How would you solve this one?
How many humans were born since beginning of humanity?
Overview of answers
Upvotes
Best answer
One proposed approach
1. Define when the humanity began, how long ago.
2. Divide the period between when the humanity began until today in more periods based on the total population, assuming each period had a constant total population. (here you should mainly pay attention to what happened after the middle ages, before that it doesn't really mater for the final result because the world total population was much much smaller than until the middle ages)
3. For each period determine the average life expectancy.
4. Having the average life expectancy use the replacement principle to get how many people were born within that period.
5. Sum up results from every period.
Any comment or another method is welcomed.
Stefan
Was this answer helpful?
Great analysis! Except for one minor problem, I think the global population burst since the discovery of antibiotics, which is around 1940s. I assume the change after middle ages is not that substancial compared to what happened after 1940s.
Was this answer helpful?
Related Cases
Company case by Oliver Wyman
Style:
Topics:
Your client, large automotive OEM WyCar, has developed its first fully electric vehicle (EV) and introduced it as a pilot on the Austrian market last year. However, sales have been far below the expected numbers. The management has engaged you to support them in understanding the reasons and advise
... (Open whole case)
104.3k
Times solved
Intermediate
Difficulty
Company case by Bain & Company
Style:
Topics:
You have inherited the “Old Winery” from your grandfather, a winery that has been family-owned for five generations and can be dated back to the 16th century.Half of the eleven hectares are used to grow white grapes, the other half to grow red grapes. They are grown in a conventional way, i.e. they
... (Open whole case)
87.3k
Times solved
Intermediate
Difficulty
Company case by Roland Berger
Style:
Topics:
Onlinestar, an online retailer of furniture and garden products (core business), has grown significantly in recent years as a result of an expansion of its product portfolio. The company mainly imports goods from Chinese manufacturers but also operates its own production of cat lavatories (special b
... (Open whole case)
65.9k
Times solved
Intermediate
Difficulty
Style:
Topics:
Nutripremium is a very well-known premium nutrition food company in Europe (€1 billion revenue last year). It is based in Spain and has an excellent market share not only in its home country but also in Portugal, France, Italy and Germany. Nutripremium has two main lines of products:Vitamin-sup
... (Open whole case)
67.8k
Times solved
Advanced
Difficulty
Style:
Topics:
Beyer, one of the biggest pharmaceutical companies in the world, just invented a very reliable vaccine against Chickenpox, a disease that affects children in the age from 2 to 16 years.Beyer came to you wondering what their potential sales in Europe in the first year would be if they launched this p
... (Open whole case)
58.7k
Times solved
Advanced
Difficulty