Visualizing How A Population Grows To 7 Billion ⇥

As NPR’s Adam Cole reports, it was just over two centuries ago that the global population was 1 billion — in 1804. But better medicine and improved agriculture resulted in higher life expectancy for children, dramatically increasing the world population.

Take a look at the chart. No, really, take a good look at it. That is one hell of a steep slope. Just a hundred years ago, the global human population was a third of what it is today.