Eight Billion Alive, Seven Percent of All Humans Born: A Fresh Look at Our Place in History
About 117 billion people have ever been born; with roughly 8 billion alive today, that’s ~7% of everyone who has ever lived. The figure comes from a model by demographers Haub and Kaneda and is inherently uncertain due to sparse historical data, relying on assumptions about how long humanity has existed, past populations, and birth rates. Because life expectancy was very low for most of history, recent population growth has made the living share larger, with estimates for those who reached 65 ranging roughly from 5.5% to 9.5% of all who ever lived.