Two things to consider here: a) Historical populations were much smaller than current population, so 'big' scales similarly. The world population around 1700 w

Two things to consider here: a) Historical populations were much smaller than current population, so 'big' scales similarly. The world population around 1700 was about 10% of current population. b) And maybe the bigger effect, we've had MASSIVE urbanization in the last 100-150 years. In 1500, Europe had urbanization rates well below 10% [https://www.britannica.com/topic/history-of-Europe/Demographics https://www.britannica.com/topic/history-of-Europe/Demograph...], compared with 72% in 2015. So not only were there 90% fewer people, but most of them didn't live in cities. Paris, the largest city in Europe, had a population of around 150k-250k in 1500, depending where you look. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_in_the_Middle_Ages#Population https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_in_the_Middle_Ages#Popul...]