Middle Class The previous chapter has shown that between 1000 and 1750 AD, the population of the world has increased by 480 million people, of which 21 %, or about 102 millions lived in Europe. Between 1750 and 1800 AD the world's population has grown by 190 millions, which is not much by later standards, and of which Europe's share was 27 % that adds up to 51 million people. That was the first time in history that Europe's share, which included North America and Oceania, surpassed the world's population's increase. 27 % to Europe, 23 % to the rest of the world. The accuracy of the figures is very much in doubt, so is the ratio between them, but it is not in doubt that the western world was poised at the edge of a major demographic explosion. The trigger to the demographic explosion was probably an improvement in public health services, inoculation of children against contagious diseases that drastically lowered children's mortality rate. It is a historical fact that between the years 1800 and 1950, the number of the people of the western world has grown much faster than in the rest of the world. After 1950, the tendency was reversed, and between 1950 and 2000 AD the increase of the Third World was an astounding 179 %, while the western world still kept a respectable 48 %. The estimate is that between 2000 and 2050 AD, the demographic change of the western world will be 0 %, while the rest of the world will still have 57 %. That increase is the residual effect of t...
