Human population growth. According to the Bible, the worldwide deluge of Noah’s day took place around 2500 BC, and according to Genesis 8, I Peter 3, and 2 Peter 2 only eight people survived. If we know the current population of the world and the measured growth rate, does this confirm the Biblical account?

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The measured growth rate over the last 3 centuries varies from .13% to 2.1%.

So what is a realistic growth rate? The Encyclopaedia Britannica claims that by the time of Christ, the world’s population was about 300 million. It apparently didn’t increase much up to AD 1000. It was up and down in the Middle Ages because of plagues etc. But may have reached 800 million by the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in 1750—an average growth rate of 0.13% in the 750 years from 1000–1750. By 1800, it was one billion while the second billion was reached by 1930—an average growth rate of 0.53% p.a. This period of population growth cannot be due to improved medicine, because antibiotics and vaccination campaigns did not impact till after WWII. From 1930 to 1960, when the population reached three billion, the growth rate was 1.36% p.a. By 1974, the fourth billion was reached, so the average growth rate was 2.1% from 1960 to 1974. From 1974 to 1990, when the mark hit five billion, the growth rate had slowed to 1.4%. World population reached 6 billion in 1999 and 7 billion in 2011. The increase in population growth since WWII is due to fewer deaths in infancy and through disease

Another way to measure the rate of human growth is to look at how often the population doubles. If the human population were to double at the absurdly low rate of every 150 years, started with eight people, after 32 doublings (which is about 4800 years), there would be 8.6 billions people.  So, even assuming the lowest possible growth rate, the current human population is easily within the expected range of the biblical time frame.

On the other hand, if we were to assume an evolutionary emergence of humans between two million and 50,000 years ago, the current human population is too small by orders of magnitude. Even just assuming the latest emergence of humans on the evolutionary scale at 50,000 years ago and the population doubling at only every 150 years, the current population should be a googol. So if evolution were true, why didn’t the human population reach its current number tens of thousands of years ago?

The world’s current population and the measured growth rate of population correspond exactly to a beginning population of eight about 4500 years ago. The population would have begun at eight about 4500 years ago if the Biblical flood of Noah’s day happened as the Bible says. If what we are taught by evolutionists were true, humans have been around for about 200,000 years. If population growth rates extended from 200,000 year ago to now, trillions of humans would have had time to live. There are also not nearly enough buried bodies to account for humans to have existed for hundreds of thousands of years.

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