Watch the human population skyrocket

It took 200,000 years for the human population to reach a billion – and only 200 years to reach seven billion.

But growth has slowed as women have fewer babies on average. So when will our global population peak?

Check out the American Museum of Natural History’s animation above which chronicles human population over time. See the slight downward blip, thanks to the bubonic plague, and growth accelerate during the Industrial Revolution.