Historical population of the continents 10,000BCE-2000CE

The earliest point where scientists can make reasonable estimates for the population of global regions is around 10,000 years before the Common Era (or 12,000 years ago). Estimates suggest that Asia has consistently been the most populated continent, and the least populated continent has generally been Oceania (although it was more heavily populated than areas such as North America in very early years). Population growth was very slow, but an increase can be observed between most of the given time periods. There were, however, dips in population due to pandemics, the most notable of these being the impact of plague in Eurasia in the 14th century, and the impact of European contact with the indigenous populations of the Americas after 1492, where it took almost four centuries for the population of Latin America to return to its pre-1500 level. The world's population first reached one billion people in 1803, which also coincided with a spike in population growth, due to the onset of the demographic transition. This wave of growth first spread across the most industrially developed countries in the 19th century, and the correlation between demographic development and industrial or economic maturity continued until today, with Africa being the final major region to begin its transition in the late-1900s.

科学家能够对全球各地区人口进行合理估计的最早时间点，大约在公元前10000年（或距今12000年）左右。据估计，亚洲一直是人口最多的洲际区域，而人口最少的洲际区域则普遍为大洋洲（尽管在非常早期的年份，其人口密度高于北美等地区）。人口增长极为缓慢，但在大多数给定的时间段内，均可观察到人口增长的趋势。然而，由于瘟疫等因素，人口也曾出现下降，其中最为显著的莫过于14世纪欧亚大陆鼠疫的影响，以及1492年之后欧洲人与美洲土著居民接触所引发的后果，拉丁美洲的人口几乎花了近四个世纪才恢复到1500年之前的水平。1803年，世界人口首次达到10亿，这也与人口增长激增相吻合，这一增长浪潮首先在19世纪的工业化国家中蔓延开来，而人口发展与工业或经济成熟度之间的相关性一直持续至今，非洲成为最后一个在20世纪末期开始其转型的重要地区。