Define the history of human growth
Since our civilization’s inception, the world’s human population has increased exponentially. The world had a population of 5,000,000 people in the year 8,000 BC. This number slowly increased to around 200 million at 0 AD. Fortunately, the world population grew rapidly after that point due to technological advances in medicine, agriculture and technology, which enabled more people to live longer and had larger families. The global population surpassed 500 million by 1700 AD. It grew quickly to one billion in 1800 AD. In the 20th century alone we saw a seven-fold increase in the world’s population from 1.6 billion in 1900 to 7.7 billion in 2020 with an average annual growth rate of 2%. Today, the majority of this growth is in developing nations where better access to healthcare has led to a drastic decrease in deaths and high birth rates. However, developed countries are experiencing a stabilization or decline in their population due both longer life expectancies coupled with lower fertility rates as a result of factors like gender equality or economic stability.