Europe's population took off after the 17th century. It was helped by mass emigration to the Americas, where there was plenty of arable land. In the 16th century, Asia had 75 percent of the world population and economy. Europe had 10 percent of the same.

 In the early 20th century, Europe and the Americas had 30 percent of the world population, and Asia had fallen to 57 percent. So European populations grew three times faster than Asian ones, due to better food supply and medical care. Asia started catching up later in the 20th century, but did not have mass emigration to the Americas.

Egypt was civilized around 4000 B.C. The UK, France, Germany, Netherlands, etc were completely civilized only after the 13th century A.D. A difference of about 5000 years.