Places · Facts & sources
6 sourced facts about the world and its people, each with the context behind the number. 4 more are in today's round and appear here after it closes.
Answer15 November 2022
It took about 12 years to go from 7 to 8 billion; the UN expects the next billion to take roughly 15 years.
Source: United Nations, Day of 8 Billion (2022) un.org
AnswerIndia (about 1.43 billion)
The UN projected India would reach 1,425,775,850 people by the end of April 2023, matching and then passing mainland China.
Source: United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs (2023) un.org
Answer74% (about 6 billion people)
That's up from 71% a year earlier, but roughly a quarter of humanity still isn't using the internet.
Source: International Telecommunication Union, Facts and Figures 2025 (2025) itu.int
Answer73.3 years
That's 8.4 years longer than in 1995, and the UN projects about 77.4 years by 2054.
Source: UN World Population Prospects 2024 (2024) population.un.org
Answerabout 97%
The ocean covers more than 70% of the planet's surface; most of the rest of the water is locked in glaciers and ice caps.
Source: NOAA National Ocean Service oceanservice.noaa.gov
Answerover 7,000 living languages
Ethnologue, the standard catalog of the world's languages, lists more than 7,000 still in use today.
Source: Ethnologue (SIL International), via Our World in Data (2025) ourworldindata.org