Seven Billion People

[liveonearth]

We're slated to hit 7,000,000,000 in 2012.
We hit 6 billion in 1999.
Thirteen years to add a billion.
We hit 1 billion in 1800.
In 1930, 130 years later, we made 2 billion.
(data from the AP)
So between 1930 and 1999 we added 4 billion in 69 years.

Comments

[rinku.livejournal.com]

Most countries have some form of census. Those that don't probably don't make much of a difference either way, because all the most populous countries have one. So it's not exact but it's probably accurate to within 50 million or so.

[gavin6942.livejournal.com]

I understand. It was just an odd thought. America has allegedly hit 300 million people, but also claims to have 12-20 million undocumented workers. That's a pretty big gap of uncertainty, in one country alone.

Europe, for the most part, has open borders. So their census is hard to judge.

Parts of Africa are still "wild" in some sense.

I wasn't questioning you, but more the establishment. It's interesting how they can pinpoint with such certainty when we hit milestones, when it seems to me they could be days, months or even a year off.