The world population reached it's 6th billion in 1999. It took the human race all of time up until the year 1800 to populate the Earth with 1 billion people. But it only took 150 years to get our second billion in the year 1930. How quickly did we get the rest of them? Each billion came faster and faster. Here's an activity to help your child see a graphic representation of our population growth. You will make 2 time lines. You will need long thin paper like connected computer paper cut in half lengthwise or cut several sheets of paper in half lengthwise and tape them together end to end to make a strip.  You will be plotting from the year 1AD until the year 2000.  To mark these, fold the paper in half to find the halfway point and mark that as the year 1000AD. Continue folding to find the halfway points between the plotted years.

Before giving your child the data ask them to predict how many people they think are on the earth.

 Once you mark the years from zero to 2000AD you should end up with the 1900's being about the width of your finger at the end of the paper.

                                I500                    I1000                                         I 1900

Color the first 1 billion people all one color up to the year 1800.

                                                                                                                    1800

Color from 1800 to 1930, another color.

Continue in this fashion until the end. Fill in the following data.