Did you notice things seemed a little more crowded this week? There’s an explanation for that; the world just hit a total population of 8 billion people.
Is that too many? Can earth sustain 8 billion humans?
Yeah, no problem, says the U.N Population Fund executive director. Her name is Natalia Kanem, and she was pretty emphatic about it when talking to reporters last month.
“It is a momentous milestone for humanity. Some express concerns that our world is overpopulated with far too many people and insufficient resources to sustain their lives. I am here to say clearly, that the sheer number of human lives is not a cause for fear.”
Okay, now that we have that cleared up, how about some numbers and fun facts?
Question; what has occurred in the past 48 years regarding the earth’s population?
It has doubled. Back when Gerald Ford was President, there were 4 billion people who called Earth home.
Things have slowed down as far as population growth, and they will continue to do that. A story in Axios revealed it took 12 years for the total head club on the Earth to climb from 7 billion to 8 billion. But we’re not going to hit 9 billion for 15 years.
The U.N. says that extreme poverty has decried in the past quarter century, and the numbers back that up. The share of people living on less than $2 per day has fallen from 44% in 1974 to just 10% now. Seven countries dominate population numbers. Incredibly, half the world lives in China, India, the United States, Pakistan, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Brazil.
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