S. Levis, and G. Stenchikov (2009). "Did the Toba volcanic eruption of ~74k BP produce widespread glaciation?". Journal of Geophysical Research . 114 (D10): D10107. Bibcode:2009JGRD..11410107R. doi: 10.1029/2008JD011652 . S2CID   37420327.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  7. Per Sjödin, Agnès E Sjöstrand, Mattias Jakobsson and Michael G B Blum, "Resequencing data provide no evidence for a human bottleneck in Africa during the penultimate glacial period" Mol Biol Evol (2012) DOI: 10.1093/molbev/mss061. "A small human effective population size, on the order of 10,000 individuals, which is smaller than the effective population size of most great apes, has been interpreted as a result of a very long history, starting ~ 2 mya, of small population size, coined as the long-necked bottle model (Harpending et al. 1998; Hawks et al. 2000). Our findings are consistent with this hypothesis, but, depending on the mutation rate, we find either an effective population size of NA = 12,000 (95% C.I. = 9,000–15,500 when averaging over all three demographic models) using the mutation rate calibrated with the human-chimp divergence or an effective population size of NA = 32,500 individuals (95% C.I. = 27,500–34,500) using the mutation rate given by whole-genome trio analysis (The 1000 Genomes Project Consortium 2010) (supplementary figure 4 and table 6, Supplementary Material online). Not surprisingly, the estimated effective mutation rates θ = 4NAμ are comparable for the two mutation rates we considered, and are equal to 1.4 × 10−3/bp/generation (95% C.I. = (1.1–1.7) × 10−3). Relating the estimated effective population size to the census population size during the Pleistocene is a difficult task because there are many factors affecting the effective population size (Charlesworth 2009). Nevertheless, based on published estimates of the ratio between effective and census population size, a comprehensive value on the order of 10% has been found by Frankham (1995). This 10% rule roughly predicts that 120,000−325,[0]00 individuals (depending on the assumed mutation rate)"
  8. Haub (1995): "at some time back in the 1970s, some now-forgotten writer made the statement that 75 percent of the people who had ever been born were alive at that moment." Haub (1995) is the basis of a 2007 article in Scientific American, "Fact or Fiction". Scientificamerican.com.
  9. Stephenson, Wesley (4 Feb 2012). "Do the dead outnumber the living?". BBC News.
  10. 1 2 Curtin, Ciara (September 2007). "Do living people outnumber the dead?". Scientific American. 297 (3): 126. Bibcode:2007SciAm.297c.126C. doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0907-126. PMID   17784634.
  11. Kapitza, 'The phenomenological theory of world population growth', Physics-Uspekhi 39(1) 57–71 (1996) cites estimates ranging between 80 and 150 billion (Sergei P Kapitza, 'The phenomenological theory of world population growth', Physics-Uspekhi 39(1) 57–71, 1996), citing K. M. Weiss, Human Biology 56637, 1984, and N. Keyfitz, Applied Mathematical Demography, New York: Wiley, 1977). Haub (1995) cited 105 billion, updated to 107 billion as of 2011 in Haub, Carl (October 2011). "How Many People Have Ever Lived on Earth?". Population Reference Bureau. Archived from the original on April 24, 2013. Retrieved April 29, 2013.
  12. Haub (1995): "Clearly, the period 8000 B.C. to 1 A.D. is key to the magnitude of our number, but, unfortunately, little is known about that era. ... of course, pushing the date of humanity's arrival on the planet before 50,000 B.C. would also raise the number, although perhaps not by terribly much."
  13. Haub (1995): "Life expectancy at birth probably averaged only about 10 years for most of human history. Estimates of average life expectancy in Iron Age France have been put at only 10 or 12 years. Under these conditions, the birth rate would have to be about 80 per 1,000 people just for the species to survive. ... Our birth rate assumption will greatly affect the estimate of the number of persons ever born. Infant mortality in the human race's earliest days is thought to have been very high—perhaps 500 infant deaths per 1,000 births, or even higher. ... Birth rates were set at 80 per 1,000 per year through 1 A.D. and at 60 per 1,000 from 2 A.D. to 1750. Rates then declined to the low 30s by the modern period. (For a brief bibliography of sources consulted in the course of this alchemy, see [Colin McEvedy and Richard Jones 1978])." "So, our estimate here is that about 5.5 percent of all people ever born are alive today." Using the UN estimates for birth rates ( "UNdata: Crude birth rate". United Nations. 25 August 2011.) and world population (U.S. Census Bureau, International Data Base), there were an estimated 3.0 billion births during 1995–2016, so that based on the estimate by Haub (1995), the figures for 2017 would be "about 108 billion births" and "about 7 percent of all people ever born are alive today."
  14. 1 2 Haub (1995): "The average annual rate of growth was actually lower from 1 A.D. to 1650 than the rate suggested above for the 8000 B.C. to 1 A.D. period. One reason for this abnormally slow growth was the Black Plague. This dreaded scourge was not limited to 14th century Europe. The epidemic may have begun about 542 A.D. in Western Asia, spreading from there. It is believed that half the Byzantine Empire was destroyed in the 6th century, a total of 100 million deaths."
  15. 1 2 Data from Population Reference Bureau Archived 2008-05-20 at the Wayback Machine .
    2016 estimate: (a) "2016 World Population Data Sheet" Archived 2017-08-28 at the Wayback Machine
    2015 estimate: (b) Toshiko Kaneda, 2015, "2015 World Population Data Sheet" Archived 2018-02-19 at the Wayback Machine .
    2014 estimate: (c) Carl Haub, 2014, "2014 World Population Data Sheet" Archived 2018-02-18 at the Wayback Machine .
    2013 estimate: (d) Carl Haub, 2013, "2013 World Population Data Sheet" Archived 2015-02-26 at the Wayback Machine .
    2012 estimate: (e) Carl Haub, 2012, "2012 World Population Data Sheet" Archived 2014-05-21 at the Wayback Machine .
    2011 estimate: (f) Carl Haub, 2011, "2011 World Population Data Sheet" Archived 2017-11-18 at the Wayback Machine .
    2010 estimate: (g) Carl Haub, 2010, "2010 World Population Data Sheet" Archived 2018-01-09 at the Wayback Machine .
    2009 estimate: (h) Carl Haub, 2009, "2009 World Population Data Sheet" Archived 2010-04-22 at the Wayback Machine .
    2008 estimate: (i) Carl Haub, 2008, "2008 World Population Data Sheet" Archived 2017-12-19 at the Wayback Machine .
    2007 estimate: (j) Carl Haub, 2007, "2007 World Population Data Sheet" Archived 2011-02-24 at the Wayback Machine .
    2006 estimate: (k) Carl Haub, 2006, "2006 World Population Data Sheet" Archived 2010-12-22 at the Wayback Machine .
    2005 estimate: (l) Carl Haub, 2005, "2005 World Population Data Sheet" Archived 2011-04-14 at the Wayback Machine .
    2004 estimate: (m) Carl Haub, 2004, "2004 World Population Data Sheet" Archived 2017-03-29 at the Wayback Machine .
    2003 estimate: (n) Carl Haub, 2003, "2003 World Population Data Sheet" Archived 2019-08-19 at the Wayback Machine .
    2002 estimate: (o) Carl Haub, 2002, "2002 World Population Data Sheet" Archived 2017-12-09 at the Wayback Machine .
    2001 estimate: (p) Carl Haub, 2001, "2001 World Population Data Sheet".
    2000 estimate: (q) 2000, "9 Billion World Population by 2050" Archived 2018-02-01 at the Wayback Machine .
    1997 estimate: (r) 1997, "Studying Populations".
    Estimates for 1995 and prior: (s) Carl Haub, 1995, "How Many People Have Ever Lived on Earth?" Population Today, Vol. 23 (no. 2), pp. 5–6.
  16. 1 2 Data from United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division.
    1950–2100 estimates (only medium variants shown): (a) World Population Prospects: The 2008 Revision. Archived 2011-04-29 at the Wayback Machine
    Estimates prior to 1950: (b) "The World at Six Billion", 1999.
    Estimates from 1950 to 2100: (c) "Population of the entire world, yearly, 1950 - 2100", 2013. Archived November 19, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
    2014: (d) http://esa.un.org/unpd/wup/Highlights/WUP2014-Highlights.pdf "2014 World Urbanization Prospects", 2014.]
    2015: (e) http://esa.un.org/unpd/wpp/Publications/Files/Key_Findings_WPP_2015.pdf"2015 World Urbanization Prospects", 2015.] Archived March 20, 2014, at the Wayback Machine
  17. 1 2 Angus Maddison, 2003, The World Economy: Historical Statistics, Vol. 2, OECD, Paris Archived May 13, 2008, at the Wayback Machine ISBN   92-64-10412-7.
    "Statistical Appendix" (2008, ggdc.net) "The historical data were originally developed in three books: Monitoring the World Economy 1820-1992, OECD, Paris 1995; The World Economy: A Millennial Perspective, OECD Development Centre, Paris 2001; The World Economy: Historical Statistics, OECD Development Centre, Paris 2003. All these contain detailed source notes. Figures for 1820 onwards are annual, wherever possible. For earlier years, benchmark figures are shown for 1 AD, 1000 AD, 1500, 1600 and 1700." "OECD countries GDP revised and updated 1991-2003 from National Accounts for OECD Countries, vol. I, 2006. Norway 1820-1990 GDP from Ola Grytten (2004), "The Gross Domestic Product for Norway, 1830-2003" in Eitrheim, Klovland and Qvigstad (eds), Historical Monetary Statistics for Norway, 1819-2003, Norges Bank, Oslo. Latin American GDP 2000-2003 revised and updated from ECLAC, Statistical Yearbook 2004 and preliminary version of the 2005 Yearbook supplied by Andre Hofman. For Chile, GDP 1820-2003 from Rolf Lűders (1998), "The Comparative Economic Performance of Chile 1810-1995", Estudios de Economia, vol. 25, no. 2, with revised population estimates from Diaz, J., R. Lűders, and G. Wagner (2005) Chili 1810-2000: la Republica en Cifras, mimeo, Instituto de Economia, Universidad Católica de Chile. For Peru, GDP 1896-1990 and population 1896-1949 from Bruno Seminario and Arlette Beltran, Crecimiento Economico en el Peru 1896-1995, Universidad del Pacifico, 1998. " "For Asia there are amendments to the GDP estimates for South and North Korea, 1911-74, to correct an error in Maddison (2003). Estimates for the Philippines, 1902-1940 were amended in line with Richard Hooley (2005), 'American Economic Policy in the Philippines, 1902-1940', Journal of Asian Economics, 16. 1820 estimates were amended for Hong Kong, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan and Thailand." "Asian countries GDP revised and updated 1998-2003 from AsianOutlook, April 2005. Population estimates for all countries except China and Indonesia revised and updated 1950-2008 and 2030 from International Data Base, International Programs Center, Population Division, US Bureau of the Census, April 2005 version. China's population 1990-2003 from China Statistical Yearbook 2005, China Statistics Press, Beijing. Indonesian population 1950-2003 kindly supplied by Pierre van der Eng. The figures now include three countries previously omitted: Cook Islands, Nauru and Tuvalu."
  18. Klein Goldewijk, K., A. Beusen, M. de Vos and G. van Drecht (2011). The HYDE 3.1 spatially explicit database of human induced land use change over the past 12,000 years, Global Ecology and Biogeography20(1): 73-86. doi : 10.1111/j.1466-8238.2010.00587.x (pbl.nl Archived 2021-04-23 at the Wayback Machine ). HYDE (History Database of the Global Environment), 2010. HYDE 3.1 gives estimates for 5000 BC, 1000 BC and "AD 0". HYDE estimates are higher than those by Colin McEvedy (1978) but lower than those by Massimo Livi Bacci (1989, 2012). (graphs (itbulk.org)).
  19. 1 2 John H. Tanton, 1994, "End of the Migration Epoch? Time For a New Paradigm", The Social Contract, Vol. 4 (no 3), pp. 162–173.
  20. 1 2 Slightly updated data from original paper in French: (a) Jean-Noël Biraben, 1980, "An Essay Concerning Mankind's Evolution", Population, Selected Papers, Vol. 4, pp. 1–13. Original paper in French: (b) Jean-Noël Biraben, 1979, "Essai sur l'évolution du nombre des hommes", Population, Vol. 34 (no. 1), pp. 13–25.
  21. 1 2 Colin McEvedy and Richard Jones, 1978, Atlas of World Population History, Facts on File, New York, ISBN   0-7139-1031-3.
  22. 1 2 Ralph Thomlinson, 1975, Demographic Problems: Controversy over population control, 2nd Ed., Dickenson Publishing Company, Ecino, CA, ISBN   0-8221-0166-1.
  23. 1 2 John D. Durand, 1974, "Historical Estimates of World Population: An Evaluation", University of Pennsylvania, Population Center, Analytical and Technical Reports, Number 10.
  24. 1 2 Colin Clark, 1967, Population Growth and Land Use, St. Martin's Press, New York, ISBN   0-333-01126-0.
  25. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Data from History Database of the Global Environment. Archived 2018-02-27 at the Wayback Machine K. Klein Goldewijk, A. Beusen and P. Janssen, "HYDE 3.1: Long-term dynamic modeling of global population and built-up area in a spatially explicit way", from table on pg. 2, Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (MNP), Bilthoven, The Netherlands.
  26. Haub (1995): "By 1 A.D., the world may have held about 300 million people. One estimate of the population of the Roman Empire, from Spain to Asia Minor, in 14 A.D. is 45 million. However, other historians set the figure twice as high, suggesting how imprecise population estimates of early historical periods can be."
  27. "The present figures are a revision and update of those presented on this website in 2003. The most significant changes are in the entries for the year 1, where gaps in previous tables have been filled with the new estimates for the Roman Empire in Maddison (2007). The estimates are in fact for 14 AD"
  28. The estimates are in fact for 14 AD"
  29. Data from U.S. Census Bureau, International Data Base Retrieved on 28 Oct, 2017
  30. Angus Maddison, The World Economy: Historical Statistics, Statistical Appendix (2007, ggdc.net). Estimates cited are for the beginning of the 1st millennium ("year 0"), the beginning of the 2nd millennium ("year 1000"), and for the beginning each century since the 16th (years 1820 and 1913 are given for the 19th and 20th century, respectively, as Maddison presents detailed estimates for these years), and a projection for the year 2030.
  31. includes Central Asia
    (listed under "former USSR")
  32. 1 2 Maddison (27 July 2016). "Growth of World Population, GDP and GDP Per Capita before 1820" (PDF).

Further reading