As many of you are probably aware, the estimated world population is set to hit 7 billion at the end of this month, according to the United Nations Population Fund. And of course, this milestone came relatively rapidly:
According to demographers, the world’s population didn’t reach 1 billion until 1804, and it took 123 years to hit the 2 billion mark in 1927. Then the pace accelerated – 3 billion in 1959, 4 billion in 1974, 5 billion in 1987, 6 billion in 1998.
In the spirit of mesofacts, I put the question to readers of this blog: what was the world population that you were taught in school? I learned 5 billion.