Yeah, yeah, you know -- the world population is hitting 7 billion this year. Here are some facts about the world's people that you might not already be familiar with.
50,000 -- years it took for the human population to reach 1 billion, in 1800 1
12 -- years it took to add the latest billion, in 2011 2
12 -- projected number of years it could take to add the next billion, by 2023 2
9.3 billion -- potential world population in 2050, according
to the U.N.'s medium projection 3
10.1 billion -- potential world population in 2100,
according to the U.N.'s medium projection 3
15.8 billion -- potential world population in 2100 if
fertility rates don't fall as much as expected, according to the U.N.'s high
projection 3
158 -- people added to the planet every minute (births minus
deaths) 4
227,252 -- people added to the planet every day 4
82,947,000 -- people added to the planet every year 4
100-1,000 -- factor by which the extinction rate of
species has increased since Homo sapiens came onto the scene 5
15-37 -- percentage of existing species expected to be
pushed to extinction by 2050 because of human-driven climate change 6
60 -- percentage of key ecosystem services (freshwater, air and water purification, etc.) degraded or used unsustainably
by humans over the last 50 years 7
350,000 -- number of Endangered Species Condoms the Center for Biological Diversity gave away in 2010 8
100,000 -- number of Endangered Species Condoms the center plans to give away this fall, with
your help 8
5.0 -- number of children born to the average woman in 1950
9
2.5 -- number of children born to the average woman today
4, 9
2.0 -- number of children born to the average woman in the
U.S. 4
0.9 -- number of children born to the average woman in
Taiwan, the country with the world's lowest fertility rate 4
7.0 -- number of children born to the average woman in
Niger, the country with the world's highest fertility rate 4
215 million -- number of women in the world who want to
prevent or delay pregnancy but don't have access to modern contraception 10
$16.9 billion -- estimated annual cost of providing
family-planning services to all women in developing countries 11
$20.8 billion -- amount Wall Street firms paid out in
bonuses in 2010 12
1.25 billion -- number of people living in more developed
countries 4
5.75 billion -- number of people living in less developed
countries 4
100 -- percentage of future population growth expected to
happen in less developed countries 13
1.35 billion -- population of China, the most populous
nation on earth 4
1.24 billion -- population of India, the second most
populous nation 4
312 million -- population of the U.S., the third most
populous nation 4
5.8 -- metric tons of CO2 emitted per person in China 14
1.4 -- metric tons of CO2 emitted per person in India 14
17.7 -- metric tons of CO2 emitted per person in the U.S. 14
4.5 -- percentage of world population living in the U.S.
15
18 -- percentage of global CO2 from fossil-fuel
burning emitted in the U.S. 16
1 -- rank of the U.S. in terms of overall global energy consumption 17
18 -- number of languages the Voluntary
Human Extinction Movement website has been translated into 18
0 -- chance of the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement achieving its goal
Sources:
Hat tips to Vicky
Markham and Laurie
Mazur.
1. "What
If Experts Are Wrong On World Population Growth?" by Carl Haub, Yale
Environment 360. "Scientists
Rough Out Humanity's 50,000-Year-Old Story," by Nicholas Wade, New
York Times Learning Network.
2. "Population
Bulletin: The World at 7 Billion," Population Reference Bureau.
3. "World
Population to Reach 10 Billion by 2100 if Fertility in All Countries Converges
to Replacement Level" [PDF], United Nations.
4. "2011
World Population Data Sheet," Population Reference Bureau.
5. "GEO-4 Fact Sheet 7: Biodiversity and Human Well-Being" [PDF], United Nations Environment Program. "About the IUCN Red List," IUCN.
6. "Extinction
risk from climate change," by Chris D. Thomas et al., Nature.
7. "Ecosystems
and Human Well-Being: Synthesis" [PDF], Millenium Ecosystem
Assessment.
8. "Endangered
Species Condoms," Center for Biological Diversity.
9. "9 Billion?"
by Leslie Roberts, Science.
10. "Facts on Investing in
Family Planning and Maternal and Newborn Health" [PDF], Guttmacher
Institute.
11. "Population
policies, programmes and the environment," by J. Joseph Speidel et
al., Philosophical Transactions B.
Correspondence with J. Joseph Speidel, August 2011.
12. "Wall
Street bonuses," The Economist.
"Wall
Street Cash Bonuses Fall, Despite Strong Profit," by Brett Philbin, The Wall Street Journal.
13. "Rapid
Growth in Less Developed Regions," United Nations Population Fund.
14. "World carbon dioxide emissions data by country: China speeds ahead of the rest," The Guardian.
15. "U.S. and World Population
Clocks," U.S. Census Bureau.
16. "List of countries by carbon dioxide emissions," Wikipedia.
17. The World Factbook, Central Intelligence Agency.
18. Voluntary Human Extinction Movement website.
About the author: Lisa Hymas is senior editor at Grist Magazine, which she cofounded in 1999. You can follow her on Twitter and Google+. She writes on politics, population, and other green issues.