The World Now Has 7 Billion People- How Big is 7 Billion?

Just 6 years after the world celebrated the 6 billion population mark, countries around the world celebrated as the world went up another billion yesterday to 7 billion. Some celebrated the mark while others were fretting about the world not having enough resources to support all the people. Although it is impossible to determine exactly when the population hit 7 billion, demographers used their best guess, and named October 31st to symbolically mark the day.

There was no official 7 billionth baby, as a matter of fact, there were quite a few babies around the world that were celebrated as the 7 billionth. China has 1.3 billion people, world’s largest population. But India is believed to be close to soon eclipsing that mark. The 7 billion milestone has many pondering the complex challenges associated with billions more people to arrive in the coming years. So just how big is 7 billion really?

Facts courtesy of CNN:

• There are nine zeros in 6,000,000,000, and nine zeros in 7,000,000,000. But if you counted every number in between them, it would take more than 30 years.
• Earlier this year, there were only 140 people in the world who were worth $7 billion, according to Forbes.
• Seven billion seconds ago, the year was 1789. That was the year George Washington was inaugurated as the first U.S. president and Congress met for the very first time.
• If you took 7 billion steps along the Earth’s equator – at 2 feet per step – you could walk around the world at least 106 times.
• Assuming an average thimble holds 2 milliliters of water, seven billion of those thimbles would fill at least five Olympic-sized swimming pools.
• Assume the average human is about 5 feet tall, accounting for children. If you stack those 7 billion people end to end they would reach about 1/14th of the way to the sun – or 27 times the distance to the moon.
• Seven billion ants, at an average size of 3 milligrams each, would weigh at least 23 tons (46,297 pounds).