The rate at which the human population is increasing is phenomenal.
- In just 199 years we have gone from a world population of 1 billion to 6 billion. This year, just 12 years after hitting 6 billion, we are going to pass the 7 billion mark.
- 7 billion is a big number, and this National Geographic video does a good job of making you realize just how big it is. The standout facts for me are that 5 people are born every second, but only 2 people die. That’s a population increase of 180 people every minute of the day.
- On the flip side to the amount of people there are, we apparently don’t take up very much space. Crowd us shoulder to shoulder and 7 billion people only fill an area the size of Los Angeles. In reality we all have our own space, be it a large house or a small shack somewhere in the world.Still, the world has to cope somehow, and the population is set to increase to 9 billion by 2045.
- More of us are moving to cities, and overcrowding will become an increasing problem. I don’t envy the job of future local governments figuring out how to house us all and clean up after us every day.
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