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How many people have ever lived on earth?
Kat:
I decided to do a little search to see what the internet estimated as the number of people have lived. There were many to choose from and I ended up on the one I thought was middle of the road below. This goes back to pre-Adam time where science believe modern humans started, perhaps Gen 1:27 "male and female He created them." I understand that this kind of study requires a lot of speculation, but it's gives a possible general idea and I thought others might be curious about this too. Kat
How many people have ever lived on earth?
Assuming that we start counting from about 50,000 B.C., the time when modern Homo sapiens appeared on the earth (and not from 700,000 B.C. when the ancestors of Homo sapiens appeared, or several million years ago when hominids were present), taking into account that all population data are a rough estimate, and assuming a constant growth rate applied to each period up to modern times, it has been estimated that a total of approximately 106 billion people have been born since the dawn of the human race, making the population currently alive roughly 6% of all people who have ever lived on planet Earth. Others have estimated the number of human beings who have ever lived to be anywhere from 45 billion to 125 billion, with most estimates falling into the range of 90 to 110 billion humans.
Year Population
50,000 B.C. 2
8000 B.C. 5,000,000
1 A.D. 300,000,000
1200 450,000,000
1650 500,000,000
1750 795,000,000
1850 1,265,000,000
1900 1,656,000,000
1950 2,516,000,000
1995 5,760,000,000
2002 6,215,000,000
Number who have ever been born 106,456,367,669
% of those ever born who were living in 2002 5.8%
The above estimate shows that about 5.8 percent of all people ever born are alive today. That’s actually a fairly large percentage when you think about it. Source: Population Reference Bureau estimates.
http://blog.world-mysteries.com/science/how-many-people-have-ever-lived-on-earth/
indianabob:
Dear Kat,
Great question!
Wonder where God is going to put 100 billion resurrected souls. (smile)
Lots of questions come to mind. Here's the first...
1. why limit the conception/birth rate so much the first 42,000 years?
Instead of a constant growth rate, I would opt for a logarithmic rate at first.
Women today can expect to ovulate 500 times after puberty and I suppose that the original, as created, female of the species was a lot more healthy/productive/aggressive and lived much longer due to a better diet and living environment.
Plus the men didn't have the same limitations for sperm production and men likely had much more testosterone, for fighting tigers and lions, which would lead to a greater incidence of conception. Maybe 20 or 30 live births would be normal in a woman's life span when a large family was needed for survival.
Just wondering, Indiana Bob
Kat:
--- Quote from: indianabob on September 19, 2015, 02:43:15 PM ---1. why limit the conception/birth rate so much the first 42,000 years?
Instead of a constant growth rate, I would opt for a logarithmic rate at first.
Women today can expect to ovulate 500 times after puberty and I suppose that the original, as created, female of the species was a lot more healthy/productive/aggressive and lived much longer due to a better diet and living environment.
Plus the men didn't have the same limitations for sperm production and men likely had much more testosterone, for fighting tigers and lions, which would lead to a greater incidence of conception. Maybe 20 or 30 live births would be normal in a woman's life span when a large family was needed for survival.
--- End quote ---
Hi Bob, why was the rate limited at first? My guess would be that humans would have had a rather slow start getting established. We may assume that people were "a lot more healthy/productive/aggressive," but they would have certainly lived under much harder conditions than anything we know. God would have provided that they survived, but still they would have been vulnerable in so many ways; all the severe weather conditions, animal attack, low food available (probably hunter gatherers), disease and even minor health issues could be life threading, so their lives may have been quite short. In that early time period some believe life expectancy at birth probably averaged only about 10 years. So most may not have even reached puberty.
--- Quote ---Wonder where God is going to put 100 billion resurrected souls. (smile)
--- End quote ---
For me the number is not real important, just an estimate to give me a bit of an idea. I can understand that God has predetermined the exact number of people He will bring into existence and what He will do with them when He raises them up. The earth seems to have plenty of land mass... just look at goggle earth and you will see that there is lots of land.
Now it's pretty clear that there is quite a bit of the land surface that is not really habitual at present, and the land does not naturally product much food to sustain people. Just look at some of these survivalist shows, and you can see it's really hard to live out in a wilderness areas. Nature in general seems to be quite hostile to humans, from the animals that are wild and aggressive, even dangerous, to the land not having many readily available food sources. So is that really a limitation to God? For one thing it was God that cursed the ground right from the garden.
Gen 3:17 Then to Adam He said, "Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, 'You shall not eat of it': "Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life.
I would suppose Christ will remove that curse on the ground straight away when He returns, where the land would become a beautiful productive place. Even that being so, certainly making the land into farmland would take some doing, but hey there would be plenty of man/woman power... I mean really just think of all the people in disreputable jobs that will need work.
The Scripture speaks of ways that Christ will began restoring the land and places that are considered unusable, like the deserts will be made back into productive usable lands.
Isa 35:1 The wilderness and the wasteland shall be glad for them, And the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose;
v. 2 It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice, Even with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, The excellence of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the LORD, The excellency of our God.
It seems that nature will under go great changes, along with the land becoming so much more fruitful, animals will also be changed from the wild and aggressive beast they are, I think I see a parallel there.
Isa 11:6 "The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, The leopard shall lie down with the young goat, The calf and the young lion and the fatling together; And a little child shall lead them.
v. 7 The cow and the bear shall graze; Their young ones shall lie down together; And the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
v. 8 The nursing child shall play by the cobra's hole, And the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper's den.
v. 9 They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD As the waters cover the sea.
A lot to think about.
mercy, peace and love
Kat
Joel:
Hey Bob,
I heard that all the people now living could fit into the state of Rhode Island. (shoulder to shoulder no doubt). :)
Seriously though, Revelations gives us a good clue.
Revelations 21:1-And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; AND THERE WAS NO MORE SEA.
Would a new earth necessarily have to look like this one, or be the same in size?
Joel
indianabob:
Hi Joel,
Thanks for your comments
I think revelaltion 21:1 applies only after God and Christ's body have finished their work of teaching righteousness to ALL of the people.
The new Jerusalem spoken of in verse 2 will surely not come down here while sin still abounds.
So this may be a place for a "millennium" if that is what will be after Lord Jesus returns, a time of training for all the resurrected sinners who have ever lived.
So, I think the New Jerusalem will be in the next age after the next age. 8) (smile)
Shoulder to shoulder sounds about right.
I did a calculation once when the estimated population of earth was six billion
Assuming the average person including children would weigh 125 pounds they could all stand on a frozen Lake Michigan with 25 square feet around them.
The total volume of those people, if they sank into the lake would raise the lake level only 1/2 inch.
We really are quite insignificant in the overall scheme of things; except for the fact that God has a plan and we are included in it.
Indiana Bob
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