The world population is the total population of humans on the planet Earth. An automatically updated daily calculation by the United States Census Bureau estimates the current figure to be approximately 6,896,900,000. The world population has experienced continuous growth since the end of the Black Death around the year 1400. The highest rates of growth—increases above 1.8% per year—were seen briefly during the 1950s, for a longer period during the 1960s and 1970s; the growth rate peaked at 2.2% in 1963, and declined to 1.1% by 2009. Annual births have reduced to 140 million since their peak at 173 million in the late 1990s, and are expected to remain constant, while deaths number 57 million per year and are expected to increase to 80 million per year by 2040. Current projections show a continued increase of population (but a steady decline in the population growth rate) with the population expected to reach between 7.5 and 10.5 billion in the year 2050.

World population from 1800 to 2100, based on UN 2004 projections (red, orange, green) and US Census Bureau historical estimates (black).

Population by region

Population statistics for 6 continents and 10 countries

Asia accounts for over 60% of the world population with more than 4 billion people. China and India together have about 37 percent of the world’s population. Africa follows with 1 billion people, 15% of the world’s population. Europe’s 733 million people make up 11% of the world’s population. North America is home to 352 million (5%), Latin America and the Caribbean region to 589 million (9%), and Oceania/Australasia to 35 million (less than 1%).

History

Further information: World population estimates and History of the world

 Antiquity and Middle Ages

A dramatic population bottleneck is theorized for the period around 70,000 BC (see Toba catastrophe theory). After this time and until the development of agriculture, it is estimated that the world population stabilized at about one million people whose subsistence entailed hunting and foraging, a lifestyle that by its nature ensured a low population density. Before the appearance of agriculture, the total world population probably never exceeded 15 million inhabitants. By contrast, it is estimated that more than 55 million people lived in the combined eastern and western Roman Empire (AD 300–400).

The Plague of Justinian caused Europe’s population to drop by around 50% between 541 and the 8th century. The population of Europe was more than 70 million in 1340. The Black Death pandemic in the 14th century may have reduced the world’s population from an estimated 450 million to between 350 and 375 million in 1400. It took roughly 200 years for Europe’s population to regain its 1340 level. China experienced a population decline from an estimated 123 million around 1200 to an estimated 65 million in 1393, which was presumably due to a combination of Mongol invasions and plague.

At the founding of the Ming Dynasty in 1368, China’s population was reported to be close to 60 million, and toward the end of the dynasty in 1644 it might 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 had come to Asia and Europe from the Americas via the Spanish colonizers in the 16th century contributed to the population growth. Since being introduced by Portuguese traders in the 16th century, maize and manioc have replaced traditional African crops as the continent’s most important staple food crops. Alfred W. Crosby speculated that increased production of maize, manioc, and other American crops "...enabled the slave traders drew many, perhaps most, of their cargoes from the rain forest areas, precisely those areas where American crops enabled heavier settlement than before."

The population of the Americas in 1500 may have been between 50 and 100 million. Recent estimates for the size of the pre-Columbian North American population vary from about 18 million to less than 2 million. Encounters between European explorers and populations in the rest of the world often introduced local epidemics of extraordinary virulence. Archaeological evidence indicates that the death of around 90% of the Native American population of the New World was caused by 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

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