# How many total humans, past and present?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-total-humans-past-and-present/256068>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 20, 2004, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-total-humans-past-and-present/256068 "2004-07-20T21:34:02Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![The\_Controvert](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@The\_Controvert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Controvert)\
**Post date:** [July 20, 2004, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-total-humans-past-and-present/256068/1 "2004-07-20T21:34:02Z")

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I tried a search for this, but didn’t find anything. How would one estimate (to within an order of magnitude) the total number of homo sapiens that exist and have ever existed on planet Earth? What is the total?

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**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\
**Post date:** [July 20, 2004, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-total-humans-past-and-present/256068/2 "2004-07-20T21:53:21Z")

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Cecil (of course) has an [answer](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_085.html) (sort of).