World population to hit 7 billion in 2012

The world’s population will reach 7 billion in 2012, even as the global community struggles to satisfy its appetite for natural resources, according to a new government projection.
There are 6.7 billion people in the world today. The United States ranks third, with 304 million, behind China and India, according to projections released Thursday by the Census Bureau.

The world’s population surpassed 6 billion in 1999, meaning it will take only 13 years to add a billion people.

By comparison, the number of people didn’t reach 1 billion until 1800, said Carl Haub, a demographer at the Population Reference Bureau. It didn’t reach 2 billion until 130 years later.

“You can easily see the effect of rapid population growth in developing countries,” Haub said.

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Posted in * Culture-Watch, Globalization

5 comments on “World population to hit 7 billion in 2012

  1. Alice Linsley says:

    If the human race survives that long.

  2. William P. Sulik says:

    Well it won’t be Episcopalians doing all that tacky breeding. We’re too smart for that kind of thing.

  3. Chris Hathaway says:

    It was the Mayan calendar that did not go past 2012. So I don’t expect any Mayans to be alive in 2013.

  4. DietofWorms says:

    The more the merrier, I say.

    There is always a lot of doom and gloom about population, but I think there is plenty to go around for everyone if we all learn to share.

    People make the world interesting. I look forward to meeting as many of the 7 billion as I can.

  5. ann r says:

    Wonder how this could happen when all European countries are not replenishing themselves but having to import folks from elsewhere. The good old U.S.A. only makes the stable part of the chart by virtue if immigration.