Socio-Economic Trend
Population
UNIT: Billion
The global population is now about 7.2 billion people. The Industrial Revolution created the tools and technology for a population explosion. But we have now reached "Peak Child". Education and opportunities for women means population will not keep rising exponentially. It will start to level off.
Graph Caption: (Steffen et al 2014) Global population data according to the HYDE (History Database of the Global Environment) database. Data before 1950 are modelled. Data are plotted as decadal points.
Sources: HYDE database 2013; Klein Goldewijk et al. 2010.
Caption: Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl near Mexico City
Source: Google Earth
Source: Google Earth