Demography

                             collage by Amarie, sewing buttons representing flow of humans

In 1850, the population barely reached three billion. A hundred years later, in 1950, we had reached 4 billion. Which at the time represented an achievement that was welcomed with joy because it was a human victory, an immense progress : overcoming diseases, preventing premature deaths, correcting flaws with increasingly effective medicine, extending life and its quality. We paid little attention to the flip side of the coin : annihilating natural selection and simultaneously depleting our genetic heritage. We knew very well that this galloping demography would be an exponential function that would explode one day like an atomic bomb. Thus, in less than 72 years, we have doubled our numbers to reach 8 billion. Today, we are unable to manage this growth and ensure the survival of food, drinking water, hygiene, breathable air, housing, clothing, medicine, care, and so on for all living beings (plants, animals, and humans) on the planet. We loudly proclaim that we must live more simply, recycle, consume sparingly ; but only a minority adheres to this, while we should collectively change our way of living. What a disaster it was to try to civilize the "savage" peoples living in harmony with nature. They have almost all disappeared, forgetting that they are capable of surviving in complete self-sufficiency without the polluting artifices of the modern world. Some claim that things will resolve themselves : famines, epidemics, decline in male virility, pollution, increased death from climate change, floods, more frequent natural disasters, etc. That the earth has already experienced disasters and has always recovered from them. It's not very encouraging to have to go through disasters before getting humans to act ! The global population has experienced explosive growth over the centuries. Here are some key points summarizing its evolution.

Historical growth : In 1800, the world population was estimated to be between 813 million and 1.125 billion inhabitants. In 1900, it was approximately 1.55 to 1.76 billion. In 2000, it had reached approximately 6.1 billion.

Situation : In November 2022, the world's population had surpassed the 8 billion mark.

Future projections : According to the United Nations, the global population is expected to reach approximately 9.7 billion by 2050 and could approach 11 billion by 2100.

Distribution by continent : In 2022, Asia housed approximately 55.6 % of the world's population, followed by Sub-Saharan Africa with 14.5 %, and Europe and North America with 14.1 %.