How Many Humans Have Lived On Earth Since the Dawn of Time?

By today, that number would be closer to 60-70 billion. That's a gap of about 40 million. In 1969, that gap would have been much larger.

You can argue about whether it is counting all hominds or just homo sapiens would not make that big of a difference. Even tough you throwing in another 5 million years of Earth's habitation the collective population of that time period is not that meaningful.

Another way of looking at it is that about 10 percent of all people who have ever walked the Earth are currently doing so.

Here is the answer I found, from the Population Reference Bureau:

106,456,367,669 That was from an article first pulished in 1995, and updated in 2002. Projecting 4 years later were are just past 107 billion humans ever.

http://www.prb.org/Template.cfm?Section=PRB&template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=7421

Bish Bosh wrote:

except of course that all the population increases are occusring in the 'developing' world. The birth rate in pretty much every western society has fallen below replacement levels and the UN predicts absolute population levels will peak by the end of this century. The population in China will eventually start falling once it's economic growth really kicks in. Richer societies have fewer children then poorer societies and even within each society the richer you are the fewer offspring you produce - the way to eliminate population growth is to eliminate poverty (which is contrary to what many people believe).

God, I never thought of that - eliminate poverty!

The solution has been staring us in the face all the time - make everyone on the planet a millionaire!

Now let’s see - the 298 million Americans use about 25% of the earths energy and material resources.

So to bring the rest of the world’s 6.2 billion up to the level of the average American (is there no poverty also in America?) would use up to - Christ - 5 times the level of manufacturing, trade, pollution, water consumption, food consumption, the list is endless - that the earth uses right now.

Better start the search for more oil, minerals, water and additional farmland right away.

limey wrote:

[quote]Larz wrote:

I don't know, but that's a damn good question.

Let's see...there are about 6 billion people on Earth right now. Is it reasonable to assume there were roughly another 94 billion people to have walked the planet in the whole of human history? Going back 100,000 years or so, I think it is reasonable, even though there were obviously much fewer people at any given time. Of course, you could tell me 50 billion and that would sound reasonable enough too.

You have no idea.

When I was born in the middle thirties, the total world population was estimated at 2.5 billion.

So it had taken all that time since man first walked on earth to reach that figure.

quote]

- This part of your post confused me a bit. When you were born in the middle thirties, the population was estimated at 2.5 billion. "So it had taken all that time since man first walked on the earth to reach that figure" - what are you saying here? That 2.5 billion was the existing world population in the thirties and that it had taken all of human history to achieve such a large population? Ok, but that does not have much bearing on how many people lived, thoughout human history, before that.

If we agree that human beings go back about 100,000 years, let's say you had an average of about 10 million people on the earth at any given time, with an average life span of 40 years. Inside of 100,000 years, that's about 2,500 generations. 2,500 X 10 million people average equals about 25 billion.

These figures are not based on any factual data - they're totally estimates I pulled out of my ass - but they seem kind of conservative to me, if we're talking averages over human history. I think it's fairly obvious there have been a shitload of people on the earth, even if 100 billion is inflated a bit.

Let's see...

Adam, Eve - that's 2

Cain, Abel - that's 4

can anyone get the family photo album out? I'm a little fuzzy after the first 4...

limey wrote:

God, I never thought of that - eliminate poverty!

The solution has been staring us in the face all the time - make everyone on the planet a millionaire!

Now let’s see - the 298 million Americans use about 25% of the earths energy and material resources.

So to bring the rest of the world’s 6.2 billion up to the level of the average American (is there no poverty also in America?) would use up to - Christ - 5 times the level of manufacturing, trade, pollution, water consumption, food consumption, the list is endless - that the earth uses right now.

Better start the search for more oil, minerals, water and additional farmland right away.

The causes of rapid population growth among developing nations are actually well known, and as was said are related to poverty. But it is not poverty in the economic sense, but a poverty of vital resources, such as food and water. Destitute people have no form of social security other than their own family, and the great labor demand of a subsistence lifestyle means that to ensure health into old age one must have many children that will eventually support them.

Obviously this planet does not have the quantity of resources to support over 6 billion people living the consumptive lifestyle of the North, but the problem in the developing world is not that resources are not getting used, but that they are being misallocated at the expense of the majority to the benefit of a very few.

Rexing.

That 106 number appears here also

http://www.livescience.com/othernews/060224_world_population.html

Fact: Every girl born in America today, statistically, has a 50% cahnce of living to 100!!! (I have 3 boys)

My point: World population has drastically, drastically increased over the last 200 years. Mainly due to dramatic increases in life expectancy. I think 106 Billion is way out of line. I think it is more like 13 Billion.

This would be so simple ... if I knew how to count.

limey wrote:

76 million are added to the population each year and that number must increase year by year.

Quite frankly the future is scary.

China has 1.3 billion right now, but India is expected to jump ahead of China in 2030 with 1.5 billion.

Suppose all these people demanded the same living conditions and use of the earth’s resources as the average American has these days?

By 2050, at this current rate of economic expansion we will need about the equivalent of four earth size planets to service mankind.

Quite frankly, what you said is false. The more people there are the more inventors there are. It only takes one person to invent something incredibly beneficial. I don't know how old you are, but I would be willing to bet $1000 that in 2050 we'll be just fine. People have been making these kinds of bogus claims for decades. There are far more people in the US now than 50 years ago, yet the air and water are cleaner, and we get far more agricultural yield out of the land we cultivate.

Any question you can think of has already been asked of Cecil.

http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_085.html

all right! wrote:

The more people there are the more inventors there are. It only takes one person to invent something incredibly beneficial. I don't know how old you are, but I would be willing to bet $1000 that in 2050 we'll be just fine. People have been making these kinds of bogus claims for decades. There are far more people in the US now than 50 years ago, yet the air and water are cleaner, and we get far more agricultural yield out of the land we cultivate.

So you're betting the future on the hypothesis that by having more people there is a higher possibility of someone inventing something to solve the problems of having so many people to begin with? For comparison, while it is true that buying more lottery tickets increases your chances of winning, it does not make for a sound retirement policy.

As far as the water and air being cleaner, that depends partly on where you measure it. For the US, pollution was getting totally out of hand through the 50's and 60's which is what prompted public outcry and legislation to curb it (it is important to note that business and industry didn't decide to clean things up on their own). Of course, that in no way means that any strides made in the past decades can't be reversed (just look at the present administration in DC).

Concerning agricultural yield, don't forget that our current yields are propped up by petrochemicals. Further, quantity of yield does not necessarily equate to quality of yield (hence the growing interest in organic products in part due to pesticides and sustainable practices).

I just finished counting, there are presently 107,968,582,943 people on earth. Oops, I just drowned one while baptising him, make that 107,968,582,942. God works in mysterious ways!

The Quibbler wrote:

All of them.

Yes, perfect answer.

Quite frankly, what you said is false. The more people there are the more inventors there are. It only takes one person to invent something incredibly beneficial. I don't know how old you are, but I would be willing to bet $1000 that in 2050 we'll be just fine. People have been making these kinds of bogus claims for decades. There are far more people in the US now than 50 years ago, yet the air and water are cleaner, and we get far more agricultural yield out of the land we cultivate.[/quote]

I despair.

Air and water are okay in the USA, so all’s well with the rest of the world.

Or perhaps the rest of the world can get stuffed.

Or perhaps Yanks have no idea how people in the ‘third world’ actually live - or exist

Perhaps some American, instead of joining his compatriots using up such a disproportionate amount of the world’s energy resources, will invent a machine that will reverse climate change.

Take one small example - outside of the USA, I’m afraid (so Yanks have lost interest immediately) - on the top of the world as it were.

Nepal’s Khumbu glacier, where Hillary and Tensing began their 1953 accent of Everest, has retreated three miles since then.

In fact, 95% of all Himalayan glaciers are also shrinking.

So what?

Well, if the Himalayan glaciers shrink so much the their melt waters dry up, rivers fed by these glaciers will be reduced to trickles.

When one realises that these include such mighty rivers as the Indus, Yellow River and Mekong - can one begin to imagine the effect that will have on the drinking and irrigation waters of millions (billions?) of people.

One of our politicians once quoted: ‘You’ve never had it so good’

True enough.

Think it will last forever?

I am a mathematician. The answer will scare you more. There are ONLY 10 ghosts for every living person now.

Population has only increased exponentially recently.

People did not live too long only a few hundred years ago.

The main reason for longevity increase is antibiotics.

There have been more people on Earth the last 300 years than the last 3 million combined.

That should scare you more.

If this entertains you, you may be more entertained by Malthus. I for one am a Malthusian.

Only 1 real one: wrote:

Rexing.

Of the 6 billion people on earth, 3 billion are offspring of Rexing. The other 3 billion are offspring of offspring of Rexing.

Expect a new book about this, coming out soon.