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Human Population Growth

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Running Head: HUMAN POPULATION GROWTH

Human Population Growth
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Assignment

• What is the current estimate of the worldwide human population at this moment? • Describe how this number is changing moment-to-moment, day-to-day, and from one year to the next. • Describe how the human population growth issue has and will impact the ecosystem. • Cite all references in APA format

Human Population Growth

There are several different estimates of the current world population, which vary slightly based on some assumptions about population estimates in different countries. Most census data for various countries is at least two years old (and may be older). Population models have to account for growth since that data was collected. They also have to adjust for some errors in that data (miscounts, birth and death rates, migration, etc.). Given the variability of the base numbers and the differing estimates of errors, it is not unexpected that there are slightly different numbers.

According to the US Census Bureau’s International Data Base (IDB) population clocks, at 17:05 GMT (EST+5) Feb 13, 2009, the world population was World 6,760,296,593.

Thirteen minutes later, at 17:18 GMT (EST+5) Feb 13, 2009, the Census Bureau’s world population estimate was 6,760,298,598.

That means, that in just 13 minutes, according to the US Census Bureau, about 1,005 more people existed on Planet Earth, or births outnumbered deaths by that number. Depending on the source of the estimate, there is a net gain of up to 10,000 people each hour, or about 3 per second.

Sometime in 1999, the world population passed 6 billion people. Exactly when that happened can’t be known, as we don’t have a count of every single person on earth – and who has just died and just been born. The Census Bureau estimates that the 6

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