# How many people have ever lived? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 8, 2003, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-have-ever-lived/193820 "2003-08-08T13:19:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Paddle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f19dbf/32.png) [@Paddle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paddle)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2003, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-have-ever-lived/193820/1 "2003-08-08T13:19:43Z")
Just seen a trailer on the Discovery Channel for some programme about ‘Great People’. In passing, they said something like: “£3000 bilion people have lived on this planet, but only a few have stood out”. Does this figure seem reasonable to you? My old man and I argued this over (we usually argue) and he thought it was ridiculously high since you don’t have to go too far back in time to get a very low total population. I’m not too sure. I guess it depends how far back in time you can go and still talk about ‘people’. Paddle. ---
**Author:** ![biqu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7feea3/32.png) [@biqu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/biqu)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2003, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-have-ever-lived/193820/2 "2003-08-08T13:39:02Z")
[Google search](http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=number+people+ever+lived&btnG=Google+Search) Some hits: [109 gigapeople as of 1998](http://members.bellatlantic.net/~bjmcg/story2_peple_lived.html) [106 gigapeople as of 2002](http://www.prb.org/Content/ContentGroups/PTarticle/0ct-Dec02/How_Many_People_Have_Ever_Lived_on_Earth_.htm) [96 gigapeople as of 1999](http://www.math.hawaii.edu/~ramsey/People.html) ---
**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2003, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-have-ever-lived/193820/3 "2003-08-08T13:41:53Z")
We’ve done this one before (kind of) in this [thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=192143&highlight=population). It’s a dodgy number to nail down but around 75-130 Billion was the numbers we arrived at for total population. 3000 Billion seems awfully high. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2003, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-have-ever-lived/193820/4 "2003-08-08T13:54:43Z")
Define “people.” ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2003, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-have-ever-lived/193820/5 "2003-08-08T16:28:41Z")
I have. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Great\_Unwashed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_great_unwashed/32/4791_2.png) [@The\_Great\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Great_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2003, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-have-ever-lived/193820/6 "2003-08-08T16:32:20Z")
All of 'em, so far.