Top 10 mother tongues of London schoolchildren
(Percentage of school population)
1.	English	67.86
2.	Bengali and Sylheti	4.51
3.	Panjabi	3.32
4.	Gujarati	3.19
5.	Hindi/Urdu	2.91
6.	Turkish	1.74
7.	Arabic	1.23
8.	English-based Creoles	1.20
9.	Yoruba	1.16
10.	Somali	0.93

Top 10 languages spoken as a first language (mother tongue) circa 1990
in millions
1.	Madarin	726
2.	English	427
3.	Spanish	266
4.	Hindi	182
5.	Arabic	181
6.	Portuguese	165
7.	Bengali	162
8.	Russian	158
9.	Japanese	124
10.	German	121

World Population 1 to 2000 C.E.

The World Population Data Sheet is a document published every year by the Population Reference Bureau. It gives statistics on every country in the world. Download the 2010 edition here. Or Google "World Population Data Sheet" for the latest edition.

Some World highlights from the 2010 edition...

Population mid-2010		6,892,319,000
Births per 1,000 Population		20
Births per Minute		267
Deaths per 1,000 Population		8
Deaths per Minute		108
Rate of Natural Increase (%)		1.2
Natural increase per Minute		158
Infant Mortality Rate (Infant deaths per 1,000 live births.)		46
Infant deaths per Minute		12
Total Fertility Rate (Average number of children born to a woman during her lifetime.)		2.5
Percent of Population	Ages <15	27
	Ages 65+	8
Life Expectancy at Birth (years)		69
Percent Urban		50
Percent of Population with HIV/AIDS Ages 15-49	Males	0.8
	Females	0.9
Percent of Married Women 15-49 Using Contraception		62
GNI PPP per Capita (US$) 2008 (Gross National Income adjusted by Purchasing power parity)		$10,030
Population per Square Kilometer		51
Mobile Phone Subscribers per 100 Inhabitants		60

Reaching the billions

The human population took all of of human history up to about 1800 AD	to reach	1 billion
130 years	to reach	2 billion
30 years	to reach	3 billion
14 years	to reach	4 billion
13 years	to reach	5 billion
12 years	to reach	6 billion
12 years (2011)	to reach	7 billion
13 years (2024)	to reach	8 billion