Size

• The estimated world population is 6.7 billion people. Of that, China has almost 20 percent with 1.36 billion. India is the next most populated country with 1.2 billion, making it one of two nations to have over a billion inhabitants.
  The United States comes in a distant third in the world population figures with 304 million people followed by Indonesia with an amazing 232 million, incredible for its size, and Brazil with 187 million people.
  
  

History

• The estimates of the total population of the world have the number of humans in the year 1,000 BC at 5,000,000. This number was doubled in 500 BC and by the year 1000 BC, there were 50,000,000 people alive.
  By 1750 this figure had expanded to 791,000,000 with the one billion standard falling by the early 1800s. By the year 1900, there were about 1.65 billion people on Earth, a statistic that by 1965 had doubled.
  
  

Geography

• Asia is the most populated continent, with China and India contributing mightily to the 3.9 billion people there. Next up would be Africa with 888 million followed by Europe's 725 million. Latin America's 559 million tops North America's 332 million with Oceania, which includes Australia and all of the island nations in the Pacific area weighing in with 33 million.
  
  

Potential

• By 2050 the world population will jump to almost 9 billion, with more than 5 billion of those residing in Asia. A hundred years further into the future from 2050, the population of the world is expected to reach 9.7 billion, with Asia and Africa accounting for nearly 7.9 billion of those individuals.
  
  

Misconceptions

• During the 1970s the idea was circulating that of all the human beings that had ever lived, three-quarters of them were alive at that moment in time, the 1970s. However, it has been conservatively estimated since that there have been approximately 100 billion people born since the human race first appeared. There were about 4 billion people alive in 1970, meaning that would translate into only 4 percent of the people ever to live.