Numbers !

There are now about seven billion people living on planet Earth and that  fascinates researchers in the field of " Demography " - which is the study of facts related to numbers.

National Geographic Demographer Carl Haub has compiled some statistics that would be very handy for those tasked with finding questions for trivia nights.  He has looked at this earth's population from the time humans started to walk erect on their hind feet, shed most of their body hair - and began to migrate from the Great Rift valley in Africa.

For instance, each year about fifty-seven million of this planet's population die - although this figure can be far from accurate.   People in developed countries have a far more healthy and predictable lifestyle, and each year can up or down the numbers - depending on the weather cycle and it's delivery of feast or famine - and other factors such as the outbreak of various plagues - and of course - war !

Haub also set out to calculate just how many people have ever lived on this planet and to do that he set the benchmark from 50,000 years BC.   Had he illustrated his findings by some sort of graph he would most likely have produced a very long, thin funnel.    Today's population would be represented by the wide top of that funnel - and it would then descend in ever thinning mode - to a long way south.

Haub estimates that the earth has been home to one hundred and eight billion people during that time period.

That is an interesting statistic, but most people will be more interested in knowing what sort of future is in store for us people living now - and those who follow us.    A lot depends on whether the broad top of that funnel continues to expand - and whether it exceeds the food supply.   It also depends on whether we ever learn to live peacefully together - and whether some moronic idiot opts for war - and presses that red button that starts a thermo-nuclear war !

Then perhaps we end up with a handful of survivors and the whole process starts again - right back in the days of 50,000 BC !