The world's population has exploded over the past century, growing from less than 2 billion to 7 billion people. And it's not stopping. The U.N.'s current projection is that humanity will number 9.3 billion individuals in 2050, and then hit 10.1 billion by 2100. Meanwhile, our energy resources are dwindling and…

Godzilla failed in his apparent goal (at least in the first movie) to crush all the people of Japan under his big reptilian foot. But what the radiation-blasting monster couldn't achieve by brute force, the Japanese may themselves bring about by their own habits of reproduction—or lack thereof.

There's a popular claim that the seven billion people alive today outnumber all other humans who have ever lived. It's meant as a stark reminder of humanity's population explosion over the last 200 years...but is it true, or total crap?

Today saw the world's human population pass 7 billion for the first time ever — it's a huge landmark that's almost impossible for our limited brains to encompass. Luckily, National Geographic has been doing a year-long series about the growing population, and they've gathered some of their most arresting images, video…

The Guardian is currently featuring a great interactive applet that pumps out population metrics (including the total number of Earth's human residents) for the year you were born.

Our genes don't just help determine who we are — they also preserve an incredibly ancient record of who our ancestors were. Our genomes can actually reveal human population sizes dating all the way back to before humans even existed.

If you're a baby alligator, there's about a 1 in 16 chance that your elders will eat you. It's nothing personal...it's just the simplest way for these gators to deal with a temporary food shortage and keep their population stable.

Urban population growth is skyrocketing. The majority of people on Earth live in cities, and most of the water they drink has to be shipped in. Scientists say that by 2050, many cities will have seasonal water shortages.

By the end of this year, the human population is expected to reach seven billion people, just twelve years after we hit the six billion milestone. But how much more crowded is our planet going to get? Will we keep on expanding indefinitely, or are we approaching the upper limit? The current consensus is that we'll…

On New Year's Day, the giant population bump known as the baby boom started turning 65. By the decade's end, more humans will be over 65 than under 5. Homo sapiens is entering uncharted territory. What will happen?