The population of the world is just over 6 billion. Every second five people are being born but only two die. At this rate the world's population is doubling every 40 years, which means by the year 2043 there would be 12 billion people. Luckily, the United Nations does not think that this rate of growth will continue, it estimates that the world's population will hit 12 billion in 120 years' time.
Some other trivial billion facts:
One billion seconds is about 31 years.
One billion hours is 114,077 years.
One billion days takes 2,737,850 years.
One billion centimetres is 6,250 miles (the distance from London to Johannesburg, South Africa).
One billion pennies laid side to side would stretch 12,626 miles, approximately the distance from London to Sydney, Australia.
