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The World at Six Billion
Population Division
Department of Economic and Social Affairs
United Nations Secretariat

The World at Six Billion was prepared in response to the widespread global attention to this historic milestone. The World at Six Billion provides in tabular and graphic form salient characteristics of past, current and future world population growth.

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Media Kit

Faces and Facts
Day of 6 Billion: October 12, 1999
Information Kit by CCMC - Communications Consortium
According to United Nations projections, the Earth's population could be 7 billion, 9 billion or 11 billion in 50 years, depending upon the decisions made by today's young people about bearing children.

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Six Billion and Beyond
A documentary premiering on PBS (USA)
Produced by independent filmmaker Linda Harrar and hosted by actress Blythe Danner, this programme explores innovative efforts worldwide to meet the reproductive health needs of individuals, featuring profiles of ordinary families and commentary by population experts. It focuses on young adults in Mexico, Kenya and India; and also examines population policies in China, low birth rates in Italy and resource consumption in the United States.

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Feature Articles

World population reaches 6 billion
NEW YORK, Oct. 4 - A majority of the 370,000 children born this Tuesday will be poor. Half will be Asian. And in theory, one will be the planet’s 6 billionth person.

More Than 6 Billion Served
by Joe Ashbrook Nickell

The world's population is expected to pass the 6 billion mark on 12 October. By 2100, scientists predict that twice that many people will be rummaging for food.

World Population Closing in on 6 Billion

UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- On October 12, the world will reach a dramatic milestone, according to the U.N. Population Fund. On that day, the planet's population will hit 6 billion -- marking a fourfold increase this century alone.

Now We Are Six
E/The Environmental Magazine: July-August 1999
By Jim Motavalli
On or around October 12, 1999, a Very Important Baby will be born somewhere in the world. The arrival of a new child is not in itself big international news, since three are born every second, but this one will mark world population reaching a record six billion. The five billionth baby isn't even a teenager yet, having been born in 1987. It took all of human history until 1800 for the population to reach its first billion; the second took only until 1930. A mere 69 years later, six billion will be crowding the planet.

6,000,000,000 Consumption Machines
International Wildlife Magazine: September/October 1999
By Don Hinrichsen
SOMETIME on October 12, 1999--most likely in China or India, according to demographic probabilities--the Earth´s six billionth human will be born. As a consumer of water and food, forest products and clean air, animals and the oceans bounty, this newborn will make but a tiny dent on natural resources during its sojourn on the planet. But put Baby Six Billion together with all the other human consumption machines already here, and alarm bells go off.