In 1804, the population of the planet reached one billion; that’s a thousand million people. To put this into perspective, there are currently over 1.3 billion people in China alone.
Over two centuries later, the United Nations marked Wednesday 12th October 2011 as the “Day of 7 Billion“, and it’s estimated that there will be eight billion people alive by the year 2030, and nine billion by 2050. Then there’s one crazy prediction that by 2150, the time of our grandchildren’s grandchildren’s grandchildren, a staggering 256 billion humans will be scurrying across the face of the Earth, and no doubt deep below and high above it as there’s only so much room.
Still, for now we number around seven billion; how many of these do you know? I have 545 friends on Facebook, many of which I barely even know. I tried to work out what percentage that is but it broke my calculator and I’m a little tired for mathematics over three digits long. Still, I think I can safely say that there are a lot of people I haven’t met, and never will. Ever.
Population Day: it gets you thinking!
