The Day of Six Billion

An arbitrarily selected baby born in a region on the date on which an official demographic authority has predicted the population of the region will pass a milestone figure of N may be symbolically recognised as the region's Nth person. At a world population level, the United Nations Population Fund designated five and six billionth babies in 1987 and 1999 respectively; no official baby was selected on the Day of Seven Billion in 2012.

World population milestones were unnoticed until the 20th century, since there were no reliable data on global population dynamics.

It is estimated that the population of the world reached one billion for the first time in 1804. It would be another 123 years before it reached two billion in 1927, but it took only 33 years to rise by another billion people, reaching three billion in 1960. Thereafter, the global population reached four billion in 1974, five billion in 1987, six billion in 1999 and, by some estimates, seven billion in October 2011 with other estimates being in March 2012. It is projected to reach eight billion by 2024–2030. According to current projections, the world's population is likely to reach around nine billion by 2045–2050, with alternative scenarios ranging from a low of 7.4 billion to a high of more than 10.6 billion. Projected figures vary depending on underlying statistical assumptions and which variables are manipulated in projection calculations, especially the fertility variable. Long-range predictions to 2150 range from a population decline to 3.2 billion in the 'low scenario', to 'high scenarios' of 24.8 billion. One scenario predicts a massive increase to 256 billion by 2150, assuming fertility remains at 1995 levels.

The Day of Five Billion, 11 July 1987, was designated by the United Nations Population Fund as the approximate day on which world population reached five billion. Matej Gašpar from Zagreb, Croatia (then SR Croatia, SFR Yugoslavia), was chosen as the symbolic 5-billionth person concurrently alive on Earth. The honor went to Zagreb because the 1987 Summer Universiade was taking place in the city at the time.

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