I read about the UN model of world population this evening. Their worst case scenario is that the world will have 134 TRILLION inhabitants by 2300, in theory (note IN THEORY!). 
So, I was thinking, what does that make for land area per person? Well, I have done a bit of looking into things and uncovered some other random stuff whilst I was doing it. Note that any comparisons were produced by my overactive mind (I should write those "did you know" books!)
1) Presuming 134 trillion people in 2300 (assuming that Zephryn Cochraine doesn't make his historic flight allow us to fly to other planets in a Star Trek "Warp speed" type fashion): the earth has a total land area of 57.5 million square miles.
57.5 million / 134 trillion = 4.3 x 10^-7 square miles each.
That is 12 square feet. Per person. For growing food, sleeping in, working in, standing about in. Assuming a uniform distribution (i.e. not like now where Europe has twice as many people as the North American continent but a fraction of the area)
2) The Earth's human population has increased by 1 billion people every 14 years since 1960. That's more than the population of the UK every year!
3) Total land area covered by roads and car parks in the US = 61,465 square miles. Total land area of the UK = 93278 square miles (not including water areas). Thus, the area covered by roads and car parks in the US is equivalent to 66% of the UK's total land area! Note that I didn't include driveways in my calculation.
So, I was thinking, what does that make for land area per person? Well, I have done a bit of looking into things and uncovered some other random stuff whilst I was doing it. Note that any comparisons were produced by my overactive mind (I should write those "did you know" books!)
1) Presuming 134 trillion people in 2300 (assuming that Zephryn Cochraine doesn't make his historic flight allow us to fly to other planets in a Star Trek "Warp speed" type fashion): the earth has a total land area of 57.5 million square miles.
57.5 million / 134 trillion = 4.3 x 10^-7 square miles each.
That is 12 square feet. Per person. For growing food, sleeping in, working in, standing about in. Assuming a uniform distribution (i.e. not like now where Europe has twice as many people as the North American continent but a fraction of the area)
2) The Earth's human population has increased by 1 billion people every 14 years since 1960. That's more than the population of the UK every year!
3) Total land area covered by roads and car parks in the US = 61,465 square miles. Total land area of the UK = 93278 square miles (not including water areas). Thus, the area covered by roads and car parks in the US is equivalent to 66% of the UK's total land area! Note that I didn't include driveways in my calculation.
