archeologia: A Short History of Progress

Evidence: 45 • authority: 72

Evidence: 45 • authority: 72

In world demographics, the world population is the total number of humans currently alive. It was estimated by the United Nations to have exceeded 8 billion (8,000,000,000) on November 15, 2022. It took around 300,000 years of human prehistory and history for the human population to reach a billion and only 218 more years from there to reach 8 billion. As of 2026, the world population is approximately 8.3 billion. However, this figure is only a very rough approximation (see § History). The human population experienced continuous growth following the Great Famine of 1315–1317 and the end of the Black Death in 1350, when it had reached nearly 370 million. The highest global population growth…

Evidence: 41 • authority: 72

Christian population growth is the population growth of the global Christian community. According to a 2011 Pew Research Center survey, there were more than 2.2 billion Christians around the world in 2010, more than three times as many as the 600 million recorded in 1910. However, this rate of growth is slower than the overall population growth over the same time period. In 2020, Pew estimated the number of Christians worldwide to be around 2.38 billion. According to various scholars and sources, high birth rates and conversions in the Global South were cited as the reasons for the Christian population growth.

Evidence: 36 • authority: 72

Evidence: 34 • authority: 88

Evidence: 30 • authority: 72

Evidence: 26 • authority: 88

Evidence: 25 • authority: 80

Human Population History Over the Last Two Million Years

Evidence: 21 • authority: 88

Evidence: 20 • authority: 72

Prehistoric and Indigenous cultures significantly transformed their environments by constructing irrigation systems and terraces, building roads and structures, clearing forests, hunting wildlife, growing crops, and managing livestock. These behaviors were common in most habitats where humans lived, and they ushered in the Anthropocene era – the epoch defined by major human impacts on the Earth. Prehistoric hunter-gatherers used fire to clear dense vegetation, improve mobility, and facilitate hunting. The development of agriculture accelerated the impact of humans on the surrounding landscapes. Farming often required clearing cropland, preparing soils, diverting or controlling water, and cu…

Evidence: 20 • authority: 80

Population-wide analysis of prescription trajectories: 7.2 million Danish patients over 25 years with 1.1 billion redeemed prescriptions

Evidence: — • authority: 54