'No large group is known to have maintained complete reproductive isolation for extended periods…
no matter the languages we speak or the colour of our skin, we share ancestors who planted rice on the banks of the Yangtze,
who first domesticated horses on the steppes of the Ukraine, who hunted giant sloths in the forests of North and South America, and
who laboured to build the Great Pyramid of Khufu.'
—Douglas Rohde, Steve Olsen & Joseph Chang, Modelling the recent common ancestry of all living humans,
in Nature (2004)
Population of the world and continental regions,
adults in early old age (70-79 years): 1950-2010
Notes: The vertical scale on this graph goes up to only 250 million,
whereas that on the previous graph
went up to 2.5 billion (ie, 10 times as much).
In 2005 there were 221 million people aged 70-79 years, of whom
118 million lived in Asia, 54 million in Europe, 18 million in Northern America,
16 million in Latin America and the Caribbean, 15 million in Africa, and between 1 and 2 million in Oceania.
The number of Europeans in this age group fell to 40 million in 1991: many of that generation was lost
in the nearly pan-European conflict of 1939-45.
Notes: The vertical scale on this graph goes up to only 250 million, whereas that on the previous graph went up to 2.5 billion (ie, 10 times as much).
In 2005 there were 221 million people aged 70-79 years, of whom 118 million lived in Asia, 54 million in Europe, 18 million in Northern America, 16 million in Latin America and the Caribbean, 15 million in Africa, and between 1 and 2 million in Oceania.
The number of Europeans in this age group fell to 40 million in 1991: many of that generation was lost in the nearly pan-European conflict of 1939-45.
Source of data: United Nations Population Division, "World Population Prospects: The 2006 Revision".