Today is World Population Day, a day set aside by the United Nations to remember that there are rather a lot of us on the planet. More than 6 billion of us, no less. You can watch us increase here, or here, or here, or here. You can stop us increasing with one of these.
WorldPopulationfacts • Since the beginning of humanity, an estimated 75 billion people have been born and died, and 6 billion born and still alive, a total of 81 billion.
• At the current pace, humanity is adding about 78 million more people every year (about the population of Germany), over 200,000 more every day (about the population of Southampton) and about three more every second.
• Humanity reached its first billion in 1804 (gap of 123 years) its second billion in 1927 (gap of 33 years) its third billion in 1960 (gap of 14 years) its fourth billion in 1974 (gap of 13 years) its fifth billion on 11 July 1987 (gap of 12 years) and its sixth billion on 12 October 1999.
• 1 in 5 people on Earth lives in China and 1 in 6 lives in India, each with a population of over 1 billion.
• The 20 most populous countries in the world are China, India, USA, Indonesia, Brazil, Russia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Japan, Nigeria, Mexico, Germany, Philippines. Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey, Iran, Ethiopia, Thailand and the UK.
• 1 in 900 of the world's population lives in London. Back in 1930, it was 1 in 250.
• More than 1 billion people on Earth are between 15 and 24. Another 1.8 billion are under 15. More than 95 percent of them live in developing countries.
• An estimated 114 million acts of sexual intercourse take place in the world every day. Some 910,000 lead to conception and in 356,000 cases a sexually transmitted disease is passed on.
• Only 17 per cent of sexually active young people use contraceptives, which would be why the UN has chosen this year's World Population Day to focus on the theme of adolescent rights, health and development.
• All in all, you're pretty insignificant, aren't you?
