Population growth

World human population estimates from 1800 to 2100, with estimated range of future population after 2020 based on "high" and "low" scenarios. Data from the United Nations projections in 2019.

Population^[1]
Years passed	Year	Billion
–	1800	1
127	1927	2
33	1960	3
14	1974	4
13	1987	5
12	1999	6
12	2011	7
12	2023*	8
14	2037*	9
18	2055*	10
33	2088*	11
*World Population Prospects 2017 (United Nations Population Division)

Population growth is the rate at which a population grows or expands. For example, if a population increased from 100 to 110 in a year, then it would have had a population growth of 10% per year.

World population

World population has been rising since the end of the Black Death, around the year 1350.^[2]

Population began growing rapidly in the Western world during the industrial revolution. Several factors were notable: the coming of modern agriculture, and the control of epidemic diseases (black death, cholera, typhus). Modern water engineering brought clean water to many large cities. Deaths from world wars, especially WWI, reversed the trend, but only for a while.

The most significant increase in the world's population has been since the 1950s in Asia and Latin America. Medical advances,^[3] and increases in farming,^[4] have been the main causes.

A single example is both astonishing and revealing. Since 1945, half the forests of Indonesia have been replaced with farmland. As late as 1900, Indonesia was still a densely forested country: forests covered 84 percent of the total land area. Deforestation became serious in the 1970s, and has gone faster since then. About 170 million hectares (estimated in 1900) decreased to less than 100 million hectares by the end of the 20th century.^[5] In 2008, it was estimated that tropical rainforests in Indonesia would be logged out in a decade.^[6] Of the total logging in Indonesia, up to 80% is said to be done illegally.^[7]

Population Growth Media

Population growth rate (2023, Our World in Data)
Absolute increase in global human population per year
Estimated size of human population from 10,000 BCE to 2000 CE
The logistic growth of a population
A world map showing global variations in fertility rate per woman according to the CIA World Factbook's 2021 data*

* 6–7 children* 5–6 children* 4–5 children*
* 3–4 children* 2–3 children* 1–2 children*
Estimates of population evolution in different continents between 1950 and 2050 according to the United Nations. The vertical axis is logarithmic and is in millions of people. (2011)
World population growth rates between 1950 and 2050
The majority of world population growth today is occurring in less developed countries.