How many people have ever lived on Earth?

How many people have ever walked the Earth? No doubt its a monumental number, and increasing every minute, but how do we work it out?

23 September 2014

Part of the show Alien Hunters: The Search for ET

EARTH

"The Blue Marble" is a famous photograph of the Earth taken on December 7, 1972, by the crew of the Apollo 17 spacecraft en route to the Moon at a distance of about 29,000 kilometres (18,000 mi). It shows Africa, Antarctica, and the Arabian Peninsula.

Credit:

CC0

Share

Question

How many people have ever since Homo sapiens evolved and how do we work this out?

Related Content

Biology | Chemistry

Not Enough Nitrogen to Feed the World

Biology | Medicine

Why do we laugh?

Is there an evolutionary reason for rhythm?

Feeding the World in 2050

Physics | Technology

How do we site radio transmitters?

Comments

Add a comment

Update Required To play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version or update your Flash plugin.