Population And Society

A tremendous change occurred with the industrial revolution: whereas it had taken all of human history until around 1800 for world population to reach one billion, the second billion was achieved in only 130 years (1930), the third billion in less than 30 years (1959), the fourth billion in 15 years (1974), and the fifth billion in only 13 years (1987). The population of the world is 7.28 billion people as of January 2015. According to the most recent United Nations estimates, the human population of the world is expected to reach 8 billion people in the spring of 2024. A number of scientists have argued that the current global population expansion and accompanying increase in resource consumption threatens the world's ecosystem, as well as straining humanity's ability to feed itself. This textbook will be widely used as the standard and one of the most up-to-date books on population and society for courses across the social sciences.