Civilization Dynamics
The Civilization Record
TR
The planetary substrate, 12,000 years

The Civilization Record

The long-run background quantities the four layers stand on: population, land, energy, climate, water, matter, each a series back to 10,000 BCE.
PopulationLand AreaEnergyClimate & AtmosphereWaterMatter & BiosphereMethodology

Population

From four million foragers to a species past eight billion: population, urbanisation, lifespan and output per head all trace the same curve, flat for ten thousand years, then steep.

A vintage ink engraving of a world tree rising around an hourglass, its red branches spreading over a map of a civilization that grows across the ages.
World population
million people
10.000 BCE: 4,42025 CE: 8.100 (log)
Annual population growth rate
% / yr
10.000 BCE: 0,012025 CE: 0,85 (log)
Urban population share
%
10.000 BCE: 02025 CE: 57,0
Life expectancy at birth
years
10.000 BCE: 30,02025 CE: 73,0
World GDP per capita
2025 USD equivalent
10.000 BCE: 40,02025 CE: 14.590 (log)
Total world GDP
T$ (2025 USD equivalent)
10.000 BCE: 0,000182025 CE: 118 (log)

The workforce

Labour force = employment + unemployment. Outside employment: the working-age population not in the labour force, those outside working age, and unpaid household and care work, which sits entirely outside GDP. The layer split partitions employment: extraction (L0), the rest of the economy, meaning industry and all services (L1), finance and real estate (L2), and the core market roles (L3, carved out of L2).

World population, 8,1 bn
Outside working age (0-14, 65+)2,9 bn%35,8Working age, not working1,7 bn%20,7Employed3,5 bn%43,5
Of the 1,7 bn working-age and not working, 191 M are unemployed and seeking work; the rest are outside the labour force. Labour force = employed + unemployed = 3,7 bn.
Employed, by layer
L0Extraction955 ML1Economy2.486 ML2Wealth79 ML3Markets5 M
L1 is the whole economy except extraction and finance: industry plus every service, including health, education and public administration. L3 is carved out of L2's finance, so the four add slightly above employment.
Unpaid household and care work
2,1 bn person-equivalent %25,3
Does not subtract from any box above: it overlaps with the employed and with those outside the labour force, and sits entirely outside GDP.
Sector share of the workforce over time
A separate lens from the layer split: the long run only has three coarse groups, and here industry and services are shown apart, where the layer split puts both in L1.
10.000 BCE4.000 BCE1000 CE1900 CE2025 CE
farming and extractionindustryservices

Worth knowing

About 117 billion humans have ever been born; about 109 billion of them have died. The 8.2 billion alive are about 7% of all humans ever, and the dead outnumber the living about 14 to 1.

Reaching the first billion took about 200,000 years; the last billion was added in about 12 years.

The median age of the living population is about 30.

Unpaid care and domestic work, valued at the minimum wage, equals 9% of global GDP; women carry 76.2% of the total hours.

Sources and method, all six dimensions →