Editing 7th millennium BC (section)

===Population===
[[Neolithic]] culture and technology were established in the Near East by 7000 BC and there is increasing evidence through the millennium of its spread or introduction to Europe and the Far East. In most of the world, however, including north and western Europe, people still lived in scattered [[Palaeolithic]] [[hunting-gathering|hunter-gatherer]] communities. The [[Mehrgarh]] [[Chalcolithic]] civilization began around 7000 BC. The [[World population estimates|world population]] is believed to have been stable and slowly increasing. It has been estimated that there were perhaps ten million people worldwide at the end of this millennium, growing to forty million by 5000 BC and 100 million by 1600 BC, an average growth rate of 0.027% p.a. from the beginning of the Neolithic to the Middle Bronze Age.<ref name="JNB">Jean-Noël Biraben, "Essai sur l'évolution du nombre des hommes", ''Population'' 34-1 (1979), pp. 13–25.</ref>