text: what is the population of the world? how fast is the world's population growing?   6,525,170,264 (july 2006 est.)  birth rate: 20.05 births/1,000 population (2006 est.) death rate: 8.67 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)   according to estimates published by the united states census bureau, the world population hit 6.5 billion (6,500,000,000) on february 25th, 2006, at 7:16 p.m. eastern standard time. on october 18th, 2012 at 4:36 p.m. eastern daylight time, the earth will be home to 7 billion people. the united nations population fund designated october 12, 1999 as the approximate day on which world population reached six billion. this was about 12 years after world population reached five billion, in 1987. however, given that the population of some countries, such as nigeria, is not even known to the nearest million, such precise timings are essentially meaningless.