Has the earths population been failry consistent over time?

Question

Or have we just recently been living in an era of global population boom?

Answer 1

150,000 years ago, the human race was down to less than 5,000 individuals on the entire planet.  

You need to see the Discovery Channel's program "The Real Eve."

Answer 2

The population of the world in the year 1960 was only 3 billion and now it is six billion.  China had 700 million and now has 1.3 billion.  India had 450 million then and one billion now.

What do you think?

Answer 3

we continue to grow at an exponential rate... while i cannot remember the exact numbers he used, a good study of this is contained in "The story of B" by Daniel Quinn.  He talks about the fact that the amount of time it takes for the earth's population to double has shrank considerably from when we were all hunter-gatherers, through the beginnings of agriculture as we know it, and into today... it is eye-opening to see the estimates scientists place on our population growth in the past 200,000 years.

Answer 4

no, while local populations have expanded and contracted over time, the worldwide population is at an all time high.  Changes in technology , food production, etc.  have allowed for this, but we are treading a thin line where more people live at a lower standard of living.  More than 3 billion people (thats about half) live on less than 2 dollars a day.  

For example, demographers estimate the world population at ~250 million during the time of christ (less than the US today).  More secure records suggest that population has increased from ~750 million in 1750 till today at 6.4 billion and growing.  There is a lot of info on the web about this.

It is interesting that the previous poster suggests that the human pop. was down to 5k at 150,000 years ago.  While I do not necc. doubt the #, I think the wording is poor since it implies that there was a peak in anatomically modern Homo sapiens prior to that time.   References please?

Answer 5

Over the last 10,000 years, since the invention of agriculture, the human population has been exponentially increasing. In fact, there are more people alive today than have ever died in all of mankind's existence.

Answer 6

There are far more alive today thanks to agricultural and medical technology that allowed the death rate to plummet.

Answer 7

no. there are more people alive now than there have ever been alive. Plagues have wiped out half the population in Europe from time to time.