2000s

The 2000s (pronounced "two-thousands"; shortened to the 00s) was the decade that began on January 1, 2000, and ended on December 31, 2009.

During this decade, the world population grew from 6.1 to 6.9 billion people. Approximately 1.35 billion people were born, and 550 million people died. The early part of the decade saw the long-predicted breakthrough of economic giants in Asia, like India and China, which had double-digit growth during nearly the whole decade. These two most populous countries became an increasing economic force. The rapid catching-up of emerging economies with developed countries sparked protectionist tensions during the period and was partly responsible for an increase in energy and food prices at the end of the decade. The economic developments towards the end of the decade were dominated by a worldwide economic downturn, which started with the crisis in housing and credit in the US in 2007 and led to the bankruptcy of major banks and other financial institutions. The outbreak of the 2008 financial crisis sparked the Great Recession, beginning in the United States and affecting most of the industrialized world.

The decade saw the rise of the Internet, which grew from covering 7% to 26% of the world population. This contributed to globalization, which allowed faster communication among people around the world;Ludden D (1998). The newness of globalization: A schematic view of the historical zones of territoriality University of Pennsylvania. Unfinished draft. Retrieved December 30, 2009. Gordon PH; Meunier S (2001). The French challenge: Adapting to globalization. Washington, D.C.: Brookings.Heizo T; Ryokichi C (1998). "Japan" . Domestic Adjustments to Globalization (CE Morrison & H Soesastro, Eds.). Tokyo: Japan Center for International Exchange, pp. 76–102. Retrieved December 30, 2009.Fry EH (2003). Local governments adapting to globalization. National League of Cities. Retrieved December 30, 2009. social networking sites arose as a new way for people to stay in touch from distant locations, as long as they had internet access. Myspace was the most popular social networking website until June 2009, when Facebook overtook it in number of American users. Email continued to be popular and began to replace "snail mail" as the primary way of sending messages to people. Google, YouTube, Ask.com and Wikipedia emerged to become among the top 10 most popular websites. Amazon overtook eBay as the most-visited e-commerce site in 2008. AOL significantly declined in popularity throughout the decade, falling from being the most popular website to no longer being within the top 10. Excite and Lycos fell outside the top 10, and MSN fell from second to sixth. Yahoo! maintained relatively stable popularity, remaining the most popular website for most of the decade.

The war on terror and War in Afghanistan began after the September 11 attacks in 2001. The International Criminal Court was formed in 2002. In 2003, a United States-led coalition invaded Iraq, and the Iraq War led to the end of Saddam Hussein's rule as Iraqi President and the Ba'ath Party. Al-Qaeda and affiliated Islamist militant groups performed terrorist acts throughout the decade. The war on terror exacerbated global autocratization. The Second Congo War, the deadliest conflict since World War II, ended in 2003. Further wars that ended included the Algerian Civil War, the Angolan Civil War, the Sierra Leone Civil War, the Second Liberian Civil War, the Nepalese Civil War, and the Sri Lankan Civil War. Wars that began included the conflict in the Niger Delta, the Houthi insurgency, and the Mexican drug war.

Climate change and global warming became common concerns in the 2000s. Prediction tools made significant progress, UN-sponsored organizations such as the IPCC gained influence, and studies such as the Stern Review influenced public support for paying the political and economic costs of countering climate change. The global temperature kept climbing during the decade. In December 2009, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) announced that the 2000s may have been the warmest decade since records began in 1850, with four of the five warmest years since 1850 having occurred in this decade. The WMO's findings were later echoed by the NASA and the NOAA. Major natural disasters included Cyclone Nargis in 2008 and earthquakes in Pakistan and China in 2005 and 2008, respectively. The deadliest natural disaster and most powerful earthquake of the 21st century occurred in 2004 when a 9.1–9.3 earthquake and its subsequent tsunami struck multiple nations in the Indian Ocean, killing 230,000 people.

Usage of computer-generated imagery became more widespread in films produced during the 2000s, especially with the success of 2001's Shrek and 2003's Finding Nemo, the latter becoming the best-selling DVD of all time. Anime films gained more exposure outside Japan with the release of Spirited Away. 2009's Avatar became the highest-grossing film. Documentary and mockumentary films, such as March of the Penguins, Super Size Me, Borat and Surf's Up, were popular in the 2000s. 2004's Fahrenheit 9/11 by Michael Moore was the highest grossing documentary of all time. Online films became popular, and conversion to digital cinema started. Video game consoles released in this decade included the PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, Wii, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360; while portable video game consoles included the Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable. Wii Sports was the decade's best-selling console video game, while New Super Mario Bros. was the decade's best-selling portable video game. J. K. Rowling was the best-selling author thanks to the Harry Potter book series, although she did not pen the best-selling individual book, being second to The Da Vinci Code. Eminem was named the music artist of the decade by Billboard.

Name for the decade Orthographically, the decade can be written as the "2000s" or the 00s". In the English-speaking world, a name for the decade was not immediately accepted as it had been for other decades such as the 1980s and 1990s ('80s, '90s).

The aughts (American English) or noughties (British English) arise from the words aught and nought respectively, both meaning zero. The noughties became a common name for the decade in the United Kingdom and in New Zealand and Australia.

Although use of the word aught to refer to zero is not widespread in the United States, the use of aughts to identify the decade became common there.

Other spoken-word possibilities included "two-thousands", "twenty hundreds", "ohs", "oh ohs", "double ohs", "zeros", and "double zeros". The years of the decade can be referred to as '01, '02, '03, etc., pronounced oh-one, oh-two, oh-three, etc.

Demographics

YearUnited States Census Bureau (2017)Data from U.S. Census Bureau, International Data Base Retrieved on 28 Oct, 2017Population Reference Bureau (1973–2016)Data from Population Reference Bureau .

2016 estimate: (a) "2016 World Population Data Sheet"

2015 estimate: (b) Toshiko Kaneda, 2015, "2015 World Population Data Sheet" .

2014 estimate: (c) Carl Haub, 2014, "2014 World Population Data Sheet" .

2013 estimate: (d) Carl Haub, 2013, "2013 World Population Data Sheet" .

2012 estimate: (e) Carl Haub, 2012, "2012 World Population Data Sheet" .

2011 estimate: (f) Carl Haub, 2011, "2011 World Population Data Sheet" .

2010 estimate: (g) Carl Haub, 2010, "2010 World Population Data Sheet" .

2009 estimate: (h) Carl Haub, 2009, "2009 World Population Data Sheet" .

2008 estimate: (i) Carl Haub, 2008, "2008 World Population Data Sheet" .

2007 estimate: (j) Carl Haub, 2007, "2007 World Population Data Sheet" .

2006 estimate: (k) Carl Haub, 2006, "2006 World Population Data Sheet" .

2005 estimate: (l) Carl Haub, 2005, "2005 World Population Data Sheet" .

2004 estimate: (m) Carl Haub, 2004, "2004 World Population Data Sheet" .

2003 estimate: (n) Carl Haub, 2003, "2003 World Population Data Sheet" .

2002 estimate: (o) Carl Haub, 2002, "2002 World Population Data Sheet" .

2001 estimate: (p) Carl Haub, 2001, "2001 World Population Data Sheet" .

2000 estimate: (q) 2000, "9 Billion World Population by 2050" .

1997 estimate: (r) 1997, "Studying Populations" .

Estimates for 1995 and prior: (s) Carl Haub, 1995, "How Many People Have Ever Lived on Earth?" Population Today, Vol. 23 (no. 2), pp. 5–6.United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (2015)Data from United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division.

1950–2100 estimates (only medium variants shown): (a) World Population Prospects: The 2008 Revision.

Estimates prior to 1950: (b) "The World at Six Billion", 1999.

Estimates from 1950 to 2100: (c) "Population of the entire world, yearly, 1950 – 2100", 2013.

2014: (d) "2014 World Urbanization Prospects", 2014.

2015: (e) "2015 World Urbanization Prospects", 2015.Maddison (2008)Angus Maddison, 2003, The World Economy: Historical Statistics, Vol. 2, OECD, Paris .

"Statistical Appendix" (2008, ggdc.net) "The historical data were originally developed in three books: Monitoring the World Economy 1820–1992, OECD, Paris 1995; The World Economy: A Millennial Perspective, OECD Development Centre, Paris 2001; The World Economy: Historical Statistics, OECD Development Centre, Paris 2003. All these contain detailed source notes. Figures for 1820 onwards are annual, wherever possible. For earlier years, benchmark figures are shown for 1 AD, 1000 AD, 1500, 1600 and 1700." "OECD countries GDP revised and updated 1991–2003 from National Accounts for OECD Countries, vol. I, 2006. Norway 1820–1990 GDP from Ola Grytten (2004), "The Gross Domestic Product for Norway, 1830-2003" in Eitrheim, Klovland and Qvigstad (eds), Historical Monetary Statistics for Norway, 1819–2003, Norges Bank, Oslo. Latin American GDP 2000–2003 revised and updated from ECLAC, Statistical Yearbook 2004 and preliminary version of the 2005 Yearbook supplied by Andre Hofman. For Chile, GDP 1820–2003 from Rolf Lűders (1998), "The Comparative Economic Performance of Chile 1810-1995", Estudios de Economia, vol. 25, no. 2, with revised population estimates from Diaz, J., R. Lűders, and G. Wagner (2005) Chili 1810–2000: la Republica en Cifras, mimeo, Instituto de Economia, Universidad Católica de Chile. For Peru, GDP 1896–1990 and population 1896–1949 from Bruno Seminario and Arlette Beltran, Crecimiento Economico en el Peru 1896–1995, Universidad del Pacifico, 1998. " "For Asia there are amendments to the GDP estimates for South and North Korea, 1911–74, to correct an error in Maddison (2003). Estimates for the Philippines, 1902–1940 were amended in line with Richard Hooley (2005), 'American Economic Policy in the Philippines, 1902–1940', Journal of Asian Economics, 16. 1820 estimates were amended for Hong Kong, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan and Thailand." "Asian countries GDP revised and updated 1998–2003 from AsianOutlook, April 2005. Population estimates for all countries except China and Indonesia revised and updated 1950–2008 and 2030 from International Data Base, International Programs Center, Population Division, US Bureau of the Census, April 2005 version. China's population 1990–2003 from China Statistical Yearbook 2005, China Statistics Press, Beijing. Indonesian population 1950–2003 kindly supplied by Pierre van der Eng. The figures now include three countries previously omitted: Cook Islands, Nauru and Tuvalu."HYDE