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    The Upshot

    World’s population hits 7 billion

    The world's population is about to hit 7 billion. And while there is no way to know who can claim the distinction of being the planet's lucky number 7 billionth human inhabitant, the looming landmark has sparked a slew of interesting searches--and at least on compelling website.

    The interactive site comes courtesy of BBC News. Enter your age, and you'll see how many people were living on Earth when you were born (approximately). You'll also get to see how many people in history have lived on Earth at the time of your birth. You can then break the data down by country and gender. All stats and figures are provided by the United Nations Population Fund.

    If web searches are any indication, many folks are interested in digging even deeper into world population statistics. Over the past week, online lookups for "world population clock" and "world population stats" have both more than doubled. "World population 2011" and "world population 7 billion" have also spiked, as has the never-more-timely term, "population control."

    According to a buzzy article from the AFP, around 80 million people are added to the world's population every year. By the year 2100, the population could be more than 15 billion. Contrast that with the year 1800, when the Earth's population was just a billion. Make room, everybody: It's gonna get crowded.

     
    • dan h  •  7 mths ago
      when i was born in 1950, the population was 2 1/2 billion. while i admit ive done more than my share to add to the population. those 4 1/2 billion added since i was born are not mine. thats my story and i'm stickin' to it.
      • MJ 7 mths ago
        Dan, don't worry. I do not for one moment believe that this figure is correct (hordes of people are dying everyday). This is part of the propaganda plan of the world elite who want to reduce the world's population to a mere half a billion. If the tell the world we're overpopulated we won't blink an eye when they start killing us of. They already have by poisoning our water, food and air... Google 'The Georgia Guidestones' and read it and weep.
      • Douglas 7 mths ago
        good i said no more than 2 billion but 500 million is even better
      • Comfortably 7 mths ago
        Your an Idiot!
    • McNerd  •  7 mths ago
      "World population to hit 7 billion; what number are you? "
      3,521,567,303

      Do I win the car?
      • Rose Lawrence 6 mths ago
        How did you figure that out?
      • Ed S 6 mths ago
        I am a person, not a number.
      • get this 6 mths ago
        no you don't get a new car, you get 1500 new neighbors!
    • ice  •  7 mths ago
      ship anyone who is a fan of justin beieber, the kardashians and jersey shore off the planet and into the sun...
      • DE 7 mths ago
        Ship everyone who hates their fellow man to Mars.
      • Ghaleonl 7 mths ago
        along with everyone who likes Fred, the annoying orange, and all the other youtube "celebrities."
      • Deez Nutz 7 mths ago
        I didn't think there were any normal people still here. Thanks guys (Ice, Ghaleonl)
    • whatsinaname  •  Austin, United States  •  6 mths ago
      Thank God I will be long gone by the time 2100 gets here. I wouldn't want to live on Earth with twice the number of people there are now.
      • Edward 6 mths ago
        Same here. It's going to be a nightmare.
      • Stinkerbell 6 mths ago
        I concur. I don't have children mainly because this world is so f**** up and resource-stressed.
      • Chris 6 mths ago
        They give unlimited tax breaks (exemptions) to people to have as many kids as possible because they want lots of consumers and lots of people competing for the same job. It is called the "Growing the Economy" economic theory and it is part of "trickle-down" Reaganomics. No matter what we do, Reaganomics (give more to the wealthy and enough will trickle down to everyone else) just won't go away and even though it was the cause of the Great Recession.
    • rr  •  7 mths ago
      Do you think there would be any kids if sex felt bad?
      • Sickov Idiotz 7 mths ago
        Do you think there would be any kids if everybody thought homosexuality was "normal"....?
      • Brian 7 mths ago
        ummm no because majority of people arent queers....
      • Josh 7 mths ago
        gay. proper name is gay but the number of foreign country adoptions would increase
    • joshua  •  Capitol Heights, United States  •  6 mths ago
      the sad thing is evolution favors the stupid in this case. Octo-mom from a evolutionary perspective is at least 4 times as successful as your average American family. The seed of the ignorant, the insolent, the uneducated, and those that think their cervix is the opening to divine blessing (or next months welfare check as the case may be) will inherit the earth.
    • Dizzle  •  Wellington, United States  •  7 mths ago
      Exponential growth is at hand - so let's worry about the Lohans, Kardashians, Steve Job's license plate, Bieber's bat-mobile, Middleton's fashion statements, Twilight updates, etc
    • Cliff  •  7 mths ago
      Disaster is on the way.
    • ALEXX  •  Washington, United States  •  6 mths ago
      Still want to end abortion? How about less abortion and more wars...because abortion would be wrong.
    • Fedupandrightlyso  •  Livonia, United States  •  6 mths ago
      Way too many people on this planet thats for sure, especially during rush hour!
    • Derek B  •  Dallas, United States  •  7 mths ago
      The problem is unlike other animals, humans have technology to overpopulate. In the animal kingdom, if there are too many predators, they will starve until a balance is reached. If there are too many prey, the predator population will increase until a balance is reached. As long as the wealthy countries send money to poor, uneducated countries, they can continue to multiply unabated.
    • Hgldr  •  Everett, United States  •  7 mths ago
      ...and the poor and uneducated continue to breed like rabbits. Sad for the human race.
      (hint. this includes many in the USA)
    • David  •  7 mths ago
      I wonder how much we all weigh . . . 7 billion times about 140 pounds each?
      That's about 490 million tons of quivering organic matter.
      It must take an awful lot of food and water to keep it all going . . .
    • karma4karma  •  7 mths ago
      nature will do its thing soon--and it's not gonna be pretty
    • Gone  •  7 mths ago
      Think about it this way. How many new faces will be looking for a job for the first time next year? And the year after that? No politician can enact the kind of legislation that it would take to magically create enough jobs for them, not to mention the millions already out of work. The problem is here to stay, at least until such time we all rethink the economy vs. population dynamic. Our current modus operandi is arse backwards. Populations should ebb and flow with the economic capabilities of any given time, instead of constantly putting pressure on the economy to try and keep up. That's an arbitrary expectation that is doomed to failure, every time.
    • Bob  •  Huntington Beach, United States  •  7 mths ago
      The real question is at what number will there be a mass famine(hundreds of millions)? Sooner or later it will happen! In general the poorer and more religous the more children they have. The pope says do not use birth control, Why?
    • Anton  •  Reims, France  •  6 mths ago
      Stop breeding - oh sorry - it's the people that can't read that are having all of the babies
    • Reegan  •  Waite Park, United States  •  7 mths ago
      Something is gonna give.. War, food shortages, economic/civil unrest.. Here it comes.
    • Lurch  •  6 mths ago
      Women should have no more than two babies.We should only replace ourselves,not add extra people to the planet.Over populated China has limited its people to just one child per woman.
    • Jeff  •  West Sacramento, United States  •  6 mths ago
      Regulated birth control for welfare recipients... just say'in. You want your paycheck? Take this deprovera shot.

    ABOUT THE UPSHOT

    The Upshot is the Yahoo! News blog assembling choice material from The Ticket (politics), The Lookout (national affairs), The Cutline (media) and The Envoy (foreign affairs).

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