--- title: "How many people have ever lived? about 117 billion" description: "about 117 billion How the figure is estimated, how confident it is, and what makes the scale graspable." url: https://atoneplace.net/how-many/people-who-have-ever-lived/ site: "At One Place" --- # How many people have ever lived? **How many people have ever lived?: about 117 billion** About one person in fourteen who has ever been born is alive today. Roughly a quarter of the 117 billion lived and died before the invention of agriculture. The Population Reference Bureau puts the number of Homo sapiens ever born at roughly 117 billion, counting from about 190,000 BC. The living 8.2 billion are therefore about 7% of everyone who has ever existed. The popular claim that the living outnumber the dead has never been true and is not close. The estimate is sensitive to infant mortality assumptions: for most of human history close to half of all children died before age five, and those short lives dominate the count. ## How the figure is arrived at Pick a start date and a starting population, then step forward through history applying an assumed birth rate to an assumed population at each stage. The birth rate matters far more than the population does — a hunter-gatherer world of a few million people with a birth rate of 80 per thousand contributes an enormous number of births over 150,000 years. ## How confident it is - **Low estimate:** 100,000,000,000 - **High estimate:** 130,000,000,000 - **Spread:** 1.3× between the bounds ## Other living things and the natural world counts - [How many people are there in the world?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/people-alive-right-now/) — about 8.2 billion - [How many grains of sand are there on Earth?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/grains-of-sand-on-earth/) — roughly 7.5 quintillion on the world's beaches - [How many ants are there in the world?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/ants-on-earth/) — about 20 quadrillion - [How many trees are there in the world?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/trees-on-earth/) — about 3 trillion - [How many insects are there?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/insects-on-earth/) — about 10 quintillion - [How many species are there?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/species-on-earth/) — about 8.7 million - [How many drops of water are there in the ocean?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/drops-of-water-in-the-ocean/) — about 27 septillion - [How many fish are there in the sea?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/fish-in-the-sea/) — somewhere between 3 trillion and 100 trillion — nobody knows - [How many species are endangered?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/endangered-species/) — more than 45,000 assessed as threatened - [How many bees are there in the world?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/bees-in-the-world/) — roughly 2 trillion managed honey bees - [How many birds are there in the world?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/birds-in-the-world/) — about 50 billion wild birds - [How many bacteria are there on Earth?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/bacteria-on-earth/) — about 5 nonillion - [How many earthquakes are there each year?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/earthquakes-a-year/) — about 20,000 located a year — around 55 a day - [How many chickens are there in the world?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/chickens-in-the-world/) — about 26 billion alive at any moment ## Common questions ### How many people have ever lived? about 117 billion ### How is that estimated? Pick a start date and a starting population, then step forward through history applying an assumed birth rate to an assumed population at each stage. The birth rate matters far more than the population does — a hunter-gatherer world of a few million people with a birth rate of 80 per thousand contributes an enormous number of births over 150,000 years. ## Related pages - [How many people are there in the world?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/people-alive-right-now/) - [How many grains of sand are there on Earth?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/grains-of-sand-on-earth/) - [How many ants are there in the world?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/ants-on-earth/) - [How many trees are there in the world?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/trees-on-earth/) - [How many insects are there?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/insects-on-earth/) - [How many species are there?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/species-on-earth/) - [How many drops of water are there in the ocean?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/drops-of-water-in-the-ocean/) - [How many fish are there in the sea?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/fish-in-the-sea/) - [How many stars are there in the universe?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/stars-in-the-universe/) - [How many countries are there in the world?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/countries/) - [How many bones are in the human body?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/bones-in-the-human-body/) - [How many stars are there in the Milky Way?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/stars-in-the-milky-way/) - [How many atoms are there in the universe?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/atoms-in-the-universe/) - [How many galaxies are there?](https://atoneplace.net/how-many/galaxies-in-the-universe/) ## Sources - Typical range compiled from manufacturer specifications — At One Place (/about/)