human population

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Census Bureau Announces a World Population Milestone

Estimates it has now hit 8B

(Newser) - The world population grew by 75 million people over the past year and on New Year's Day it will stand at more than 8 billion people, according to figures released by the US Census Bureau on Thursday. The bureau estimates the population passed the 8 billion mark on September...

Musk, Bezos Agree: We Need More People

Jeff Bezos puts ideal human population at a trillion

(Newser) - Carrying his young son onstage to illustrate his point, Elon Musk on Saturday urged the people of industrialized nations to have more children. Immigration alone can't counteract the population declines that Musk said threaten economics. Without demographic changes, he said, "the culture of Italy, Japan and France will...

Here's How Much the World Grew in the Past Year

By 74M people, according to US Census Bureau

(Newser) - The world’s population is projected to be 7.8 billion people on New Year’s Day 2022, according to the US Census Bureau. That represents an increase of 74 million people, or a 0.9% growth rate from New Year’s Day 2021, the AP reports. Starting in the...

This Country Just Saw Its First-Ever Population Drop

South Korea had more deaths than births in 2020, and the pandemic likely made things worse

(Newser) - For the first time ever, South Korea's population has seen a downturn, with the decline likely exacerbated by the pandemic. Census figures reported by Yonhap show a count of 51,829,023 at year's end, a nearly 21,000 drop from 2019, per the Guardian . The population had...

Fastest-Shrinking Nations Are All in One Part of World

Eastern Europe, with Bulgaria in the No. 1 spot

(Newser) - The number of people living in Bulgaria is expected to drop by nearly a quarter by the year 2050—and its neighbors aren't going to fare much better demographically, per UN population projections cited by Quartz . Over the next 30-plus years, Bulgaria will see its population fall from around...

NASA Releases Stunning New 'Night Lights'

Agency plans to publish composite images more often

(Newser) - What can change in a night? NASA intends to find out, at least in so far as detailed images of light patterns can tell us, reports al.com . For nearly three decades, so-called "night lights" compiled from satellite images have provided us with evening views of our planet—and...

Scientists Discover Ancient Baby Boom

Study: Native American birth-rate growth, fall is a 'warning about overpopulation'

(Newser) - A baby boom among Native Americans that started some 1,500 years ago was so massive that birth rates likely surpassed the highest found anywhere in the world today, according to researchers scouring data tied to thousands of human remains found at hundreds of sites across the region where Arizona,...

Lego People to Outnumber Real People by 2019

Will total 8B by the end of the decade

(Newser) - Today's oddest factoid: There may be 7 billion humans on the planet, but by 2019 a species of tiny plastic people will outnumber even us: Lego figurines. Randall Munroe, the physics grad behind the webcomic xkcd , has compared Lego production forecasts with human population predictions to determine that by...

Global Population: 7.2B Next Month

And 10.9 billion by 2100: UN

(Newser) - The world's population was 7 billion in 2011 , and it's already set to hit 7.2 billion next month, the UN says in a new report. If that seems like a lot, wait a few more decades: By 2100, the population is projected to be 10.9 billion,...

You May Have to Turn Vegetarian by 2050

 You May Have to 
 Turn Vegetarian 
 by 2050 
in case you missed it

You May Have to Turn Vegetarian by 2050

...because of water constraints, say scientists

(Newser) - If you're not a fan of black beans and tofu, you may be out of luck in about 40 years. Some of the world's foremost water scientists say the planet will have to cut its consumption of animal-based products from 20% to about 5% by 2050, assuming we...

World's 7 Billionth Person Arrives by Halloween

UN says new projection is a call to action

(Newser) - By the time you’re out trick-or-treating on Halloween, the planet will have marked an important milestone: As predicted, the world’s 7 billionth person will arrive this year , by Oct. 31, according to the UN Population Fund. It predicts that we’ll hit 8 billion just 14 more years...

World Population Will Break 10B by 2100

UN fears 'serious implications' for poorest countries

(Newser) - The world’s population will hit 9.3 billion by 2050 and 10.1 billion by 2100, UN experts say. It’s set to reach 7 billion by the end of this year. The UN uses the figures, which depend on fertility expectations, to set up programs to address issues...

Don't Whine About the Census, Detroit: Embrace It
Don't Whine About the Census, Detroit: Embrace It
OPINION

Don't Whine About the Census, Detroit: Embrace It

Two op-eds: The city can get better even as it gets smaller

(Newser) - Detroit's staggering population loss over the last decade— some 237,500 people —has city politicians predictably calling for a census recount, but two opinion pieces think it's a waste of time. Better to focus on the new, smaller Detroit:
  • Detroit Free Press editorial: "The important thing now is
...

Meet World's 'Most Typical' Person

He's 28, Chinese, and right-handed: researchers

(Newser) - The “most typical” person on Earth has been revealed: he’s a 28-year-old, right-handed, Han Chinese man, notes the Huffington Post . In a National Geographic report, researchers compiled some 190,000 photos to piece together the average person’s face. But this guy has only a few more years...

Planet Could Be 'Unrecognizable' in 40 Years

Population is getting richer, and competing for ever-scarcer resources

(Newser) - Our world could be "unrecognizable" by 2050 thanks to competition for scarce resources among our expanding, ever-more-affluent population, or so warned scientists at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science yesterday. To cope with a population that's expected to hit 9 billion by that...

Chicago's Population Dips Below 1920 Level

People are leaving for suburbs, Southern US

(Newser) - Chicago's population fell 6.9% during the decade that ended in 2010, leaving it with fewer people than lived there in 1920. The US Census Bureau reports a population of 2,695,598 people, just under the 2.7 million that were reported nearly a century ago, the Wall Street ...

Coming in 2011: The World's 7 Billionth Person

And it's only been 11 years since the 6 billionth

(Newser) - Things to look forward to in 2011: all-natural Frito-Lay chips , a bunch of truly unnecessary movie sequels , and … the world’s 7 billionth living person. That lucky baby will arrive sometime next year, according to the UN Population Reference Bureau, writes Bryan Walsh for Time . The world’s 6...

China to Count All Its People—in Just 10 Days

6 million hired for mighty task

(Newser) - The number of census workers hired to count China's population will be bigger than the entire population of many nations. Some 6 million workers will fan out across China to count some 1.3 billion people—in a total of just 10 days. It's China's first census in 10 years,...

Stone Age Humans Found Wisdom in Crowds: Study

(Newser) - The jump in human ingenuity during the Stone Age could have resulted not from a biological change but from closer, more populous communities, NPR reports. “Anything that we teach is going to be susceptible to loss, or to decay,” said the British scientist who cooked up the theory....

Watch Out World, You're Going Gray
 Watch Out World, 
 You're Going Gray 
Analysis

Watch Out World, You're Going Gray

Aging, population decline mark next decades

(Newser) - Wall Street's a wreck and terrorists are clamoring for WMDs, but the world's real crisis is far worse: It's getting old, Neil Howe and Richard Jackson write in the Washington Post. By the 2020s, baby boomers will push the median age in Western Europe and Japan to near 50,...

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