More people alive today than have ever lived and died

[yeoman]

With the rate of human population growth since WWII my instinct is to say that there are more people alive today than have ever lived and died. I know there are estimates of today's world population but I'd like to find a source of population since humankind began to either confirm or refute my position. Thoughts?

[RgrF]

Should this information be forthcoming, what will you do with it?

[yeoman]

Win a bet.

[ho'ard]

[quote yeoman]Win a bet.
Try the internet. They got all kinda stuff on the internet.

[x-uri]

http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_085.html

Your instinct would seem to be wrong.

[ho'ard]

[quote x-uri]http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_085.html

Your instinct would seem to be wrong.
That info's 20 years old . . . the population could have grown from 5 billion to 60+ billion in the last 20 years, no?

[yeoman]

Wow, x-uri, you cost me money but I appreciate the link. I looked lots of places but no could find. I've added Straight Dope to my bookmarks.

[Maddog]

Good website. I added it to my bookmarks as well. If you haven't checked out the "damn interesting" website, you should definitely do that.

[BigGuynRusty]

His books are better.

BGnR

[freeradical]

Here's a good set of links from the census bureau about recent world population trends.

http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/idb/

A couple of interesting graphs:





http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/idb/worldpopinfo.html