The population of the world as I write this, at CET 8 PM on Tuesday March 29th, 2016, is estimated to be 7,411,904,385 people. At the dawn of agriculture, about 8000 B.C., the population of the world was approximately 5 million. Over the 8,000-year period up to 1 A.D. it grew to 200 million, with a growth rate of under 0.05% per year. At that time 45 million of those people, or in other words more than 20% of the world population, lived in the Roman Empire.
A tremendous change occurred with the industrial revolution. Higher standards of living and better healthcare increased people´s life span and allowed for larger families with more children surviving to fertile age. Whereas it had taken all of human history until around 1800 for world population to reach one billion, the second billion was achieved in only 130 years (1930), the third billion in less than 30 years (1959), the fourth billion in 15 years (1974), and the fifth billion in only 13 years (1987).
In the history of our species, the birth and death rate have always been able to balance each and maintain a population growth rate that is sustainable. Then during the 20th century alone, the population in the world grow from 1.65 billion to 6 billion, and at present we are 7,4 billion people. This overpopulation is an undesirable condition where the number of existing human population exceeds the carrying capacity of Earth.
Growing advances in technology with each coming year has affected humanity in many ways. One of these has been the ability to save lives and create better medical treatment for all. A direct result of this has been increased lifespan and the growth of the population. All humans are born equal, yet we still remain very far from equal opportunity and equal treatment of all people.
7,4 billion people. This number is so big that it is impossible to comprehend. However if we look at percentages, if the population of the world was only 100 people, what would society look like?
This is shown in the smart video here below, which is written and produced by Gabriel Reilich and released on the internet a couple of weeks ago.