Earth's Timeline with Human Population Explosion

4.5 billion years of Earth's history with human population growth overlaid - showing the incredible recent spike

4.5B

Earth's Age (years)

300K

Human Existence (years)

0.007%

Human % of Earth's Time

Current Population

Earth's Complete Timeline with Population Overlay

Gold markers: Major Earth events | Red line: Human population (note the tiny spike at the very end!)

If Earth's history was compressed into a single year:

January 1
Earth forms
4.5 billion years ago

March
First life
3.8 billion years ago

November
Complex life
540 million years ago

Dec 31, 11:50 PM
Humans appear
300,000 years ago

The entire population explosion happens in the last 0.01 seconds before midnight!