# Was There a Year Where No People Were Born? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 19, 2004, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-a-year-where-no-people-were-born/245893 "2004-05-19T02:42:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![flamingbananas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f4b2a3/32.png) [@flamingbananas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flamingbananas)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2004, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-a-year-where-no-people-were-born/245893/1 "2004-05-19T02:42:12Z")
Exactly what the title says. Was there a year/day/week/month whatever where no person was born on Earth? Please answer my question, it is driving me NUTS. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2004, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-a-year-where-no-people-were-born/245893/2 "2004-05-19T02:43:15Z")
Sure. There were billions of them, before the evolution of the human species. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2004, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-a-year-where-no-people-were-born/245893/3 "2004-05-19T02:46:41Z")
I doubt it. no event has ever occured that prevented all of humanity from procreating for a specific period of time. Select pockets maybe but not all of them. Plus you have to consider that people had alot more kids up until lately. nine or ten wasn’t uncommon. But only 3 or 4 would survive. So no probably not. ---
**Author:** ![FatBaldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecd19e/32.png) [@FatBaldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FatBaldGuy)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2004, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-a-year-where-no-people-were-born/245893/4 "2004-05-19T02:50:05Z")
I have it on the best authority that no people were born in the year 0 (between 1 BC and 1 AD) ---
**Author:** ![flamingbananas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f4b2a3/32.png) [@flamingbananas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flamingbananas)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2004, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-a-year-where-no-people-were-born/245893/5 "2004-05-19T02:51:19Z")
Gosh. I am so confused. Shall we ask Uncle Cecil? ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2004, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-a-year-where-no-people-were-born/245893/6 "2004-05-19T03:07:42Z")
What’s so confusing? What makes you think there might be a year when no one was born. That would require a year when no one had sex, now that’s hardly likely is it? ---
**Author:** ![TJdude825](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@TJdude825](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TJdude825)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2004, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-a-year-where-no-people-were-born/245893/7 "2004-05-19T03:12:50Z")
IIRC, birth rates are something like “1 every _n_ seconds” where _n_ is about 3 or 4. So it would be highly doubtful. I suppose, due to sheer coincidence, it should happen every so often. But then “so often” would probably be way WAY longer than the entire time that humanity has existed. ---
**Author:** ![flamingbananas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f4b2a3/32.png) [@flamingbananas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flamingbananas)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2004, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-a-year-where-no-people-were-born/245893/8 "2004-05-19T03:13:44Z")
Just because they had sex doesn’t mean the girl got pregnant now does it? I take it back. It isn’t confusing, it is hard to find out. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2004, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-a-year-where-no-people-were-born/245893/9 "2004-05-19T03:18:43Z")
It is hard to find out because it hasn’t happened. It’s a bit like trying to find out if there’s ever been a year where it hasn’t rained in the Amazon. ---
**Author:** ![racinchikki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eada6e/32.png) [@racinchikki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racinchikki)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2004, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-a-year-where-no-people-were-born/245893/10 "2004-05-19T03:45:43Z")
Think about how many birth announcements there are in your local newspaper today. Think about how many there have been in the past year. Realize that that number is only for one small area of one country. Now try to imagine how many people are born every year ALL OVER THE WORLD. That’s a lot of people, isn’t it? In order for NONE of those people to be born, something pretty big would have to happen. An amazing coincidence, or some sort of natural catastrophe that made it impossible to birth babies. Such a thing may happen in the future, but there’s never been such a year in recorded history, and the odds are against there having been such a year in pre-recorded history, either. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2004, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-a-year-where-no-people-were-born/245893/11 "2004-05-19T03:47:01Z")
> [@flamingbananas](#): > > Gosh. I am so confused. Shall we ask Uncle Cecil? Only if you want him to ridicule you. ---
**Author:** ![aahala](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a88e4f/32.png) [@aahala](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aahala)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2004, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-a-year-where-no-people-were-born/245893/12 "2004-05-19T03:54:04Z")
Yes there were a few dates no one was born in those countries that converted from the Julian to Gregorian calendar when the Pope decreed it. October 4, 1582 was immediately followed by October 15. Other countries converted later at various times, so it was a real mess.😃 ---
**Author:** ![citrus\_x\_paradisi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6f9a4e/32.png) [@citrus\_x\_paradisi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/citrus_x_paradisi)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2004, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-a-year-where-no-people-were-born/245893/13 "2004-05-19T04:01:15Z")
> [@TJdude825](#): > > IIRC, birth rates are something like “1 every _n_ seconds” where _n_ is about 3 or 4. So it would be highly doubtful. I suppose, due to sheer coincidence, it should happen every so often. But then “so often” would probably be way WAY longer than the entire time that humanity has existed. I’d say that the longest birth-less interval might be a minute or two, likely during the pre-Industrial era. ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2004, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-a-year-where-no-people-were-born/245893/14 "2004-05-19T04:14:29Z")
This might have happened (in fact, presumably did happen) at a time when the entire human population of the planet was very small, i.e. shortly after the evolution of _homo sapiens_. But that was in remote prehistory, well before any year that we can identify. By the time of any dateable event in human history, the population of the planet would have been so large that there could have been no realistic possibility of an entire year passing without a human birth anywhere on the planet. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2004, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-a-year-where-no-people-were-born/245893/15 "2004-05-19T05:39:40Z")
> [@Otto](#): > > Sure. There were billions of them, before the evolution of the human species. Obviously, this is the only reasonable answer to such a question. It’s safe to assume that there were no humans born in the year 100,000,000 BC. ---
**Author:** ![Excalibre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Excalibre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Excalibre)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2004, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-a-year-where-no-people-were-born/245893/16 "2004-05-19T14:14:51Z")
> [@flamingbananas](#): > > Exactly what the title says. Was there a year/day/week/month whatever where no person was born on Earth? Please answer my question, it is driving me NUTS. Why would you think this could possibly happen? No, of course not. The human race does need to make new ones to replace the ones that die off, you know. Sure, depending how tightly you define the human race, it’s possible that back when there were about eight or ten of us, none were born for a year. But that’s kind of meaningless and impossible to establish anyway. ---
**Author:** ![zut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zut/32/2875_2.png) [@zut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zut)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2004, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-a-year-where-no-people-were-born/245893/17 "2004-05-19T14:54:08Z")
> [@Excalibre](#): > > Sure, depending how tightly you define the human race, it’s possible that back when there were about eight or ten of us, none were born for a year. But that’s kind of meaningless and impossible to establish anyway. Well, this seems to me to lead to a more interesting way of phrasing the OP, to wit: What is the _minimum_ number of humans that have existed at any one point in history, and what was their birthrate? Seems unlikely that as few as eight or ten would be a viable population, and I’m sure that the definition of “humans” and the process of speciation would come into play, and the answer would be something of a guesstimate anyway… but how about it? ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2004, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-a-year-where-no-people-were-born/245893/18 "2004-05-19T15:48:30Z")
Okay, **flamingbananas** , maybe this will help clear up your confusion – According to the Population Reference Bureau’s article [“How Many People Have Ever Lived on Earth?”](http://www.prb.org/Content/ContentGroups/PTarticle/0ct-Dec02/How_Many_People_Have_Ever_Lived_on_Earth_.htm): > [@](#): > > At the dawn of agriculture, about 8000 B.C., the population of the world was somewhere on the order of 5 million. (Very rough figures are given in the table; these are averages of an estimate of ranges given by the United Nations and other sources.) The slow growth of population over the 8,000-year period, from an estimated 5 million to 300 million in 1 A.D., results in a very low growth rate — only 0.0512 percent per year. It is difficult to come up with an average world population size over this period. In all likelihood, human populations in different regions grew or declined in response to famines, the vagaries of animal herds, hostilities, and changing weather and climatic conditions. So, assuming that 10,000 years ago there was a population of 5 million with a growth rate of 0.0512 percent a year gives you 256,000 births a year, which is abut 700 births a day or one birth every two minutes or so. So at least as far back as 10,000 years ago there was no year, month, week, or day in which no person was born. ---
**Author:** ![flamingbananas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f4b2a3/32.png) [@flamingbananas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flamingbananas)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2004, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-a-year-where-no-people-were-born/245893/19 "2004-05-19T20:33:36Z")
Wow. Well that cleared up my confusion, without any back-sass. So pretty much, even when the human race first started out there were still no days without new births? ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2004, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-a-year-where-no-people-were-born/245893/20 "2004-05-19T20:41:57Z")
> [@flamingbananas](#): > > Wow. Well that cleared up my confusion, without any back-sass. So pretty much, even when the human race first started out there were still no days without new births? That question was JUST ANSWERED! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-a-year-where-no-people-were-born/245893.md?page=2)