What was the world's population in 1900? How did it increase, why? For hundreds of thousands of years, man has been lost in the vast expanses of the earth, which was dominated by huge herds of animals. Anthropologists suggest that about 20 thousand years ago, the territory of France was inhabited by several tribes, the number of each of which did not exceed several hundred people.
The population grew extremely slowly, despite the high birth rate. Mortality was sometimes higher than the birth rate, so population growth, if any, was extremely small.
About 10 thousand years ago, population growth reached almost 10 million people. This was the first population explosion in the history of mankind.
Earth population in 1900 and after
After this first explosion, a steady increase was observed. However, nothing could compare with the explosion of population growth that began after the industrial revolution. In 1800, the number of people exceeded one billion. No matter how grand this threshold may seem, such a leap is nothing compared to how the Earth's population began to grow in 1900. The number of people on our planet in just one hundred years of the twentieth century has grown more than three times.
Due to the fact that technologies such as electricity, medicine, transportation began to spread widely, life expectancy increased, infant mortality rates decreased, and food products became more affordable. That is, with the improvement of living conditions, the number of people began to grow much faster than ever before in the history of mankind. It was already impossible for thousands of years to save as many people as there were.
The Earth's population in 1900 with an average life expectancy of less than forty years already amounted to more than one and a half billion people. It is not surprising that with an increase in life expectancy by almost half, at least the number of people should also increase.
Historical factors affecting population growth
It seems that human evolution, as well as population growth, was largely associated with the development of agriculture and hunting. Hundreds of thousands of years were necessary for man to improve technology and tools.
Before the nature that surrounded him, primitive man was weak and helpless. All sorts of troubles awaited him behind almost every tree. The land was inhabited by giant predators.
The only salvation for primitive people was life in the communities. With the community system came a more intensive development and use of new tools. Over time, more advanced tools and methods of protection appeared, which contributed to the growth of the population.
Population explosion
Throughout its development, mankind has survived three demographic explosions.
The first occurred 40–35 thousand years ago. During this period, the population increased 10 times. At this stage, the number of people on earth has grown tenfold: from 500 thousand to 5 million.
One explanation for this leap is that climate change has had a beneficial effect on the amount of food. During this period, people began to engage in agriculture, began to lead a semi-sedentary lifestyle, and learned how to store food. All this paved the way for the development of agriculture.
A man began to domesticate and raise livestock, to process large tracts of land. The first permanent settlements appeared.
About 5-7 thousand years ago, the second demographic explosion occurred, this time the population grew not in ten, but in two hundred times.
The third population explosion began in the mid-eighteenth century and continues to this day.
Industrial Revolution and Demographic Growth
The evolution of the world's population has experienced leaps that correspond to technological progress. The first major step in technological progress was the opening of fire, followed by food storage and agriculture, and the third important step in demographic growth was the industrial revolution, which began in the mid-eighteenth century.
Since 1750, population growth has not stopped even in the catastrophic periods of two world wars.
In the period from 1750 to 1800, the growth rate was 0.55% per year, in 1850 - 0.71% per year, in the period from 1850 to 1900 - 0.69% per year, and between 1900-1950 over the years - 0.58% per year. The maximum increase in the twentieth century, population growth reached between 1960 and 1965. The population grew by 0.91%.
Unprecedented population growth
In the 1800s, the population for the first time stepped over the billionth mark. The population of the Earth in 1900 is already 1.762 billion people, in 1910 - 1.750 billion people, and in 1920 - 1.860 billion people.
Ten years later, in 1930, the mark exceeded the second billion - 2.07 billion people lived on planet earth during this period.
Until 1940, the number of people increased to 2.3 billion, and due to human losses during the Second World War and the famine that followed, in the next 10 years, until 1950, the population grew to only 2.5 billion people.
Given the current world population growth rate in two categories of regions: developed and developing countries, over the past four decades, developing regions have seen a more accelerated population growth rate and a relatively modest increase in developed regions, which fluctuates around one percent.
It took humanity hundreds of thousands of years to reach the first billion, the second billion was exchanged approximately 80 years after the first, the third - after about 30 years, and the fourth after only 15 years. It is not surprising that such trends are a little scary, because today already more than 7.7 billion people live on Earth.