How the world got to 8 billion

There are a lot of people in the world today, but there haven't always been. The global population was relatively small for millennia -- until a sudden surge of population growth in the past 200 years. We're now reaching 8 billion people, 10 times what the population was in the late 1700s, and 30 times what is was in the first century AD. How did we get here? What factors made it possible for the world to sustain such large numbers in modern times?
This video previously had the titles "Where did all these people come from?" and "The world used to be a lot emptier".

[@jasonjames4254]

I think he left something out. It wasn't just agriculture and industrialization. He touched upon it once when he mentioned a population decline from plague. Improvements in medical care, especially vaccines and antibiotics, also led to a rapid spike in population.

[@jayizzett]

People live shorter now

[@lelandsmith2320]

Real reason-- water and wastewater management prevented disease.

[@jasonjames4254]

@@lelandsmith2320 Definitely had an impact in the developed world, but there are no water/wastewater management programs in much of the developing world that also had huge spikes in population.

[@baratoplata7050]

Yeah, vaccines are a big reason we were able to enter a more stable system of globalised trade and have saved billions of lives.

[@gequitz]

@@jayizzett No (especially when you average in infant mortality). However, one reason people live longer than in previous centuries is because there is less war.

[@mikekahl4745]

The difference between a crop and a weed is, a weed has the will to survive.

[@dolsopolar]

well I can see why any crops would have zero will to live.

[@bottomgear4055]

It’s the eye of the tiger…

[@dennishackethal]

The Haber-Bosch process probably deserves to be mentioned by name as one of the great accomplishments in history as it relates to growing food more easily.

[@MARKCRASTO]

Yes, the father of life and death.

[@ranman7688]

Most people don't understand how much of a difference plentiful nitrogen fertilizer made in drastically increasing crop yields.

[@archezwei1729]

Now the production of Protein from air (Solein) gives hope we can sustain and grow that population till the natural 10 billion cap.

[@ranman7688]

@@archezwei1729 Solein is made from microorganisms, not directly from air.

[@Volvith]

@@ranman7688 The Aztec civilization was built around the production of maize, and the maintaining of the ground's fertility. It grew a dependence on it that, if the crop were ever to fail, civilization would effectively wither and fall. With it, they became one of the most plentiful empires in their time. Without it, they knew weakness and scarcity few at the time knew. The Haber process means the difference between a civilization of hundreds of thousands, and one of hundreds of millions. I'm just scared of what'll happen when human growth outpaces the potential of artificial fertilizer.

[@Undoublethinkful]

Small correction: There were a number of beans cultivated in the Old World before the introduction of New World beans. Fava beans, lentils, soy beans, and some others. It's the several varieties of common bean, and its relatives, that originated in the New World-- lima beans, kidney beans, black beans, pinto beans, etc.

[@EnergeticSpark63]

hey

[@philjan23]

Which are the good ones, nutritionally speaking; I don't wann bully soy beans and co., but man, do they suck as food (and even as a crop as well)

[@Holoether]

@@philjan23one might consider now our wonder burgers! Soy burgers, part of US school nutrition since…forever.

[@sereysothe.a]

@@philjan23lentils are amazing

[@nomms]

​@@philjan23Soy has a ton of nutrition in it and is fairly calorically dense. Makes it a good staple

[@marcosmartinez760]

Really surprised to see this coming from a channel with less than 100 subscribers, a channel with videos this good deserves more, great content! Keep up the work! Looking forward to the next video

[@Rationalific]

It's 2 months later (January 2023) and I see 19.3k subscribers now! It seems that people are catching on!

[@SuperSMT]

@@Rationalific Another 5,000 in the past day! Someone struck the algorithm lottery

[@Rationalific]

@@SuperSMT Wow... Yep! And if it was around 24.3 or so thousand when you commented, it's 26.5 now, 18 hours after your comment. So a 37% increase in the number of subscribers over the past 2 days since I commented...

[@Nikkk6969]

66k now

[@JigglyPuff6969]

@@Nikkk6969I’m Jiggly Puff dummy

[@samwisegamgee8318]

I love these analyses on human population and long term growth trends - it’s crazy how seemingly small changes build up overtime to create such massive results. Really cool stuff!

[@EnergeticSpark63]

hey

[@AwesomeHairo]

Thanks for not misusing a comma.

[@samwisegamgee8318]

@@AwesomeHairo my grammatical prowess must be top notch for the high demands of the KZbin audience.

[@Holoether]

I just got an apostrophe listening to this thread.

[@ChangeUrAtOnYT.comSlashHandle]

​@@samwisegamgee8318 Guess what your em dash is too short it looks like an en dash or, god forbid, a hyphen

[@ProductiveDude]

This must be why it feels so unnatural for me to live in a city along lots of people, opposed to the countryside. I’ve tried both and I feel far more at peace in the country.

[@anc3133]

Don't forget all the EMF we're irradiated by

[@abdimalikelmi729]

@@anc3133you mean the sun lol😊

[@marcopeterson805]

​@@anc3133light? You're talking about light?

[@arandomzoomer4837]

Yeah but it gets lonely and you have less access to amenities. I think I’m too young to go rural, when I’m old I’ll start a nice off grid permaculture farm but for now… I love my “giant iron anthills in the sky”😂

[@mysterioanonymous3206]

Same. After living in the big city for over 20 years I've moved back to the countryside where I originally came from. Couldn't be happier. Im never going back to the stress and noise of city life. Never again.

[@jacobaurelius5361]

This channel is going to blow up, phenomenal content, keep it up in a few years you’ll be one of the big ones 💯 %

[@ok-xz6lm]

and he did!

[@jeepmega629]

An interesting thing is how the largest Pre-Columbian cities in the Americas were wayyyy larger than any of their European counterparts. This is because wheat, Europe’s cash crop at the time, yielded 4 million calories per acre, while the Americas cash crops, potatoes and corn, both yielded 15 million calories per acre.

[@robfut9954]

Yep, corn and fertilizer

[@androidkenobi]

Makes me want to play Banished

[@Grason20]

Food crops, not cash crops. Cash crops are not for food, but for profit. (e.g. rubber)

[@nukacolacompany2534]

@@Grason20I thought it was a play on words like they meant cash cow but they said cash crop and cash cow meaning the most successful product of a business

[@4rumani]

​​@@nukacolacompany2534No, he just got it wrong

[@genghisdingus]

To put this in perspective there used to be prides of lions roaming the Greek peninsula in early human history.

[@SteveAubrey1762]

There were prides of lions roaming ancient Britain.

[@zadebasil3033]

Your channel is brilliant, your explanations are concise and digestible 👍 Nothing too flashy and irritating like most of KZbin, just straight talking explanations which I find soothing before bed. Great use of archival footage as well. Please make more, you have an avid and appreciative listener here!

[@premodernist_history]

Thanks!

[@crow2989]

I think about this every time i leave my town and get onto the highway towards Dallas. The horizon changed by skyscrapers in the distance. At night, endless lines of moving lights in opposing directions. So many humans i will never know, or unknowingly passing by someone who may be very important in my life 10 years down the line. Everyone going about their own lives in this complex interwoven world. Different civilizations built on different morals and ethics blending together after centuries of separation and war

[@josephquezada398]

I love how this puts into perspective the state of the world and helps me understand my and everyone's place in it and therefore not take it for granted. A lesson in humility is priceless.

[@MiSt3300]

Dude you literally have LESS subscribers than me, and I am posting garbage on KZbin whenever I feel the mood for it, while you keep consistent high quality uploads... Even your microphone is 100 times better than mine... You seriously need a boost from KZbin. I'm glad I got this video recommended to me

[@Nosirrbro]

Yeah like holy shit i have more subscribers with zero videos than this guy but it’s such a high quality video, i hope we see him get a lot bigger

[@Estebann800]

Cow dung

[@person3070]

Looks like he is getting that boost!

[@Pedant_Patrol]

FEWER*

[@Nosirrbro]

@@Pedant_Patrol begone prescriptivist

[@dennisenright7725]

One element of industrializations impact on agriculture that had a significant impact in agricultural production was that we started to feed petroleum products to the horsepower. Maybe not literally true but the replacement of horses with tractors and trucks freed up a huge amount of land for human food. This wouldn't just mean on farms, a city the size of new york would have needed tens of thousands of horses for transport of everything.

[@SurajSinghTomarArya]

So you are saying number of horses became less after industrialization? Is there any stat that confirms this?

[@minijo4289]

Awesome video! I didn't even see the view count until after the video and was shocked to see only a thousand views, you deserve way more. Hopefully the algorithm swings in your favour with this one!

[@petersmythe6462]

"Tomatoes, Peppers, Squash, Maize, Beans, Cocoa, Peanuts, Potatoes, Pineapples." "Grains, Livestock, Communicable diseases." Worst trade deal in the history of trade deals.

[@cliffpinchon2832]

There were diseases that came from the New World too - including syphillis, I think - and many of those Old World grains and animals have proven very useful.

[@recognizesealand572]

I think you should also have brought up how our fertility rate is actually collapsing, and soon populations will be in decline. Still a really good and informative video though.

[@L1M.L4M]

"2025 patch update: Human fertility rate nerfed" - God.

[@RialuCaos]

I think it is a self-correcting mechanism in social species. The same thing happened in a mouse overpopulation experiment.

[@recognizesealand572]

@@RialuCaos that's really interesting.

[@joevaghn457]

@@RialuCaosnatural selection doing what it does best.

[@SoupyMittens]

@@L1M.L4M Yipee, the devs didn't abandon the game!

[@sriharshacv7760]

Bottomline: All the tasty food crops come from South America. That is a great value addition. Sad thing is what South America got in return.

[@premodernist_history]

So true.

[@Estebann800]

It got us😗

[@NoctisAugustus]

Ah, yes. What have the Romans ever done for us, eh?

[@CamAlert2]

South America got electricity and running water. Not exactly sad.

[@MaddAce100]

I'm looking forward to seeing this channel grow 💪

[@Simarski17]

Great video! You have a new subsciber! One question: how much did improvements in health, medicine, hygiene and vaccinations in the 1700 to 1900 hundreds increase population growth? I'm under the imprression that these things lead to more and more children surviving early childhood, thus increasing population. I would also love to hear more about you! Are you a teacher, professor or an amateur historian? Anyway, KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!

[@premodernist_history]

Improvements in health and medicine were hugely important to population growth. I had a whole five-minute segment on that that I ended up cutting from the video, where I mostly talked about the demographic transition. I thought it made the video too slow and technical, and I wanted to keep things simple. As far as I know there were only a few vaccines available through the 1800s. Urban hygiene started to improve in the late 1800s in some big cities, where they were able to reduce the incidence of GI diseases like cholera and dysentery. A lot more vaccines became available in the early 20th century. Vaccines, hygiene, antibiotics, etc., all had a huge impact on survival rates, and they're mostly 20th-century things. Infant and child mortality plummeted in the 20th century, allowing those kids to grow up and have more kids. Then it took a couple generations for birth rates to drop. I got a PhD in history and taught college for a while. Now I'm a stay-at-home dad. Thank you for the kind words!

[@arifshahabuddin8888]

One thing not to be overlooked is advancement in civil engineering. The development of sewage systems, clean water delivery systems, transportation networks, etc. contributed as much to public health as did advancements in medical science.

[@PlayerOblivion]

Sterilized tools and modern medicine massively contributed to the reduction in deaths in the population.

[@lesyankee6129]

I was surprised to not hear about advances in medicine (antibiotics, vaccines, & women not dying in childbirth, etc.). Mortality rates have dropped and people keep living longer.

[@tanner4280]

@@arifshahabuddin8888 in fact these things aren't even separate, its more about the knowledge of how to use that engineering to reduce disease than the actual tech. Medical professionals such as epidemiologists literally went into areas that had high incidence of disease, and pinpointed probable structural/societal causes of the outbreak. It's all about intervening at every level of society woowoo!

[@Mike-wr7om]

Quite a number of people used to die before they reached childbearing age, thus limiting population growth. Advancements in medicine which allowed safer births (less women and children dying in childbirth) and prevented and cured childhood diseases thus allowing more people to reach adulthood played a huge part in the population explosion of the 20th century.

[@GAMER123GAMING]

Food takes a much larger role in population growth (IN MY OPINION) Well im led to believe that because the overexagerration of people before the 1800s dying at age 5 from every diseaese in the world is WRONG!

[@EpicMiniMeatwad]

@@GAMER123GAMING Yeah, food production plays the sole role of allowing more people to be alive at the same time. It is capacity for human lives. Decreases in prenatal mortality may logically increase the rate at which people can multiply, but even if people were not dying all the time, they just didn't have the food production to sustain a larger population in the first place.

[@willjapheth23789]

So the exchange that was big part of why indigenous Americans died is also a big part of why Asia exploded in population, that's brutal.

[@jackclark4598]

ok so we're all shocked the first time we hear Italian cuisine didn't have tomatoes til the new world, but nobody talks about the peppers! Asian cuisines without capsicum? I shudder at the thought

[@bazzamundie]

The book '1492' by Charles C. Mann, gives an excellent summary of the 'Columbian exchange'. I recommend to anyone who found this video interesting. Thanks for the video, I've subscribed and look forward to more content!

[@sechernbiw3321]

Wonderful book. I recommend William H. McNeil's Plagues and Peoples and The Pursuit of Power as companion books. You put those three books together and you get the best intro to world history I've found.

[@CrackinJacks138]

1491*

[@user-nr5me9ui3e]

literally 1492

[@JigglyPuff6969]

I’m the real Jiggly Puff

[@nhy123123]

Great production quality, couple with all the appropriate uses of classic videos across. You got a sub!

[@Chudson118]

Im a new viewer, but im very impressed with this channel. Its hard to find genuinely historically accurate videos on youtube.

[@dom-romer663]

'I'd like some pumpkin pie' I can't even with this man lol 🤣

[@pelmel1990]

Thinks his wife is Jeannie

[@pipiklatie]

Nice informing, fun and high quality video. keep it up!

[@wazowskitimoo7424]

Super entertaining , worthy of a lot more recognition than it's getting . Keep up the good work man

[@limegreentechnologies8803]

Congratulations on 8 billion subscribers!

[@premodernist_history]

I maybe need to come up with a different title.

[@limegreentechnologies8803]

​@@premodernist_history what do you mean! Lol, good video tho

[@mason96575]

When I was a spry bright-eyed bushy-tailed 20-something in college, I didn't really like going to Natural Sciences class... Now, as an old fart, I find myself filling my leisure time watching these videos... thanks, professor!

[@premodernist_history]

You're welcome!

[@JR-vk5sz]

Fantastic work! Clearly a lot of effort goes into these but you make it look effortless. This channel is going to get millions of subs. Keep it up!

[@davidreynolds4010]

Great Video! Informative and the audio quality was great. Look forward to your future vids

[@rgqwerty63]

Absolute gem of a channel the algorithm has served me up here. First video that came up was the arabic naming convention so I assumed you were a linguist given how good your pronunciation was, but your breadth of knowledge is insane

[@raa836]

Agree

[@mattsipes6186]

I found my next fav channel!!! Great stuff

[@dennisenright7725]

I just found your channel today. Love it. Already subscribed.

[@El_Presidente_5337]

For the beginning: In Germany I feel like 30% of all the land area are occupied by small communes, 5% large cities, 15% forest and the other 50% are farmland.

[@plumebrise4801]

It's 33% of Germany that is forest ,34% is arables land and 48% is agricultural land so 48% of 34% = 16,3% of farmland . In France ,it's 40% that is forest ,34% is arables land and 52% is agricultural land so 17,7% is farmlands ,and 8% of the territory is covered by village and city, 16,3% is unused land that could be used for agriculture but isn't used ,so the remaining 18% are either mountain and unused land of other kind In 1990 ,it was only 26,4% of France that was forested (It didn't really change for Germany) ,In 1960 ,it was 36% that was arables land (Germany was at 35%) and 63% that was agricultural land (So 22,7% as farmland) (56% for Germany so 19,6%) It seems that you greatly overestimated that land used by village and communes ,according to population density ,it should be 18,4% of Germany that should be covered by them .

[@El_Presidente_5337]

@plumebrise4801 Yeah cool, but the next big forest is like 1,5 hours away per car and even it seems to just stand because it is a mountainous region. All the small forests in my area can be walked through in about half an hour if you go by a normal pace.

[@MacElMasMancoDeTodos]

It just happened as that day I left my Minecraft Villager breeder on, I left 2 and came to see my game at 2 fps and 10299 entities rendered

[@lesyankee6129]

I'm 61 years old. There were 3 billion people when I was born. Now there's 8 billion. I still hope to live another 20+ years. Will there be 9 billion then? This rate of growth is unsustainable! What other species can you name that tripled its global numbers within 1 lifespan? With all the valid concern about global warming/climate change & environmental destruction, no one wants to talk about over-population as being the primary cause! Why are rain forests being cleared and oceans running out of fish? Because there are more mouths to feed! Why is there more CO2 in the air? Because there are more people burning fuels to warm their homes or drive cars, etc. Earth is a finite place, and some day we will reach its limit to support us.

[@ranjittyagi9354]

I am 46 and feel so horrible because of this. I can understand how you must feel having seen a decade and a half more than me and a better time, if I may say so. Traffic, pollution, noise, crime, people's behaviors changing with technology-sounds just about the perfect script for a horror movie to me. And, we're living it!

[@MundaneMuser]

I hope the number of subscribers to your channel will grow exponentially like the human population has.

[@rekoj59]

Amazing channel, I have a feeling you will get a lot of subscribers with time. Glad to be one of the early ones.

[@ManuelGonzalez-uy1fl]

I would love a video about the Antebellum/Midwest Era, your videos are very interesting and easy to digest, i’ve been binging and loving how much i’m learning. Cheers!

[@maximus5668]

Excellent video, educational and insightful... Congrats for such amazing work

[@HandyFox333]

"I like some pumpkin pie." Me too actually.

[@barakato]

Pumpkin jam is amazing.

[@davidmccloud2508]

Awesome quality, great info. Earned a subscriber and I will definitely spread your channel to friends and family 👍

[@premodernist_history]

Thanks!

[@Saqer750]

Man, I love this channel and I don't know how I didn't find it before.

[@premodernist_history]

Thanks!

[@Corwin256]

I liked this video so much that I forgot I had already clicked the thumbs up. This is the first time I liked a video so much that I stopped "liking" it. (Worry not, I fixed it and I like it once more.)

[@mit3da9yo]

You got a new sub, please continue producing good quality contents like these. Love your voice btw!

[@premodernist_history]

Thanks!

[@GreywardenRimu]

This video was recommended outta nowhere 😆 but it's very interesting and in line of what I usually watch in youtube

[@DubmanicGetFlazed]

same

[@Robertlga]

Love your content, but I suggest you use a log scale next time so that you can explain the timeline as a whole.

[@OceanicBacon]

I just finished watching all of your videos, this channel is awesome!

[@Killerkraft975]

Healthcare and sanitation is probably an important factor you have missed but regardless, great video

[@alexanderboev]

Great job and very interesting view on many well known facts

[@Razsteroid]

Where did this channel come from because this is some good stuff

[@johnsmitht11]

Interesting that for almost the entire timeline of human evolution our diets did not include foods like corn, beans, and potatoes.

[@galadzisewid1889]

Do you know anything about the agriculture practiced by Native Americans prior to European contact? I feel like that topic is a good tangent from this video, and the techniques practiced were pretty interesting compared to the more homogenous methods of modern agriculture. Such as the Chinampas of the Aztec, and the clam gardens used by tribes in the pacific northwest. I'm native myself so I would love for more accessible education about the technology my culture developed.

[@premodernist_history]

That's a good idea. I'd be interested in diving into the Aztecs more. I've never heard of the clam gardens but I looked it up. Very interesting. I do plan on doing more on native histories, but probably mostly post-Contact. Anthropology/archaeology is outside my wheelhouse.

[@Pedant_Patrol]

@@tryingtotryistrying- What you described wasn't a technological superiority issue; it was an issue of methodology.

[@someguy2885]

@@tryingtotryistrying That mono-crop style of farming was specifically enforced by the British on the Irish in order to starve them out

[@ranman7688]

@@someguy2885 Where can I find information about this? Generally, monoculture food production systems aren't enforced, they occur because of the ease and cheapness of growing a particular crop or the lucrative market for selling a crop. The potato was a miracle food when introduced to Europe. It was quickly adopted because of its ability to produce a large amount of calories with relatively little work and land.

[@artathearta]

Great content!

[@JohnFoley1701]

Great video! Why do i want pumpkin pie now?

[@vickypedias]

Love this channel and this video!

[@suphitoprak]

Hi. What İ'm gonna say is not directly related to your topic but I think its interesting. You know "turkey" is the chicken like bird that came from America. Turkish names for " turkey" is " hindi" ( meaning related to İndia ) or " mısır" ( means Egypt) . Also corn is named " mısır" or " darı" in Turkish . Darı is ethymologically Turkish but the others are names of places / countries. We must not forget that at the beginning Columbus was thinking that the country He reached was İndia. So , probably the Turkish name "hindi" comes from İndia. And I think the other names derived from which country ( customs) these people first get these foods.

[@atypocrat1779]

You called it industrialization. However, your video mentions ammonia but neglects to mention the development of the haber Bosch process. This process turns fossil fuels into ammonia. This fertilizer boosts harvests and feeds the world. If anything were to ever happen to the production of fossil fuels, populations would necessarily have to peak and start to fall.

[@modahabbab]

I just discovered you your voice is so calm

[@TirabintaToktik-hz1lx]

This video deserve more views and subscribers.

[@treyshaffer]

Important to note that the 7 to 8 billion milestone, which occured between 2011 and 2022 taking ~11 years, will probably be the fastest in human history. The next milestone, 9 billion, will also potentially our last depending on how the demographic situation turns out (meaning we may never hit 10 billion), and it will also take at least 15 years to get to 9 billion or up to 30 years (2037 to 2050s but it's very hard to predict). So we are on a quickly decelerating curve.

[@petrus9067]

Thankfully

[@Lausanamo]

​@@petrus9067Maybe not. An aging society is a dying society.

[@danthesquirrel]

The movie Soylent Green pinned the year 2022 when only the affluent could afford spacious apartments and natural food. Everyone else ate wafers of Soylent Green. That was a pretty accurate dart throw from all the way back in 1973.

[@umwha]

I just bought a bag of carrots from lidl for 40p .

[@jackmacdonald1242]

Love the little flashbacks! Great channel, just subbed 👍

[@ellabogan7906]

Love your channel! Keep making videos

[@abdullahshahj7194]

I really like these videos, can you please make a video about the industrial revolution? Like what caused it and made it possible

[@premodernist_history]

I do hope to do one on this at some point.

[@SofaKingShit]

I heard that before the Irish started growing potatoes their staple food was essentially onions. Nobody would have never felt full unless their was an animal to slaughter.

[@premodernist_history]

They also ate lots of dairy and oats.

[@joaomarcelogaluppo2496]

Excellent video.

[@Holoether]

Thanks for the video essay! Well done! All those years listening to Dan Carlin and Mary Beard and others, I was thinking of a video version that would rock. You made me think long hard and deep about history, with the plus of well-designed graphics and maps. Thanks for the nuggets!

[@harry.tallbelt6707]

Will they give the man his pumpkin pie already! >:( (stupid jokes in comments is a sure sign of the channel growth)

[@premodernist_history]

I think that might be my favorite part of the video.

[@marcospacheco319]

Brillante informe ! . Por cosas del destino (y el algoritmo) termine viendo esta maravilla de trabajo. Levantare una copa de vino esta noche por iluminar mi ignorancia. Saludos desde la tierra sudamericana conquistada de Argentina

[@premodernist_history]

¡Muchas gracias! Y en nombre de todo el mundo, gracias por los cultivos.

[@Laotzu.Goldbug]

This channel has great potential

[@LoremasterLiberaster]

If Mathusian Theory was a video 😅👍 Love your channel man, keep the good worl

[@dennisenright7725]

Preindustrial urbanized societies had to dedicate at least a third of their farmland to feeding their horses. I worry that the modern infatuation with biofuels and methane will severely affect human food supplies

[@chrismac5560]

Great video, very truthful however the one thing I'm surprised wasn't mentioned as to the sharp spike on the graph in the past 300 or so years is exponential growth. In order for the world to go from 100 million to 1 billion the population had to multiple by 10, but in order for the population to go from 2 billion to 4 billion it only needed to multiply by 2 so of course it didn't take as long, and same for the growth from 4 billion to 8 billion. If you look merely at total population increase that last increase (4B to 8B) is 3.1 billion more than the first increase (100M to 1B) however looking at exponential growth you see that 2x (4B to 8B) is much smaller than the 10x (100M to 1B) so of course the larger total population spike won't take as long. Imagine it this way, if I cooked rice every night, doubling how much I cooked starting with two grains tonight here's how it would go. Day 1: 2, needless to say I'm starving tonight. Day 5: 32, I've still barely eaten so I'm still starving. Day 10: 1024, this is about 1/4 of a full serving, I would certainly be dead but assuming death doesn't exist I would still be starving. Day 12: 4096, I've finally gotten a full meal. Day 16: 65536, there's now enough to feed everyone on my rec hockey team who showed up tonight (16 guys). Day 21: 2097152, there's now enough to feed the entire house of representatives and nearly the entire senate. Day 30: the number is over a billion and I could roughly feed 35% of all Alaskans. Day 41: the number is unfathomable but I would feed over 75% of the US population. Day 46: I'd have so much rice I could literally feed an entire meal to everyone on earth. According to google a serving of rice is 3000-9000 grains so I used 4000 as a meal in my examples above. If you were to chart that, the graph would look rather similar to the world population over time graph. That just goes to show how quickly exponential growth takes off as a quarter of the way through that I was just beginning to fully feed myself and by the end I feed the entire world. (incase you're wonder why I started with two grains on the first day and not one grain it's because a population can't expand/double with only one person)

[@user-sl6gn1ss8p]

the whole graph at 10:50 looks exponential if you iron out the kinks, really

[@Slampty]

Great content, please keed it up.

[@kamilserhan]

Excellent work.

[@juleksz.5785]

0:40 For example, Cracow, major city of the Polish state since few hudnret years, 150 years ago circa than 5 570 000 m2 with farmlands literally tauching it's gates. My hometown, generally considered eighter small or not big, is 70 000 000 m2 (not sure if the number includes various empty spaces, but by 'main body' of this town is circa 40 000 000 m2). That's three 0's of differenace. Major city was 150 years ago 13 times smaller than my not-big town. Currently Cracow is 327 000 000 m2. That's nearly 60 times the size difference in less than 2 centuries.

[@baassiia]

Most of it is industralization - Moving people from farms to Cities. Total popoluation of Poland hasn't grow thar much over time that you mentioned...

[@juleksz.5785]

@@baassiia 150 years ago Poland's population was over 11 millions. 100 years later it exceeded 34 millions. After WW2 it reached 38 millions until 2000's. Including war casualties that's 13 million in 50 years. I dunno, seems like quite a population rise to me.

[@baassiia]

@@juleksz.5785 yup 3.45 times, so nothing when we compare with city grow. Math doesn't hurt ;)

[@juleksz.5785]

@@baassiia So more than tripling the population is "insignificant" to you ? Ok, I don't know why youw ant to talk about cities alone, but I'll do the math : - Cracow, from 50 000 to 700 000, aka 14 times the number with 3,5 overall population change, - Berlin, from 400 000 to 3 500 000, about 7 times the number with slightly above double the overall population change, - london, from 2 500 000 to 9 000 000, that nearly 4 times the number with slightly less than doublying of overall population change - Moscov, from 400 000 to 11 000 000, about 28 times the population, with slightly more than 4 times overall population change, - New york, from 600 000 to 8 500 000, that's 14 times population change with overall population change of 17 times Well, seem like Poland has quite similar population change to its neightbors, and only USA seems to have much higher population change over the years. And in terms of cities only Moscov seems to be here above the others. Unless you have spoken about South-East Asia and/or third world countries ? I don't know what you ment by "Math doesn't hurt", i've never indicated to suffer from it and I definetly still don't.

[@StephenDeagle]

I'm under the impression that there were a lot of small farming towns nearly everywhere throughout most of the medieval period and onward (and prior to, at that), and not large areas of unused land. Isn't it fairly uncontroversial to suggest that there was no more wildnerness then than now, overall? I get that density has increased significantly along with population itself increasing, but that doesn't suggest that walking from one hamlet to another entailed a long trek through a forest, I would have thought.

[@seasidescott]

Do you live in Europe or the Eastern USA? That is often true there but not in the rest of the world and still doesn't help get food to cities. And large areas of land were unused as he pointed out with swamps but also rocky soil that would quickly destroy a wooden plow. Cities grew not only as economic centers but political and military as well. Many argue that Rome was built with roads, hence the saying "all roads lead to Rome". Roads meant transportation of goods. Navigable waterways is the most efficient transportation then and now, followed by trains. Self powered ships and trains revolutionized everything. Even today merely trucking on roads is nearly a break even economy and without the shipping and rail would be catastrophic to most of the population of the world. Even in the USA with it's minimal rail use still relies on it for much of the profit. The Port of Seattle for instance says "Over 70 percent of the containers that we handle will go by rail to Chicago and other cities across America." Trucking figures are very inflated as they transport the same goods multiple times.

[@Epsilonsama]

Depends on which time. Before Rome Europe was mostly forested, by the time of Rome the Roman Empire was increasing in farmland but they hit certain climatic boundaries which kinda correlated to their limits of their sphere of influence. Central Europe was still too forested for any use for their form of agriculture and it wasn't until midieval inventions that made it easier to fell trees and work said unfavorable land that the later German and Slavic states were able to even exist in the first place. During Roman times Germanic tribes all wanted to be part of Rome because it was simply a better place to be for humans. But by the midieval time that wasn't really the case.

[@KepleroGT]

In Northern Italy it was found that the density of small villages and towns was almost the same as today. That region was one of the most densely populated ones during the middle ages

[@John_on_the_mountain]

Not to mention all the wood needed for building and cooking/keeping warm.

[@Fixbiie]

Great Video, keep it up! :)

[@Locust536]

Great video, already subscribed. Where de you recommend to get more info in the topic, really interesting stuff my G

[@premodernist_history]

Thanks! As a starting point, I'd look at this article on Wikipedia. It includes charts that summarize the various estimates, broken down by region: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estimates_of_historical_world_population I'd also recommend learning about the demographic transition. That's basically the mechanism by which we quintupled our population in a century (stage 2 especially -- lowering death rates and high birth rates). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographic_transition The site Our World in Data has lots of really awesome graphs and visualizations: ourworldindata.org/world-population-growth I used their graphs in my video. Their historical estimates are actually a little higher than some others. If you look closely in the section of my video with all the graphs, the numbers I say don't always match with the numbers on the graph. That's why. I like these two publications for an overview of historical demography: 1. United Nations, The Determinants and Consequences of Population Trends, 1973 archive.org/details/UN1973TheDeterminantsAndConsequencesOfPopulationTrends 2. John D. Durand, Historical Estimates of World Population: An Evaluation, 1974 repository.upenn.edu/psc_penn_papers/9/ For the link between food supply and human population level: Russell Hopfenberg and David Pimentel, "Human Population Numbers as a Function of Food Supply," Environment, Development and Sustainability, Vol. 3, no. 1 (2001), pages 1-15 www.bioinfo.rpi.edu/bystrc/pub/pimentel.pdf

[@errorsk2188]

I have a theory, I observed that in my country, and in my family especially, the generation bornnin 1900's had 7 children. Some 4, some 9, and so on. My grandma only had two kids. My mom had two kids. And I see many childrenless people around me, as well as, I do not plan on bringing children to this disquisting world. So I predict that we are going to see a steady decline of the population. Altho, some families STILL have like 6 kids and such. Only time will rell.

[@xxxx-rn3yu]

That's just how child bearing is post industrialization. Look at all the first world vs industrializing countries

[@ChunkyWaterisReal]

This is only in developed nations.

[@bboyshr6]

Great video. Even though there are more people in the world we are no where near outgrowing our planet. If the U.S. had the same density of population as Singapore, there would be 79 billion people in the U.S. only. Also think about it, there is 50 billion or more birds in the world but how many have you seen today? There are 3,5 trillion or more fish in but we still need sonar to find them. But without wide resource management even the underpopulated areas will not sustain it’s people. That is the power of wisdom

[@kingminos1993]

This Channel is so cash money. The casual lecture style is 🔥

[@tomblaise]

Perhaps in a few thousand years the 500 Billion people will look back at today and wonder how any land that wasn't wildlife preserve wasn't turned into Manhattan style skyscrapers.

[@myamdane6895]

sounds like a nightmare

[@john-carl2054]

I’ll tell you when you’re older 😉

[@neilreynolds3858]

There were fewer people in the world when I was born than there are in China and India now. There were only about 25% of the people now in CA and there were huge areas that were farmland or desert that are now cities. I much prefer farmland and desert.

[@blartversenwaldiii]

wow. I never thought about it like that before

[@vivalaleta]

We cannot forever keep doubling our numbers without realizing this makes our lives cheap. If any other species was doing this we wouldn't allow it.

[@jimmymaximusace]

Informative 🎉

[@antonemilit2178]

Asia is to blame

[@markdotinc8371]

Thinking about an extra billion people every decade (and accelerating) gives me deep anxiety about the future and about having children

[@ranjittyagi9354]

Let me let you on something personal. Just because of this population and all the troubles that have and will come around, I have decided not to have any child. Anxiety gone. Yes, I hate seeing too many folks and traffic and noise in the day. 46 here.

[@skygge1006]

The world can handle many billions more we just make bad choices with our efficiency. As vertical farming and lab grown meat takes hold it will vastly increase that number, and if asteroid mining can succeed it can prevent the environmental damage from many mines and our population can rise even further. From there we just need to be more efficient with our urban areas, depending on the country you are in, although assuming you are in America we aren’t very efficient with that and can take tips from Europe and Asia for the design of them.

[@pelmel1990]

That guy really wants his pumpkin pie

[@maggiebalistreri7301]

Haha, love the eerie old clips woven in. And the subtle nod “if something were to happen…” haha something like what? Peak oil, biodiversity loss, topsoil loss, plastic pollution, ocean acidification, etc etc…something like ecological overshoot on a global scale? Haha..thanks for the vids

[@schmetterling4477]

Peak oil happened around 2004, people just didn't notice. They were too busy being angry about "greedy" oil companies. ;-) Anyway, none of these changes in the environment does or will cause large scale loss of human life. We can compensate for them. What some of them are causing is a loss of natural beauty.

[@baneofbanes]

@@schmetterling4477peak oil is when it requires burning more oil to produce the energy to run oil wells than you get oil out of the ground. If we had hit peak oil in 2004 we’d have known because the entire system whosoever either collapsed or switched over to nuclear.

[@schmetterling4477]

@@baneofbanes Peak oil is not the geological prediction of the end of oil reserves. It's the economics prediction of the end of cheap oil production. Cheap oil ran out around 2004 and since then we had to invest ever more money to produce ever more expensive oil. Geologically we will never ever produce even half of all existing oil. Other energy sources will take over long before that happens because they are cheaper and more reliable.

[@baneofbanes]

@@schmetterling4477 that is literally what I just said dude. Peak oil is when it costs more energy than you get out of the oil to extract oil. However you are still wrong as peak oil has not yet been reached.

[@schmetterling4477]

@@baneofbanes We aren't pumping oil for its energy content. We are pumping it for its utility. In many places in the US most of the energy that was used for the production of oil came from coal. In Texas a lot of it of already comes from solar and wind. Absolutely nothing would stop us from extracting beyond your limit with e.g. solar in Saudi Arabia and with nuclear power in the Arctic. It just happens that electricity has far larger utility than oil once you have good batteries.

[@oldi184]

The human population literally "EXPLODED" in the second half of the 20th century. Many factors were responsible for that but there are main key 4 things. - antibiotics - cesarian sections - incubators - overall better access to nutrients(vitamins etc.) (this resulted in a longer human lifespan - people live longer - not 30 or 40 years but 60 and 70+ years)

[@orangeyewglad]

People didn't die in their 40s lol The infant mortality/death in childbirth were a huge contributor to those often misinterpreted statistics about life expectancy. If you were 20 years old and healthy you weren't going to drop dead in 10 years in 1800.

[@AjayTiwari-en9nz]

Vaccines?

[@Young.Supernovas]

The big question of our times is: when will we meet carrying capacity, and what will happen when we do?

[@HenryPaulThe3rd]

We will never reach carrying capacity because birth rates are below replacement right now in all countries outside the African continent.

[@pointlessgarbage8587]

you can already see it now, raising children becomes too expensive and people decide that its not worth it. Places that are industrialized and prosperous will have decreases in their population (except by immigration) and 3rd world countries will continue to grow their populations. Personally I doubt its anything to worry about but I am also just a regular dude

[@TheHamburgler123]

I wouldn't stress too much about it. Most of the developed economies in world are doomed to moderate to rapid population decline (barring immigration). I've been following the topic for over a decade now. There are many different organizations that calculate population projections. Fertility rates continue to drop faster than anticipated. It's looking more and more likely that the global population peaks at around 9.5 billion sometime in the 2060s, never to reach remotely close to such levels again.

[@micosstar]

cool education, data, and footage!

[@VanBurenOfficial]

You're gonna be the next Vsauce combined with Ray William Johnson and Smosh. Keep it up m8