Tuesday, December 31, 2013

World Population -- By the Numbers

For today's blog posting I decided to research the world's human population.  According to scientists, homo sapiens evolved and first appeared around 200,000 years ago.  Our species has been increasing in numbers ever since.  The map below shows where most of the people live.


As of today, it is estimated that there are 7.134 billion people on earth.   Population experts estimate that that the world population exceeded 7 billion sometime between October  31, 2011 and  March 12, 2012. The median age was 30.4 years in 2012 and is expected to rise to 37.9 years by 2050.


The world population has experienced continuous growth since the end of the Great Famine and the Black Death in 1350, when it stood at around 370 million. The highest rates of growth were seen briefly during the 1950s, and for a longer period during the 1960s and 1970s. The growth rate peaked at 2.2% in 1963, then declined to below 1.1% by 2012. Total annual births were highest in the late 1980s at about 138 million, and are now expected to remain essentially constant at their 2011 level of 134 million, while deaths number 56 million per year, and are expected to increase to 80 million per year by 2040.
 

Current UN projections show a continued increase in population in the near future (but a steady decline in the population growth rate), with the global population expected to reach between 8.3 and 10.9 billion by 2050.






CITES:
http://anthro.palomar.edu/homo2/mod_homo_4.htm

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7a/World_population_distribution.svg/270px-World_population_distribution.svg.png
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_population
http://bixby.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/current-pop-jpeg.JPG
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-H6e11TQ_hvE/UO5qL-oVmSI/AAAAAAABN90/ag5rEdPU6p8/s1600/youtube_logo.gif
http://www.buygoldordie.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/World_population_1950-2050.jpeg

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