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88-487: Afro-Eurasia encompasses 84,980,532 km (32,811,167 sq mi), 57% of the world's land area, and has a population of approximately 6.7 billion people, roughly 86% of the world population . Together with mainland Australia , they comprise the vast majority of the land in the world's Eastern Hemisphere . The Afro-Eurasian mainland is the largest and most populous contiguous landmass on Earth . The following terms are used for similar concepts: Although Afro-Eurasia

176-403: A 70 percent probability the world population will not stabilize this century. Population, which had sort of fallen off the world's agenda, remains a very important issue." The table below shows historical and predicted regional population figures in millions. The availability of historical population figures varies by region. The following table gives estimates, in millions, of population in

264-494: A basic model from which to make broad population conjectures. The idea became taboo following the United Nations' 1994 International Conference on Population and Development , where framing human population growth as negatively impacting the natural environment became regarded as "anti-human". Eurasia Eurasia ( / j ʊəˈr eɪ ʒ ə / yoor- AY -zhə , also UK : /- ʃ ə / -⁠shə )

352-533: A lack of accurate records. Haub (1995) estimates that around 40% of those who have ever lived did not survive beyond their first birthday. Haub also stated that " life expectancy at birth probably averaged only about ten years for most of human history", which is not to be mistaken for the life expectancy after reaching adulthood. The latter equally depended on period, location and social standing, but calculations identify averages from roughly 30 years upward. The National Institute of Corrections estimates that

440-412: A large scale. Asia is the most populous continent, with its 4.64 billion inhabitants accounting for 60% of the world population. The world's two most populated countries, India and China, together constitute about 36% of the world's population. Africa is the second most populated continent, with around 1.34 billion people, or 17% of the world's population. Europe's 747 million people make up 10% of

528-424: A low of 7.4 billion to a high of more than 10.6 billion. Projected figures vary depending on underlying statistical assumptions and the variables used in projection calculations, especially the fertility and mortality variables. Long-range predictions to 2150 range from a population decline to 3.2 billion in the "low scenario", to "high scenarios" of 24.8 billion. One extreme scenario predicted

616-499: A massive increase to 256 billion by 2150, assuming the global fertility rate remained at its 1995 level of 3.04 children per woman; however, by 2010 the global fertility rate had declined to 2.52. There is no estimation for the exact day or month the world's population surpassed one or two billion. The points at which it reached three and four billion were not officially noted, but the International Database of

704-502: A more efficient path to the ocean than the existing Volga–Don Canal . This usage can also be seen in the names of Eurasianet , The Journal of Eurasian Studies , and the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies , as well as the titles of numerous academic programmes at US universities. This usage is comparable to how Americans use " Western Hemisphere " to describe concepts and organizations dealing with

792-402: A population of over 139 million in 2020. In just one hundred years, the population of Brazil decupled (x10), from about 17 million in 1900, or about 1% of the world population in that year, to about 176 million in 2000, or almost 3% of the global population in the very early 21st century. Mexico's population grew from 13.6 million in 1900 to about 112 million in 2010. Between

880-454: A steady decline in population growth rate; the global population is expected to reach between 8.3 and 10.9 billion by 2050. 2003 UN Population Division population projections for the year 2150 range between 3.2 and 24.8 billion. One of many independent mathematical models supports the lower estimate, while a 2014 estimate forecasts between 9.3 and 12.6 billion in 2100, and continued growth thereafter. The 2019 Revision of

968-753: Is connected to Africa at the Suez Canal , and the two are sometimes combined to describe the largest contiguous landmass on Earth, Afro-Eurasia . Primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres , Eurasia spans from Iceland and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Russian Far East , and from the Russian Far North to Maritime Southeast Asia in the south, but other specific geographical limits of Eurasia states that

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1056-780: Is considered a supercontinent , part of the supercontinent of Afro-Eurasia or simply a continent in its own right. In plate tectonics , the Eurasian Plate includes Europe and most of Asia but not the Indian subcontinent, the Arabian Peninsula or the area of the Russian Far East east of the Chersky Range . From the point of view of history and culture, Eurasia can be loosely subdivided into Western Eurasia and Eastern Eurasia . In geology, Eurasia

1144-400: Is currently (2015–20) 140 million/year, is projected to peak during the period 2040–45 at 141 million/year and thereafter decline slowly to 126 million/year by 2100. The total number of deaths is currently 57 million/year and is projected to grow steadily to 121 million/year by 2100. 2012 United Nations projections show a continued increase in population in the near future with

1232-541: Is currently 57 million/year and is projected to grow steadily to 121 million/year by 2100. The median age of human beings as of 2020 is 31 years. Estimates of world population by their nature are an aspect of modernity , possible only since the Age of Discovery . Early estimates for the population of the world date to the 17th century: William Petty , in 1682, estimated the world population at 320 million (current estimates ranging close to twice this number); by

1320-471: Is disputed, since Mount Elbrus would be part of Europe in the latter case, making it (and not Mont Blanc ) Europe's highest mountain. Most accepted is probably the boundary as defined by Philip Johan von Strahlenberg in the 18th century. He defined the dividing line along the Aegean Sea , Dardanelles , Sea of Marmara , Bosporus , Black Sea , Kuma–Manych Depression , Caspian Sea , Ural River , and

1408-532: Is expected to continue drifting northward. It will close the Strait of Gibraltar , quickly evaporating the Mediterranean Sea . No supercontinent will form within the settled time frame, however, and the geologic record is full of unexpected shifts in tectonic activity that make further projections "very, very speculative". Three possibilities are known as Novopangaea , Amasia , and Pangaea Proxima . In

1496-428: Is given by the statistician Jorgen Randers, who argues that traditional projections insufficiently take into account the downward impact of global urbanization on fertility. Randers' "most likely scenario" reveals a peak in the world population in the early 2040s at about 8.1 billion people, followed by decline. Adrian Raftery, a University of Washington professor of statistics and of sociology, states that "there's

1584-780: Is in the Western Hemisphere and is Asia’s easternmost point on a continuous path. • Highest point – Mount Everest or Qomolangma , China and Nepal • Lowest point (on land) – shores of the Dead Sea , between Israel and Jordan [REDACTED] Africa [REDACTED] Antarctica [REDACTED] Asia [REDACTED] Australia [REDACTED] Europe [REDACTED] North America [REDACTED] South America [REDACTED] Afro-Eurasia [REDACTED] Americas [REDACTED] Eurasia [REDACTED] Oceania World population In world demographics ,

1672-497: Is often considered as a single rigid megablock, but this is debated. Eurasia formed between 375 and 325 million years ago with the merging of Siberia , Kazakhstania , and Baltica , which was joined to Laurentia (now North America), to form Euramerica . This is a list of the longest rivers in Eurasia. Included are all rivers over 3,000 km (1,900 mi). All of the 100 highest mountains on Earth are in Eurasia, in

1760-527: Is often used in Kazakhstan to describe its location. Numerous Kazakh institutions have the term in their names, like the L. N. Gumilev Eurasian National University ( Kazakh : Л. Н. Гумилёв атындағы Еуразия Ұлттық университеті ; Евразийский Национальный университет имени Л. Н. Гумилёва ) ( Lev Gumilev 's Eurasianism ideas having been popularized in Kazakhstan by Olzhas Suleimenov ),

1848-487: Is recognized as the largest of the six, five, or four continents on Earth. Eurasia covers around 55 million square kilometres (21 million square miles), or around 36.2% of the Earth's total land area. The landmass contains well over 5 billion people, equating to approximately 70% of the human population . Humans first settled in Eurasia from Africa 125,000 years ago. Eurasia contains many peninsulas, including

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1936-479: Is that as agriculture advances in creating more food, the population consequently increases—the Neolithic Revolution and Green Revolution often specifically provided as examples of such agricultural breakthroughs. Furthermore, certain scientific studies do lend evidence to food availability in particular being the dominant factor within a more recent timeframe. Other studies take it as

2024-642: Is the fact that average global birth rates , as well as mortality rates , are declining rapidly, as the nations of the world progress through the stages of the demographic transition, but both vary greatly between developed countries (where birth rates and mortality rates are often low) and developing countries (where birth and mortality rates typically remain high). Different ethnicities also display varying birth rates. Birth rate and mortality rates can change rapidly due to disease epidemics , wars and other mass catastrophes, or advances in medicine and public health . The UN's first report in 1951 showed that during

2112-440: Is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia . According to some geographers, physiographically , Eurasia is a single supercontinent . The concepts of Europe and Asia as distinct continents date back to antiquity , but their borders have historically been subject to change. For example, to the ancient Greeks , Asia originally included Africa but they classified Europe as separate land. Eurasia

2200-413: Is the largest language family by number of speakers. Standard Arabic is a language with no native speakers, but the total number of speakers is estimated at 274 million people. The largest religious categories in the world as of 2020 are estimated as follows: Christianity (31%), Islam (25%), Unaffiliated (16%) and Hinduism (15%). Six of the Earth's seven continents are permanently inhabited on

2288-615: Is typically considered to comprise two or three separate continents , it is not a proper supercontinent . Instead, it is the largest present part of the supercontinent cycle . The oldest part of Afro-Eurasia is probably the Kaapvaal Craton , which together with Madagascar and parts of the Indian subcontinent and western Australian continent formed part of the first supercontinent Vaalbara or Ur around 3 billion years ago . It has made up parts of every supercontinent since. At

2376-417: Is unlikely that there will be another doubling of the global population in the 21st century. The total number of humans who have ever lived is estimated to be approximately 100 billion . Such estimates can only be rough approximations, as even modern population estimates are subject to uncertainty of around 3% to 5%. Kapitsa (1996) cites estimates ranging between 80 and 150 billion. The PRB puts

2464-1060: The Alps , the Arctic, the Pacific, the Atlantic, the Mediterranean, the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, a definition that has been influential in Russia and other parts of the former Soviet Union. Nowadays, partly inspired by this usage, the term Eurasia is sometimes used to refer to the post-Soviet space – in particular Russia, the Central Asian republics, and the Transcaucasus republics – and sometimes also adjacent regions such as Turkey and Mongolia . The word "Eurasia"

2552-635: The Arabian Peninsula , Korean Peninsula , Indian subcontinent , Anatolia Peninsula , Kamchatka Peninsula , and Europe, which itself contains peninsulas such as the Italian or Iberian Peninsula. Due to its vast size and differences in latitude , Eurasia exhibits all types of climates under the Köppen classification , including the harshest types of hot and cold temperatures, high and low precipitation, and various types of ecosystems . Eurasia

2640-747: The Australian plate . The Arabian plate broke off of Africa around 30 million years ago and impacted the Iranian plate between 19 and 12 million years ago during the Miocene , ultimately forming the Alborz and Zagros chains of Iranian plate . After this initial connection of Afro-Eurasia, the Betic corridor along the Gibraltar Arc closed a little less than 6 million years ago in

2728-593: The Black Death pandemic ; it took 200 years for European population figures to recover. The population of China decreased from 123 million in 1200 to 65 million in 1393, presumably from a combination of Mongol invasions, famine, and plague. Starting in AD 2, the Han dynasty of ancient China kept consistent family registers to properly assess the poll taxes and labor service duties of each household. In that year,

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2816-716: The Greeks classified Europe (derived from the mythological Phoenician princess Europa ) and Asia which to the Greeks originally included Africa (derived from Asia , a woman in Greek mythology ) as separate "lands". Where to draw the dividing line between the two regions is still a matter of discussion . Especially whether the Kuma-Manych Depression or the Caucasus Mountains form the southeast boundary

2904-796: The Himalaya , Karakoram , Hindu Kush , Pamir , Hengduan , and Tian Shan mountain ranges, and all peaks above 7,000 metres are in these ranges and the Transhimalaya . Other high ranges include the Kunlun , Hindu Raj , and Caucasus Mountains . The Alpide belt stretches 15,000 km across southern Eurasia, from Java in Maritime Southeast Asia to the Iberian Peninsula in Western Europe , including

2992-686: The Messinian , fusing northwest Africa and Iberia together. This led to the nearly complete desiccation of the Mediterranean Basin , the Messinian salinity crisis . Eurasia and Africa were then again separated with the Zanclean Flood around 5.33 million years ago refilling the Mediterranean Sea through the Strait of Gibraltar . Today, the Eurasian plate and African plate dominate their respective continents. However,

3080-690: The North American plate incorporating the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug in the Russian Far East . Conventionally, Africa is joined to Eurasia only by a relatively narrow land bridge (which has been split by the Suez Canal at the Isthmus of Suez ) and remains separated from Europe by the straits of Gibraltar and Sicily . Paleogeologist Ronald Blakey has described the next 15 to 100 million years of tectonic development as fairly settled and predictable. In that time, Africa

3168-699: The Somali plate covers much of eastern Africa, creating the East African Rift . In the eastern Mediterranean, the Aegean Sea plate , Anatolian plate and Arabian plate also form a boundary with the African plate, which incorporates the Sinai Peninsula , Gulf of Aqaba and the coastal Levant via the Dead Sea transform . Eurasia also includes the Indian plate , Burma plate , Sunda plate , Yangtze plate , Amur plate and Okhotsk plate , with

3256-549: The Soviet Union ) then dominated much of the continent until the end of the Cold War in 1991. Originally, "Eurasia" is a geographical notion: in this sense, it is simply the biggest continent; the combined landmass of Europe and Asia. However, geopolitically, the word has several meanings, reflecting specific geopolitical interests. "Eurasia" is one of the most important geopolitical concepts and it figures prominently in

3344-641: The Ural Mountains . However, at least part of this definition has been subject to criticism by many modern analytical geographers like Halford Mackinder , who saw little validity in the Ural Mountains as a boundary between continents. Nineteenth-century Russian philosopher Nikolai Danilevsky defined Eurasia as an entity separate from Europe and Asia, bounded by the Himalayas, the Caucasus,

3432-651: The developing world have experienced extremely rapid population growth since the early 20th century, due to economic development and improvements in public health. China's population rose from approximately 430 million in 1850 to 580 million in 1953, and now stands at over 1.3 billion. The population of the Indian subcontinent , which was about 125 million in 1750, increased to 389 million in 1941; today, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh are collectively home to about 1.63 billion people. Java , an island in Indonesia , had about 5 million inhabitants in 1815; it had

3520-592: The heterogeneous dispositif such metapolitical constructs used to control and exercise power. Across Eurasia, several single markets have emerged, including the Eurasian Economic Space , European Single Market , ASEAN Economic Community , and the Gulf Cooperation Council . There are also several international organizations and initiatives which seek to promote integration throughout Eurasia, including: In ancient times,

3608-484: The world population is the total number of humans currently alive. 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 218 years more to reach 8 billion. The human population has experienced continuous growth following the Great Famine of 1315–1317 and

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3696-602: The 16th century, maize and cassava have similarly replaced traditional African crops as the most important staple food crops grown on the continent. The pre-Columbian population of the Americas is uncertain; historian David Henige called it "the most unanswerable question in the world." By the end of the 20th century, scholarly consensus favored an estimate of roughly 55 million people, but numbers from various sources have ranged from 10 million to 100 million. Encounters between European explorers and populations in

3784-480: The 1920s and 2000s, Kenya's population grew from 2.9 million to 37 million. The UN estimated that the world population reached one billion for the first time in 1804. It was another 123 years before it reached two billion in 1927, but it took only 33 years to reach three billion in 1960. Thereafter, it took 14 years for the global population to reach four billion in 1974, 13 years to reach five billion in 1987, 12 years to reach six billion in 1999 and, according to

3872-556: The 20th century in Imperial Russia and the Soviet Union was marked by a succession of major wars, famines and other disasters which caused large-scale population losses (approximately 60 million excess deaths). After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia's population declined significantly – from 150 million in 1991 to 143 million in 2012 – but by 2013 this decline appeared to have halted. Many countries in

3960-837: The Eurasian Media Forum, the Eurasian Cultural Foundation ( Евразийский фонд культуры ), the Eurasian Development Bank ( Евразийский банк развития ), and the Eurasian Bank. In 2007 Kazakhstan's president, Nursultan Nazarbayev , proposed building a " Eurasia Canal " to connect the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea via Russia's Kuma-Manych Depression to provide Kazakhstan and other Caspian-basin countries with

4048-563: The European Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions , the life expectancy of children increased dramatically. The percentage of the children born in London who died before the age of five decreased from 74.5% in 1730–1749 to 31.8% in 1810–1829. Between 1700 and 1900, Europe's population increased from about 100 million to over 400 million. Altogether, the areas populated by people of European descent comprised 36% of

4136-588: The UN estimates gives the "medium variant" population as; nearly 8.6 billion in 2030, about 9.7 billion in 2050 and about 10.9 billion in 2100. In December 2019, the German Foundation for World Population projected that the global population will reach 8 billion by 2023 as it increases by 156 every minute. In a modeled future projection by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation ,

4224-532: The USCB asserted that this occurred in March 2012. Since 1951, the UN has issued multiple projections of future world population, based on different assumptions. From 2000 to 2005, the UN consistently revised these projections downward, until the 2006 revision, issued on 14 March 2007, revised the 2050 mid-range estimate upwards by 273 million. Complicating the UN's and others' attempts to project future populations

4312-469: The United Nations reported that the rate of population growth continues to decline due to the ongoing global demographic transition. If this trend continues, the rate of growth may diminish to zero by 2100, concurrent with a world population plateau of 10.9 billion. However, this is only one of many estimates published by the UN; in 2009, UN population projections for 2050 ranged between around 8 billion and 10.5 billion. An alternative scenario

4400-568: The United States Census Bureau placed them in July 1959 and April 1974 respectively. The United Nations did determine, and commemorate, the "Day of 5 Billion" on 11 July 1987, and the "Day of 6 Billion" on 12 October 1999. The Population Division of the United Nations declared the " Day of Seven Billion " to be 31 October 2011. The United Nations marked the birth of the eight billionth person on 15 November 2022. As of 2020,

4488-583: The United States Census Bureau, 13 years to reach seven billion in March 2012. The United Nations, however, estimated that the world population reached seven billion in October 2011. According to the UN, the global population reached eight billion in November 2022, but because the growth rate is slowing, it will take another 15 years to reach around 9 billion by 2037 and 20 years to reach 10 billion by 2057. Alternative scenarios for 2050 range from

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4576-412: The Western Hemisphere and Oceania geopolitically peripheral to the world's central continent. About 75 per cent of the world's people live in 'Eurasia', and most of the world's physical wealth is there as well, both in its enterprises and underneath its soil. 'Eurasia' accounts for about three-fourths of the world's known energy resources." The Russian " Eurasianism " corresponded initially more or less to

4664-427: The breakup of Pangaea around 200 million years ago , the North American and Eurasian plates together formed Laurasia while the African plate remained in Gondwana , from which the Indian plate split off. Upon impact with the Eurasian plate, the Indian plate created southern Asia around 50 million years ago and began the formation of the Himalayas . Around the same time, the Indian plate also fused with

4752-457: The carrying capacity → faster population growth → accelerating growth of the number of potential inventors → faster technological advance → hence, the faster growth of the Earth's carrying capacity for people, and so on. The transition from hyperbolic growth to slower rates of growth is related to the demographic transition. According to the Russian demographer Sergey Kapitsa , the world population grew between 67,000 BC and 1965 according to

4840-437: The combined eastern and western Roman Empire in the 4th century AD. The Plague of Justinian caused Europe's population to drop by around 50% between the 6th and 8th centuries AD. The population of Europe was more than 70 million in 1340. From 1340 to 1400, the world's population fell from an estimated 443 million to 350–375 million, with the Indian subcontinent suffering the most tremendous loss and Europe suffering

4928-407: The commentaries on the ideas of Halford Mackinder . As Zbigniew Brzezinski observed on Eurasia: "... how America 'manages' Eurasia is critical. A power that dominates 'Eurasia' would control two of the world's three most advanced and economically productive regions. A mere glance at the map also suggests that control over 'Eurasia' would almost automatically entail Africa's subordination, rendering

5016-672: The end of the Black Death in 1350, when it was nearly 370,000,000. The highest global population growth rates , with increases of over 1.8% per year, occurred between 1955 and 1975, peaking at 2.1% between 1965 and 1970. The growth rate declined to 1.1% between 2015 and 2020 and is projected to decline further in the 21st century. The global population is still increasing, but there is significant uncertainty about its long-term trajectory due to changing fertility and mortality rates. The UN Department of Economics and Social Affairs projects between 9 and 10 billion people by 2050 and gives an 80% confidence interval of 10–12 billion by

5104-430: The end of the 21st century, with a growth rate by then of zero. Other demographers predict that the human population will begin to decline in the second half of the 21st century. The total number of births globally is currently (2015–2020) 140 million/year, which is projected to peak during the period 2040–2045 at 141 million/year and then decline slowly to 126 million/year by 2100. The total number of deaths

5192-483: The figure at 117 billion as of 2020, estimating that the current world population is 6.7% of all the humans who have ever lived. Haub (1995) prepared another figure, updated in 2002 and 2011; the 2011 figure was approximately 107 billion. Haub characterized this figure as an estimate that required "selecting population sizes for different points from antiquity to the present and applying assumed birth rates to each period". Robust population data only exist for

5280-476: The first two, the Pacific closes and Africa remains fused to Eurasia, but Eurasia itself splits as Africa and Europe spin towards the west; in the last, the trio spin eastward together as the Atlantic closes, creating land borders with the Americas . This is a list of the points that are farther north, south, east or west than any other location as well as the highest and lowest elevations on Afro-Eurasia. The 180th meridian passes through Asia, so this point

5368-418: The following formula: where According to linear interpolation and extrapolation of UNDESA population estimates , the world population has doubled, or will double, in the years listed in the tables below (with two different starting points). During the 2nd millennium , each doubling took roughly half as long as the previous doubling, fitting the hyperbolic growth model mentioned above. However, after 2024, it

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5456-460: The global fertility rate was estimated at 2.44 children per woman. In June 2012, British researchers calculated the total weight of Earth's human population as approximately 287 million tonnes (630 billion pounds), with the average person weighing around 62 kilograms (137 lb). The IMF estimated nominal 2021 gross world product at US$ 94.94 trillion, giving an annual global per capita figure of around US$ 12,290. Around 9.3% of

5544-509: The global sex ratio is approximately 1.01 males to 1 female. Approximately 24.7% of the global population is aged under 15, while 65.2% is aged 15–64 and 10.1% is aged 65 or over. The median age of the world's population is estimated to be 31 years in 2020, and is expected to rise to 37.9 years by 2050. According to the World Health Organization , the global average life expectancy is 73.3 years as of 2020, with women living an average of 75.9 years and men approximately 70.8 years. In 2010,

5632-490: The global population was projected to peak in 2064 at 9.73 billion people and decline to 8.79 billion in 2100. Some analysts have questioned the sustainability of further world population growth, highlighting the growing pressures on the environment , global food supplies, and energy resources. In 1975, Sebastian von Hoerner proposed a formula for population growth which represented hyperbolic growth with an infinite population in 2025. The hyperbolic growth of

5720-454: The land area of Imperial Russia in 1914, including parts of Eastern Europe . One of Russia's main geopolitical interests lies in ever closer integration with those countries that it considers part of "Eurasia." The term Eurasia gained geopolitical reputation as one of the three superstates in 1984 , George Orwell 's novel where constant surveillance and propaganda are strategic elements (introduced as reflexive antagonists ) of

5808-545: 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. Thus, there is a significant margin of error when estimating ancient global populations. Pre-modern infant mortality rates are another critical factor for such an estimate; these rates are very difficult to estimate for ancient times due to

5896-480: The late 18th century, estimates ranged close to one billion (consistent with current estimates). More refined estimates, broken down by continents, were published in the first half of the 19th century, at 600 million to 1 billion in the early 1800s and 800 million to 1 billion in the 1840s. It is difficult for estimates to be better than rough approximations, as even current population estimates are fraught with uncertainties from 3% to 5%. Estimates of

5984-427: The least-densely populated. Eurasia has been the host of many ancient civilizations, including those based in Mesopotamia , the Indus Valley and China. In the Axial Age (mid- first millennium BCE ), a continuous belt of civilizations stretched through the Eurasian subtropical zone from the Atlantic to the Pacific. This belt became the mainstream of world history for two millennia. New connections emerged between

6072-420: The lessening of the mortality rate in many countries by improved sanitation and medical advances , and a massive increase in agricultural productivity attributed to the Green Revolution . By 2000, there were approximately ten times as many people on Earth as there had been in 1700. However, this rapid growth did not last. During the period 2000–2005, the United Nations estimates that the world's population

6160-425: The long-standing trend on all inhabited continents, as well as in most individual states. During the 20th century, the global population saw its greatest increase in known history, rising from about 1.6 billion in 1900 to over 6 billion in 2000 as the whole world entered the early phases of what has come to be called the " demographic transition ". Some of the key factors contributing to this increase included

6248-491: The number of people who have ever lived will rise to 121 billion by 2050, 4 billion more than their 2021 estimate. Individuals from a wide range of academic fields and political backgrounds have proposed that, like all other animal populations, any human population (and, by extension, the world population) predictably grows and shrinks according to available food supply, growing during an abundance of food and shrinking in times of scarcity. This idea may run counter to

6336-513: The past. The data for 1750 to 1900 are from the UN report "The World at Six Billion" whereas the data from 1950 to 2015 are from a UN data sheet. Using the above figures, the change in population from 2010 to 2015 was: Long-term global population growth is difficult to predict. The United Nations and the US Census Bureau both give different estimates – according to the UN, the world population reached seven billion in late 2011, while

6424-443: The period 1950–55 the crude birth rate was 36.9/1,000 population and the crude death rate was 19.1/1,000.  By the period 2015–20, both numbers had dropped significantly to 18.5/1,000 for the crude birth rate and 7.5/1,000 for the crude death rate. UN projections for 2100 show a further decline in the crude birth rate to 11.6/1,000 and an increase in the crude death rate to 11.2/1,000. The total number of births globally

6512-820: The popular thinking that, as population grows, food supply must also be increased to support the growing population; instead, the claim here is that growing population is the result of a growing food supply. Notable proponents of this notion include: agronomist and insect ecologist David Pimentel , behavioral scientist Russell Hopfenberg (the former two publishing a study on the topic in 2001), anthropologist and activist Virginia Abernethy , ecologist Garrett Hardin , science writer and anthropologist Peter Farb , journalist Richard Manning , environmental biologist Alan D. Thornhill, cultural critic and writer Daniel Quinn , and anarcho-primitivist John Zerzan . Scientists generally acknowledge that at least one significant factor contributing to population growth (or overpopulation)

6600-507: The population of Western Han was recorded as 57,671,400 individuals in 12,366,470 households, decreasing to 47,566,772 individuals in 9,348,227 households by AD 146, towards the end of the Han dynasty . From 200 to 400, the world population fell from an estimated 257 million to 206 million, with China suffering the greatest loss. At the founding of the Ming dynasty in 1368, China's population

6688-421: The population of the world at the time agriculture emerged in around 10,000 BC have ranged between 1 million and 15 million. Even earlier, genetic evidence suggests humans may have gone through a population bottleneck of between 1,000 and 10,000 people about 70,000 BC, according to the now largely discredited Toba catastrophe theory . By contrast, it is estimated that around 50–60 million people lived in

6776-597: The ranges of the Himalayas, Karakoram, Hindu Kush, Alborz , Caucasus, and the Alps . Long ranges outside the Alpide Belt include the East Siberian , Altai , Scandinavian , Qinling , Western Ghats , Vindhya , Byrranga , and Annamite Ranges . The largest Eurasian islands by area are Borneo , Sumatra , Honshu , Great Britain, Sulawesi , Java, Luzon , Iceland, Mindanao , Ireland , Hokkaido , Sakhalin , and Sri Lanka . The five most-populated islands in

6864-611: The rest of the world often introduced local epidemics of extraordinary virulence. According to the most extreme scholarly claims, as many as 90% of the Native American population of the New World died of Old World diseases such as smallpox , measles , and influenza . Over the centuries, the Europeans had developed high degrees of immunity to these diseases, while the indigenous peoples had no such immunity. During

6952-710: The southern limit is in the Weber's line . Eurasia is bordered by Africa to the southwest, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Pacific Ocean to the east, and the Indo-Mediterranean to the south. The division between Europe and Asia as two continents is a historical social construct , as neither fits the usual definition; thus, in some parts of the world, Eurasia

7040-468: The subregions of Eurasia from the Age of Discovery onwards, with the Iberians discovering new maritime routes in the 1490s, and the 1869 completion of the Suez Canal having paved the way for direct passage through the Indo-Mediterranean and the wave of Western European "New Imperialism" that dominated Africa and Asia until the mid-20th century. The communist presence in Eurasia (primarily driven by

7128-587: The world are Java, Honshu, Great Britain, Luzon, and Sumatra. Other Eurasian islands with large populations include Mindanao, Taiwan , Salsette , Borneo, Sri Lanka, Sulawesi, Kyushu , and Hainan . The most densely-populated islands in Eurasia are Caubian Gamay Island , Ap Lei Chau , and Navotas Island . In the Arctic Ocean, Severny Island , Nordaustlandet , October Revolution Island , and Bolshevik Island are Eurasia's largest uninhabited islands, and Kotelny Island , Alexandra Land , and Spitsbergen are

7216-684: The world population live in extreme poverty , subsisting on less than US$ 1.9 per day; around 8.9% are malnourished . 87% of the world's over-15s are considered literate . As of January 2024, there were about 5 billion global Internet users, constituting 66% of the world population. The Han Chinese are the world's largest single ethnic group, constituting over 19% of the global population in 2011. The world's most-spoken languages are English (1.132B), Mandarin Chinese (1.117B), Hindi (615M), Spanish (534M) and French (280M). More than three billion people speak an Indo-European language, which

7304-420: The world population observed until the 1970s was later correlated to a non-linear second-order positive feedback between demographic growth and technological development. This feedback can be described as follows: technological advance → increase in the carrying capacity of land for people → demographic growth → more people → more potential inventors → acceleration of technological advance → accelerating growth of

7392-676: The world's population as of 2020,while the Latin American and Caribbean regions are home to around 653 million (8%). Northern America, primarily consisting of the United States and Canada, has a population of around 368 million (5%), and Oceania, the least populated region, has about 42 million inhabitants (0.5%). Antarctica only has a very small, fluctuating population of about 1200 people based mainly in polar science stations . Approximately 4.6 billion people live in these ten countries, representing around 57% of

7480-531: The world's population as of July 2023. The UN estimates that by 2023 India will have overtaken China in having the largest population. The tables below list the world's most densely populated countries, both in absolute terms and in comparison to their total populations, as of November 2022. All areas and populations are from The World Factbook , unless otherwise noted. [REDACTED]   Palestine Population size fluctuates at differing rates in differing regions. Nonetheless, population growth has been

7568-660: The world's population in 1900. Population growth in the Western world became more rapid after the introduction of vaccination and other improvements in medicine and sanitation . Improved material conditions led to the population of Britain increasing from 10 million to 40 million in the 19th century. The population of the United Kingdom reached 60 million in 2006. The United States saw its population grow from around 5.3 million in 1800 to 106 million in 1920, exceeding 307 million in 2010. The first half of

7656-561: Was growing at an annual rate of 1.3% (equivalent to around 80 million people), down from a peak of 2.1% during the period 1965–1970. Globally, although the population growth rate has been steadily declining from its peak in 1968, growth still remains high in Sub-Saharan Africa . In fact, during the 2010s, Japan and some countries in Europe began to reduce in population , due to sub-replacement fertility rates. In 2019,

7744-475: Was reported to be close to 60 million; toward the end of the dynasty in 1644, it may have approached 150 million. England's population reached an estimated 5.6 million in 1650, up from an estimated 2.6 million in 1500. New crops that were brought to Asia and Europe from the Americas by Portuguese and Spanish colonists in the 16th century are believed to have contributed to population growth. Since their introduction to Africa by Portuguese traders in

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