Those born on Oct. 31, 2011 share one special thing in common: they are collectively the seven billionth people on the planet.
The world welcomed the seven billionth person on Monday, which for some was a big deal. I was also shocked to learn that the six billionth person showed up on Oct. 12, 1999. Just 12 years later and we've added an extra billion. That's fast. The world population has doubled in the last 50 years.
The United Nations named a single baby as the six billionth. This time around there were celebrations all over marking all the babies born on Monday as the seven billionth.
With all the celebrating I was hearing about, it was good to see that somebody was setting off an alarm about overpopulation. It was the Indian health minister who said this matter was not one for celebration. He said there should be excitement when the population stabilizes. That may be cause for celebration, but stability isn't the kind of exciting thing for which people set off fireworks.
It was countries in Asia that did most of the celebrating, but it's Canada, if anywhere, that could take on a few extra people. I think Canada's modest population is just fine, however. Forget Laurier's interest in Canada hitting the 100 million mark. Sure we have the room, and bringing in 70 million people would do a little to alleviate population stresses, but we don't need to overpopulate too. We should be enjoying the vast stretches of open land that we do have.
It makes sense that India's officials would be setting off alarm bells, as they are growing so fast India is scheduled to surpass China in population by 2025. China has a 100 million person head start but that is doing nothing to shatter India's spirits to fill up its country first.
Cambodia's 89-year-old king was born before the world's population reached two billion. That guy has welcomed five billion newcomers to this planet. If that doesn't make you feel old, nothing will.
BBC has a web app devoted to finding out what number you are in the global population order. Just input your date of birth and get what numbered person you are. I was number 5,025,891,653. It's an estimate, not a scientifically perfect figure, but looking at it, I can determine there have been about two billion new entries in my lifetime. Not as many as the Cambodian king, but maybe one day I will catch him.
It has other trivial information, like which country is the fastest growing on the planet. It's Qatar, growing by 514 people every day. Add in your country and gender and there are some more details about you.
The site told me that on average, people in my area have more than one mobile phone subscription. My one phone puts me in the minority I guess, though I don't know any people with two subscriptions.
I would tell my boss I wasn't wasting time on this site finding out which number in the population I am, but the last stat on the page informs me that the population has grown by 123 people while I was on the site. I swear I wasn't wasting time on there that long.
